PingYu Home of Hope

Happy Fall from the Godard’s

When we moved here we knew that to stay in China for long term either Michelle or I would have to get a job to obtain our visa. The most common job is to teach English at a local public school. Michelle and I decided that I would teach and she would stay at home with our boys to start them on their home schooling. I definitely have the easier of the two jobs. Last year Michelle and I started talking about getting a tutor for our boys to teach them how speak Chinese. We thought after time that they would pick up the language just by hearing it from their friends, but little did we realize that little boys can play all day without saying a word. After living here six months our boy’s Chinese language had not improved at all. We asked Nathan what his thoughts were on where to hire a good teacher. He told us with the rising cost of education and with all of the children getting older, (there are now 11 college students, 11 high school students, 7 middle school students, 7 primary school students and 10 kindergarten students) that he was wanting to start a kindergarten at the Home of Hope (HOH) to help with some of the cost of school tuition. He offered for our boys to just go to school at the Home of Hope kindergarten. Michelle and I thought this was a fantastic idea and offered for Michelle to volunteer as an English teacher.

This year Ruthie and Moses, the first two babies to the HOH, will be turning 8 years old and will be starting first grade. Jaxin, our eldest, will be turning 7 and also is going to be starting first grade. So Michelle and Nathan talked about different ideas on what to do for them that would be best for everyone. They decided to hire a first grade teacher and open a first grade class. The first thing to do was to renovate an old storage room. The college aged boys helped out tremendously. They cleaned and painted the classroom then built the desks for the children. After two weeks of hard work the classroom was like a shiny brand new building. Then we hired a Chinese teacher, bought all of the school books and were ready to begin class.

Michelle Teaching First Grade Jaxin and Moses

Eli and Ruthie in their new 1st grade classroom

Michelle teaches English to Jaxin and Eli (our two eldest sons) and to Moses and Ruthie. They have school from 8am until lunch time which is at 12:00. During that time they learn how to read, write and learn geography. They also have a 45 minute Physical Education class, during this time Michelle teaches English at the Kindergarten to Autumn, Isaac, Gracie and Rose. From 1:15pm to 5:15pm Jaxin, Moses and Ruthie start back at school with their Chinese teacher and she teaches them how to read and write Chinese characters and how to speak proper mandarin Chinese. Eli goes to the kindergarten in the afternoon to practice his spoken mandarin.

Ben is also still teaching English at a local Kindergarten here, it enables him to acquire a visa for our whole family which is a great blessing. He teaches over 650 kids a week. MUCH different than what his job in America used to be (Plumbing Estimator)!

Ben teaching at his kindergarten class

Michelle and I are so thankful to be a part of the HOH. Our time of training here in Gongyi will help us to be better prepared for the administrative responsibilities of the 3rd Home of Hope orphanage.