Bring Me Hope staff member Kristen Chase is tying together two passions of hers this summer: Orphans and Photography.

Alongside of Chinese friends, Kristen will be teaching a group of orphaned youth photography in what she’s calling “The Invision Project.”

“Many of the kids love taking pictures during camp, and I wanted to give them an opportunity to have a hands-on experience with it,” Kristen said.

“They have been through some really hard things, and I hope this will be a time of self-expression and healing for them. Plus I love seeing what they come out with when they’re given the attention and chance to succeed at something they’re interested in,” she adds.

Providing each of her students with a digital camera, the children will learn the basics of photography and then go out “on the field” to practice.

“We have some fun outings planned. I’m going to take them to parks, up to the mountains, and maybe even a zoo…if we can find a zoo in Nanchang,” Kristen said.

The Invision Project is looking for people to donate gently used digital cameras, SD cards, and rechargeable AA batteries.

If you have any of those items to donate or want to get in touch with Kristen, you can send an email to: kristen@bringmehope.org

You can follow the story here: The Invision Project

In the summer of 2006, we met a boy who touched our hearts. His name was Charlie.

Charlie shared with us his very vivid memory of being sold by his father. After the police were involved with his situation, Charlie was moved to an orphanage. But he longed for family life.

Anna (Yoder) Chang, who was living in China at the time, was able to have Charlie placed in a wonderful foster home that was run by foreigners. They recently sent us this update:

“Charlie is doing well! He is in a public school which is one of the best in our area and is just 15 minutes by his bicycle. He has grown a lot! And he is learning English, but like most of the Chinese kids they don’t want to speak it out. He gets embarrassed when he says it wrong, but we tell him its fine and the more you speak it the better you will communicate. Now when he wants to say something, he will spell it and we will speak it then he will repeat it! It’s so funny.

Charlie is doing well in school. He has a lot of awards for high scores in his subjects. He loves to cook spicy food, and is very good cooking fried rice. We tease him that we should send him to Baoding cooking school, one of the best cooking schools and well known in China.

We feel he has a relationship with HIM. He is joy to us, very obedient, smiles a lot, and is very grateful for everything we buy, give or do for him.

To sum it up if we can adopt him we will. He is our son in a lot of ways.

When you meet him you will see what a change HE done for Charlie and in his life; we give HIM all the glory.

-Mike & Elisa”

We are very excited to see Charlie at camp this summer, and we are grateful for the progress in his and for Mike and Elisa for taking such good care of him. Praise the Lord!

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Katie and Kristen from the Bring Me Hope Team have been hitting the road this Spring to spread the word about the orphan situation in China.

“We’ve seen God work in amazing ways during our speaking tours,” Kristen Chase says.

“People are open to hearing the truth about what these children go through and by God’s grace they are responding!

We are seeing people wanting to volunteer at China, sponsor orphans for a week at camp, and also be challenged by the way they live in their own communities! It’s amazing to witness God at work!”

“I went to the XinXiang Orphanage with eight other Bring Me Hope Club Members. We decided to help the orphans with their lives and their studies. This orphanage is a special one because the children’s parents are in prison as a result of family violence. We stayed with the children for only one week, and we all became best friends. There are about twenty five children in this orphanage, and six of them are girls. The average age of these children is twelve. They are very polite and adorable, living together like a big family.

During that week, we shared every meal together with the children. However, I found a problem: there were no fresh vegetables for the children to eat during breakfast or supper. The children eat the same food every day. For breakfast, there is only porridge and mantou (Chinese rolls). For lunch there are some noodles with only a little bit of cabbage. For dinner they have porridge and mantou again. Every day the meals are the same.

When I had dinner with them, I often felt sorry for them. Their bodies are in an important stage of growing up, and they need to get enough nutrition to strengthen their body every day.

After I left the orphanage, an idea occurred to me: We should do something to change the situation. I estimated that it would take about 2,000 RMB every month to provide them with vegetables (or sometimes milk) at every meal. It is really on my heart to help these children to grow up healthy. Personally, I will donate 300 RMB every month, but that was not enough. So I sent out an email to all of my foreign teachers asking for their help.

Many of the teachers replied and donated money for the children to have vegetables at every meal! I just did a little, all work was done by our Father.”

Below are some pictures of the children at the XinXiang Orphanage eating vegetables, thanks to a Chinese University student wanting to make a difference!

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Hannah’s Story won “Best Documentary” at the Fallbrook Film Festival yesterday! Thanks for all of your support!

Brother/Sister team David and Rebecca Bolt have been busy visiting Bring Me Hope University Clubs in China this Spring! They are reconnecting with college students who have a heart for orphans as well as encouraging them of greater ways to be involved in the kids lives. Please keep them in your prayers!