Great Wall Trip

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Picture dozens of Chinese children hiking across the Great Wall for the first time in their lives, along with dozens more wide-eyed volunteers. That was us today.

We have been paired up with the “buddies” we will host for the week, and have shown them all over the private school campus where camp is being held, in addition to this morning’s field trip.

Most of the children are outgoing and talkative; a few are more introverted. But they all get excited when we sing and play games. They all have chosen American names, to make it easy for us. My two are named Bill and, ironically, Tom. Bill plays the trumpet and a stringed Chinese instrument he brought with him to camp, and Tom loves to draw.

They are both quiet, but to see them smile means the world to me.

The same goes for all the volunteers here, who are hot and sweaty most of the time, but happy to have finally met the children they’ve been anticipating for months.

Below are a few pictures I took today at the Great Wall and here at camp. The photo at the top was taken inside one of the cable cars that carry tourists to the wall on a ridge about an hour away from Beijing.

New Update

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Dozens of volunteers from Southern California arrived over the course of the day at the school in Beijing where Bring Me Hope is holding its summer camps this year. The teams settled into a dormitory on a far corner of the campus after touring a medical clinic for foster children and orphans operated by the Philip Hayden Foundation. That clinic is where former Fallbrook residents and doctors Bill and Anna Moody are working.

Tomorrow we will be oriented for the work we have to do this week, and there will be more updates and photos once the children begin arriving on Monday.

Week 1 Wraps Up

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We have received several more updates from Beijing, where Bring Me Hope wrapped up the first of four camps on Friday. It sounds like week 1 went well, based on an e-mail from David, and one from Michelle Rusch. Here is what Michelle wrote:

“Today (Friday) is the last day of camp one. The time has gone by so quickly! The kids are packing and awaiting their last assembly where they will get to see the beach balls drop again and say their last goodbyes.

Last night the volunteers and staff stayed up very late to write goodbye letters and organize photos that will be shown in a video to the kids this morning. They love to see themselves in the videos so we were trying to get at least one shot of all of them in this last video. There was a video that was made for each day of the camp and all them will be burned to a DVD that will go out to everyone at camp. Editor’s note: see subsequent post for instructions on accessing these videos on YouTube.


Yesterday the kids enjoyed more time in the pool, at the water park, and doing crafts. The pool is a big hit because most of the kids have never been inside of one. In addition to these activities we discovered two others: balloon animals and face painting. These were things that were originally not planned, but turned out to be a major hit so they will be added to the schedule in future weeks.
-Michelle”

The two photos in this post were taken by Michelle. In the photo below, the kids are arriving at camp for week one. The photo at the top is of a field trip the team and kids took to the Great Wall.

Lastly, we have a brief update from David, who writes about several “touching moments” that struck him during week 1:

“1. One of the kids kind of adopted me as his big brother. On the last day I wrote him a note that simply said, ‘I love you!’ I didn’t know if he could understand what I wrote, but he quickly grabbed my hand and wrote, ‘I love you too!’ Later that day, when my little buddy left to go home, he held the tears back until the last moment. I can’t describe what it does to your heart to see a friend go back to orphanage care.

2. We had three little kids come from a really poor foster home. Everything was new for them—brushing their teeth, seeing water come out of a faucet. But before they came to camp their foster dad bought them a bottle of juice. One of the translators said that one of the little boys was almost out of juice and went outside to the tap water to fill his juice again so he could enjoy it longer. When he got to camp he kept asking our translator, ‘Are we in America? We are in America right?’

3. One of the things we do at camp is have the kids dress up for a camp glamour picture. We have a large image of Snow White that some of the kids stand in front of when they take their picture. One of the translators asked an orphan if they knew who Snow White was. The orphan replied, ‘Yes, she’s my mom. And she is coming back for me.’
How many children are there in the world that are waiting for Snow White? And for so many it is just a fantasy.

We have just experienced one week of titanic emotional ups and downs but at the same time we love what we do with everything we have. Thank you all for your heart to help children.
-David”

— Tom Pfingsten