Bethesda Rehabilitation Ministry of Anshan, China
May, 2008
Spring comes late in the Northeast of China, so it’s usually chilly in eary May, as it is this year. Even so, the low temperature could not extinguish the joy and excitement of our children and their parent when we brought them out of the door after beining confined at home for the long and cold winter.
On May 10th, we bring 23 children with disability and their parents to a beautiful reservior area near Anshan to enjoy the beautiful view and fresh air. Like every time, Bethesda volunteers help children transfer to the buses that we rent for the trip. On the way to our destination, games were organized by our volunteers and laughter and excitement was full of the buses.
On the day of outing, we organized various activities for our children… After a short wheelchair donation ceremony, volunteers organized games and sports for children and parents. Then a special event was held to honor a special person – Auntie Ann. We hope that children and parents could learn her love, courage, and bravery when facing adversity. In fact, the important part of the activities that day was to honor Auntie Ann.
Ann is an American lady who a traffic accident left her quadriplegic when she was only 17 years old. However, she never lost her courange even having to spend most of her life in wheelchair. Her attitude to life always encourage people around her. He enjoys helping people. She had helped a quadriplegic girl in Xi’an, China, to face her adversity bravely. She even helped Bethesda through her nephew Dan. Three months ago, she passed away with an age of 72... Children sat in a circle to listen to Ann’s story by our teacher. It was all about her courage, her disability, her attitude to life, her love to people, and her help and support to Vivian, that quadriplegic girl in China.
“And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment… “
Philippians 1:9
With many prayers and generous support from friends in Singapore, we finally have and moved into our new office in the downtown of Anshan on April 29th. Since then, Bethesda Ministry has a beautiful and “stable” home.
The apartment is on the 21st floor in a complex building of 25 stories, which can be called a “skyscraper” here. The size of the apartment is near 90 sqm. It’s bright and can overlook most part of the city.
For the time being, we use the office as the base to expend our ministry. The staff of Bethesda work in the office everyday to keep the ministry running properly. We will also use the office to train volunteers, have coulseling workshop for parents with disabled children, and have computer training classes for disabled chiildren, just like a small center in our vision. The locattion is very convenient for people from every corner of Anshan to reach in the downtown area.
We are all very excited and grateful for such a Provision.
“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:” 2 Corinthians 9:8
In our last issue of Newsletter, we appealled for the urgent need of wheelchairs for our children. Since then, we received positive response from friends in different parts of the world. With the generous donation of these friends, most of our children in need have their new wheelchairs. We had a special donation ceremoney on the day of outing to the resevior. It has a special meaning for them to have the new wheelchair that day. On behalf of her friends, Gu JiaQi gave their thanks to all friends who gave concern, love, and help to them. At the end of her thanksiving speech, she said in tears: “ This new wheelchair will bring me a new life… It will help my dream come ture..” Here, we also hope to thank you for your support to Bethesda Minisry.
