I'd like to welcome you to Shepherd's Field Children's Village. I have heard from several people that they would like to see where I am living. So sit back, relax and let me take you through a little tour. As you enter the gates of Shepherd's Field, the first building you come across is the office.
Directly to the left is " The Inn". This is where I live. There are two apartments in here for staff. There is a third apartment that I am using as a classroom. There are also 11 guest rooms. This is for team members who come to work/serve at the orphanage. We are able to house over 50 people at a time. Right now, we have three teams here.
As you walk through the grounds, there are many wonderful buildings to visit. To the left of the office is Samaritan's House. This is where the clinic is based. When children have high medical needs, this is the place they live in. There are four additional houses the children live in. There is the House of Peace, House of Blessings, Zachary's House, and House of Love. There is a building in the middle of all these homes for the Little Lamb's Preschool, SLP/OT/PT Therapy and the Primary School.
Across the courtyard is the Banner Factory. All Foreign run orphanages (also known as Foster Homes in China) must have a business that they participate in as well as the care of special needs children. The work the ladies do there is stunning. You should check it out on www.chinaorphans.org. There is a kitchen where all the food for the staff and children are prepared. There is a workshop in a separate building. There are also 2 new buildings presently under construction. One is called the Outreach Center. The purpose of this building is to provide the older children a place for vocational training. I am blessed to be given the opportunity to teach some of the older girls how to paint. They will be able to sell their pieces at our store in the Inn. This building will also be used for fellowship. Staff and children will join here for lunch daily. Next to it is another building. It is where The Little Lamb's Preschool will go. Presently they have one class. Once this building opens, there will be room for a second class to start. The Primary School will also be located there. The therapists are looking forward to their new therapy rooms as well in this building. There is prayer needed for these buildings. Funding is needed and must be deposited into the Bank of China by mid November. Without it, it appears the project construction may have to stop.
Now that I have walked you through the grounds at Shepherd's Field, would you like to come visit my apartment? I live with Tabitha Davis. She is from Nashville, Tennessee. She has been given this amazing gift of videography and photography. She has such a heart for the children here. Since she has been here, she has been blogging stories about the children in hopes of finding them homes and letting people know of the work God is doing here in China. Check out her blog at http://tabithainchina.blogspot.com. She has been a gift to me. She has helped me learn many of the things I needed to know and how to do things in China that I have no clue about (which is ALOT!). She was heaven sent as she has been patient with me. She leaves on Thursday and I will miss her desperately. While here, it has been amazing to see how God has woven our lives together over the last 3 years. Since I arrived, I have been sharing stories with her of my friends and their adopted girls. It was just last week that we realized that she went on a trip and met Anna Pieschke the summer before she was adopted. We also realized that we both had the same guide on one of trips. Some of you will remember me telling you about Lily from my first visit to China. She is wonderful lady so full of life. When I came here this summer, I had hoped to get to see here. God was saving it for tomorrow! We are blessed to be getting together with Lily in Beijing after church. God is sooooo good! Can you tell I am excited about this?
Anyways, let me walk you through our apartment. We enter the apartment into a room that is our living room, dining room and kitchen...all in one! Did you know Samsung makes refrigerators? They do in China! Toaster ovens also work for baking cookies!
Oops! There was a picture of the living room/dining room here
but I hit backspace too many times
and deleted the picture. I couldn't get it back. Sorry!
Our favorite room in our apartment is the bathroom. Periodically, it creates this lovely sewage smell! You never know when it is going to reappear! Sometimes it is so bad that you walk in and it bowls you over! Tabitha adds "I smell a smelly smell that smells smelly!" I won't complain too much though since they give us western toilets instead of squatty potties.
For those of you that have experienced the lovely matresses in China, I will tell you that you are welcome to come and visit me. I will gladly share my box spring with you! I have bunk beds in my room. The mattress on the bottom is a double bed and the mattress feels like a box spring. The single bed on top however has a normal, comfortable mattress. Yahoo! That is where I sleep! It could be worse! They could have given me a bamboo mat to lay on top of a wooden board. I am blessed that they didn't!
I hope you have enjoyed my tour of Shepherd's Field!
1 comment:
I have been thinking of you! I hope that you are doing good! Sisters~Misty
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