PingYu Home of Hope

Group Picture

After Michelle and I moved here and started spending time with both the Gongyi Home of Hope and the Xuzhou Home of Hope , we started thinking about how we could bring both Homes together so that the kids could know that they are from one big family. We began brain storming many different options but the best was to host an annual summer camp. The last 2 years the camp lasted for 5 days, each day full of many different activities. The difficult part about planning the many activities for the camp is the very wide age difference between the children. The children involved with the camp starts at age 4 and goes all the way up to 22 years old. Last year we used all of the college students as counselors and captains of each team, which worked out great. The problem we were facing this year was most of the college students either were going to summer school, or finding summer jobs and could not guarantee there services to us this year. So we decided to change things up this year and instead of having one camp for all, we decided to host three camps. So far each year we have a theme for the camp, this years theme was about TRUST.

This was our view and hotel…just beautiful

Senior Mountain Retreat

We gave the kids the flag, markers and paint and told them to come up with a design themselves, Right is Lydia coloring in the flag

Group pictures of all the college students and high school students who attended

The first of the three camps was called the Senior Mountain Retreat. We wanted to stay in the same small hotel as we did last year, but since we decided the first camp was for all of the high school and college students (20 children total ages 16-22 years old) that hotel would be too small. So we went deeper into the mountains and found a beautiful hotel that was suitable for our needs. The Senior Mountain Retreat was 3 days long and during the retreat we played several games and had several talks with the kids about how to Trust. With their free time the kids enjoyed swimming and hiking. We really enjoyed this retreat and the kids must have too since they are already begging us to do the same for next year.

Hank (left) stands waiting to fall backwards while Esther (right) tries to fall forwards to show that they trust their brothers to catch them

The object of this game is for someone to be able to walk down the side walk blind folded without falling, they must listen to their brothers and sisters as they yell out which way to go. Left is Hazel and Right is Jim

The senior retreat was very fun and full of many different activities. Here are some picture showing you some of the fun we were able to enjoy with these children

The girls on the way to swim, Julie on the left and Lily on the right

We played woffle ball, guys vs girls

Left-Dennis stepping up to bat Right-Rena getting ready to smash the ball out of the park

Kiddy Camp

The second of the three camps was called the Kiddy Camp. This camp included all the children who were 4-9 years old, 13 children.  During this camp we asked some of the older children to help us run the camp, and 5 girls right away volunteered. (Holly, Rena, Gail, Shirley, and Lily). The Kiddy Camp was also 3 days long, unfortunately the first day it rained so we played as many indoor games we could think of and ended the camp at lunch.

We had all of the children who attended the Kiddy camp come up with a design for their camp, and they chose to be the Little peanuts. While we were at the last retreat in the mountain (the Junior retreat) the 5 girls that we mentioned earlier designed the the flag for the kids, again we were amazed by their talent and creativity

Lily coloring the flag

The second day was our water day, which was great because of how hot it was. We played several games like hot potato, musical balloon (just like musical chairs), and we had them all “Bob for apples”, which was a blast.

This game they fill a cup with holes in it and try to run to a bucket and dump as much water as they can into it. Mary on the left and Ruthie on the right.

For a snack we had the children “Bob for apples” Left is Autumn and on the Right is Caleb and Tyler

Then after all our activities were over that day, the kids enjoyed a nice swim. Left is Jaxin splashing around while Mary, on the right, enjoys just floating around with her inner tube

The last day was their physical day, here they had a chance to play basketball, soccer, football, hockey, bowling and some track activities. We ended their 3 day camp on Wednesday by letting the kids watch a couple of movies and eat popcorn, they had a blast.

Eli (left) and Abby (right) try shooting the soccer ball to earn points

Jaxin (left) takes a hockey shot while Tyler (right) takes a try at bowling

On the left Autumn tries to make a basketball shot while Moses (right) finds out how long he can hang on the monkey bars

At the end of the Kiddy Camp we had all the children gather together in the 1st grade classroom for a movie night

Junior Mountain Retreat

Group Pictures

The last camp was called the Junior Mountain Retreat and it was for 2 days. It included all the children who are in between the ages of 10-15 years old, 20 children in total not including the 5 college boys (Hank, Jim, David, Brian, and Paul) and Kelly (Bob’s translator) who helped us watch the kids.

Julie coloring the flag

The first 2 camps were of only Gongyi children, this third camp Bob Sayre brought 10 of his 28 kids from Xuzhou. Unfortunately, most of the kids in China don’t get to ride in cars very much which causes them to become motion sick very easily when they ever do get the chance to take a ride. The Xuzhou children had to make a 5-6 hour trip to Gongyi then travel up in the very winding mountain roads, in fact little Rachel tried to toughen it out but when we left for the mountains she did not make it 5 minutes before asking for a bag.

Lily, left, and Paul,right, hold welcoming signs for the Xuzhou HOH kids

This retreat we did the same activities as the senior retreat with swimming, hiking and many other activities. We even had each college boy and Kelly to share a message with them on how to live a life with meaning.

Left is a picture of all of us hiking back to the hotel after our swim. Right is a picture of the kids swimming…which we think was there favorite activity

Wayne (left) and Vincent (right) enjoy there Smore that we made one of the nights

Another game we played was to see how many cookies they could stack on their older brothers head. David’s (left) team stacked all 14 cookies

Really the kids all had a wonderful time just hanging out in their rooms like the girls on the left or like on the right the boys looking for fish, crabs or whatever else they could get their hands on

PARTY

After the 2 day Junior mountain retreat was over we arrived back to the Gongyi Home of Hope to prepare for the nights activities. Each year we have thrown a big party after the summer camp to give special thanks to the staff and all those who helped the camp be a success. We started the night off with dinner eating BBQ hot dogs, chips, corn on the cob, and a soda.

Linda and Paul (left) helped serve the hot dogs and on the right the college and high school children helped serve the other food to everyone

This year was even extra special because Nathan Bell (administrator of the Gongyi HOH) brought out his home made ice cream maker and let the kids enjoy a nice dessert.

Left-Julie is serving the ice cream while Holly and Rena (Right) make it

As soon as dinner was over we started the talent show, and it was full of excitement. The talents ranged form singing and dancing to even bicycle tricks.

Left-Some of the older Gongyi girls sang a song. Right- the Xuzhou children and all the children from the Kiddy camp sang a song together

Left-Jaxin in front and Eli in the back do a few bike tricks. Right-(clockwise starting from front left) Peter, Joseph, Michael and Luke break dance.

When the talent show was completed there were a few speeches made, this year the college kids gave a very warming and touching speech thanking Michelle and I for our efforts, which brought tears to our eyes. Then once all the formality stuff is over the kids break loose with a big dance party where everyone joins together for one last bang.

Left-Jacob and Dawn join the dance floor. Right-Tyler and Rachel go for a dance too

Everybody out dancing

Special Thanks

We would like to take this time and give a big thanks to the youth at Grace Church and the WME for raising the funds to be able to host this year’s camp. We would like to thank Eddie and Sheralin Greene from Harlan Kentucky who made and donated all the camp T-shirts, and to Tony (one of the boys from Gongyi HOH) fro designing the logo for all the shirts

Some of the kids showing off their new T-shirts

We also want to thank Liz Pulliam for sending an entire suitcase full of crafts for the children to do. And finally to everyone else who kept us in their thoughts and prayers during this year’s summer camp. This camp was truly a huge success and we could not have down it without you. We hope these pictures give a little justice to show you what joy we get to see and experience with all these bundles of joy daily. We are planning for next year’s camp to start either in July or August of 2010. We do encourage that if anyone would like to be involved with the camp please contact us and let us know. Our email is jetgodard@yahoo.com

Thank you all again so much for another success year and hope there are many more to come!