Yang Yang

Before I share a little bit about my experiences in China, I want to say thank you to everyone who supported me both with your prayers and your financial help. Thank you so very much! It was an incredible 2 weeks of joys and trials and the Lord's presence was there through it all.

Yang Yang is an adorable 3 year old boy. His used-to-be cleft palate makes him all the more cuter. He is very quiet and easy to please. Like many of the other Chinese orphans, Yang Yang has hepatitis B. In China, many of the people believe that hep B can be spread though germs when it's quite impossible to spread that way. Sam, the director of this BMH camp, who is also a doctor, said someone would have to drink an entire bucket of the saliva from a hep B infected person in order to contract the disease, and even if that happened, the chance is still very extremely slim. The Chinese people (including my translator, Lani) however, refuse to believe that it is virtually impossible to contract hep B from someone else. Therefore, in Yang Yang's orphanage he is treated as though he were a leper; feeding him separate from the other children and giving him little to no physical contact, things that quickly make Yang Yang feel out of place, unwanted and unloved. I am blessed that this week God has put me in his life to hold his hand when we cross the street, to sit and share our meals together, to tickle him and laugh and play together, or to hold him when he is scared. Even though he is still just a toddler, I know through God, this week will impact his life.

China and Simpson

These past two weeks God has shown me his unfailing love and great power. As I arrived to Xi’an, not knowing what to expect, I was both excited and nervous. Each week every volunteer is paired with an orphan and a translator. Every translator is Chinese College student, usually with an English major. The volunteer, the translator, and the orphan become a family unit.

The day I arrived was the day I met my translator, Jane. Right off the bat we got along. Jane, a 20-year-old English major with not only a pretty face but also a smart brain. She was very kind and friendly and we had an instant connection. We had a wonderful week together.

The next day, Monday, was the day that the orphans would arrive. Soon enough 4 o'clock rolled around and it was time for Jane and I to meet our orphan, who is referred to as our “buddy”. My buddy was a 12-year-old healthy boy. However, Chinese society would have a much more different opinion. His English name is Simpson and he was born without a thumb or index finger on his right hand and only has a thumb and pinky on his left. Any child in China with a birth defect is often automatically sent to an orphanage. A place of which I learned more of each day. A place of which I hated more each day.

The first day Simpson arrived it did not take long for Jane and I to notice the numerous and deep scars that covered his legs, many of which were fresh wounds. He told us that they were from fights. My first thought was that he was a bully and that he would be a challenge. I soon found out, though, that bigger boys at the orphanage constantly pick him on and beat him up. This put a heavy weight on my heart.

On the second day we were working on our memory books and I looked over to see two skulls that Simpson had drawn. His quiet mannerism and dark thoughts were a pattern that revealed to me his hurting hard heart and his need to be loved. I made a prayful determination to let God work through me in loving him in a way I never could just on my own. Simpson went from being depressed and pessimistic to smiling and positive; laughing and playing around with me, bringing me down the slide over and over again.

By the end of the week I had found out he had been bullied and beaten all his life and that it had led to him bullying and fighting those inferior to him. He had been warped into thinking that that was the only way to get through to other kids he felt were disobeying or doing wrong. I am trusting my Heavenly Father to take what has been done and reveal to Simpson the alternative way to live. A life in which Simpson is no longer only an orphan but instead is a child of God where he is eternally loved and cared for. I fell in love with Simpson and pray to God each and everyday for him. For him to find Christ and to soon be adopted into a loving family. Otherwise he will be in an orphanage for the rest of his life.


In His love, Alicia Jaclyn


“Who comforts us in our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”
2 Corinthians 1:4