Update
Well, it's been almost a month since Wen Jie came into our home. It's been really interesting watching her relate to all our "foreigner" ways and methods. We enjoy the look on her face when she skeptically tries foods like French toast or breaded fried zucchini and she gets this "Wow this is amazing" look on her face! She even uses a fork to eat many times, even though most of us use chopsticks only now. Her cheerful bubbly influence in our home is a joy and we pray we can be a good example to her too.
As you may have assumed, there are some times where we need to help Wen Jie in areas of of her life where she was not taught about and needs help in. She is quite involved in the Chinese social media, Wechat and QQ, and problems can easily arise when ungodly people try to contact her, etc. We are still trying to figure out how to help her learn the dangers of social media.
A major area of hurt in her life we are trying to help her with is rejection. According to her mom, she gave birth to Wen Jie at her aunt's house and the aunt refused to allow her to bring her baby home. Wen Jie had to live at her aunt's for ten years before she was allowed to live with her parents. Wen Jie finds it hard to believe this story, because she says her dad is strong and there's no way her aunt could have prevented him from taking Wen Jie home. As she watches how we care for and love Joshua, and as she herself easily loves him, she gets sad and wonders how her parents could have abandoned her as a baby, or how any parent can abandon a child. Pray for her as she learns to forgive this hurt in her life.
Healing from incest is also an area where we are trying to help her deal with. There are many decisions regarding her family situation, such as:
We are really thankful she has a relationship with Jesus as He is the healer and restorer in her life. Before she came to our house, she had decided to climb a high tower and jump off, but she remembered that Jesus would not be happy with that and decided not to. We have been able to use her foundation of Christ to start rebuilding the cornerstones of her life.
Request
One person may not seem like much of a financial burden but in a family of 12 it does add up. A month ago we requested a little help during her stay but we have yet to receive any funds. Our heart is to reach and help many people and with the house we have we have lots of room to do so, but we are limited by our financial situation. While we look up to people like George Muller who never asked for donations, in our time, almost all donations to missionaries go through a church or organization. Since we are an independent missionary family we are obliged to try to reach out to the body of Christ in this way. We trust God to provide all our needs.
If any of you are led to support a hurting 17 year old Chinese girl through monthly sponsorship, she would be very grateful!
Well, it's been almost a month since Wen Jie came into our home. It's been really interesting watching her relate to all our "foreigner" ways and methods. We enjoy the look on her face when she skeptically tries foods like French toast or breaded fried zucchini and she gets this "Wow this is amazing" look on her face! She even uses a fork to eat many times, even though most of us use chopsticks only now. Her cheerful bubbly influence in our home is a joy and we pray we can be a good example to her too.
As you may have assumed, there are some times where we need to help Wen Jie in areas of of her life where she was not taught about and needs help in. She is quite involved in the Chinese social media, Wechat and QQ, and problems can easily arise when ungodly people try to contact her, etc. We are still trying to figure out how to help her learn the dangers of social media.
A major area of hurt in her life we are trying to help her with is rejection. According to her mom, she gave birth to Wen Jie at her aunt's house and the aunt refused to allow her to bring her baby home. Wen Jie had to live at her aunt's for ten years before she was allowed to live with her parents. Wen Jie finds it hard to believe this story, because she says her dad is strong and there's no way her aunt could have prevented him from taking Wen Jie home. As she watches how we care for and love Joshua, and as she herself easily loves him, she gets sad and wonders how her parents could have abandoned her as a baby, or how any parent can abandon a child. Pray for her as she learns to forgive this hurt in her life.
Healing from incest is also an area where we are trying to help her deal with. There are many decisions regarding her family situation, such as:
- How to deal with her father and her brother, both who are guilty of incest.
- At this point communication between Wen Jie and her parents has been cut off as there was enormous pressure from the parents for her to return home and live like nothing had happened.
- How to deal with relatives who have their own opinions.
We are really thankful she has a relationship with Jesus as He is the healer and restorer in her life. Before she came to our house, she had decided to climb a high tower and jump off, but she remembered that Jesus would not be happy with that and decided not to. We have been able to use her foundation of Christ to start rebuilding the cornerstones of her life.
Request
One person may not seem like much of a financial burden but in a family of 12 it does add up. A month ago we requested a little help during her stay but we have yet to receive any funds. Our heart is to reach and help many people and with the house we have we have lots of room to do so, but we are limited by our financial situation. While we look up to people like George Muller who never asked for donations, in our time, almost all donations to missionaries go through a church or organization. Since we are an independent missionary family we are obliged to try to reach out to the body of Christ in this way. We trust God to provide all our needs.
If any of you are led to support a hurting 17 year old Chinese girl through monthly sponsorship, she would be very grateful!