Steven, Geoff, Shaoey and myself headed back down to Luoyang on the 18th after a couple days rest for my blood pressure. It has been so many mix of emotions joining up with this team. Jan, Anna, Ashley and Stevey Joy were left in good hands up at Hope Foster Home! We said goodbye to the first team on the 12th of July. It was literally sending half of my family home, and the ones who weren’t family are like family….so sad and hard. I would have loved to have kept them here with me! I’m not much on change, and God seems to be changing things non-stop in the Chapman lives....Not sure I like it or not but none the less, change comes and we either face it head on with confidence that God is in Control, or cease to function and curl up somewhere and start rocking back and forth! Trust me….I’ve done both….a nice blanky and a thumb suck curled up in the corner is an inviting thought sometimes if you know what I mean! So like the change in sending them home, change, will continue back in the states to blow through like a storm and a great breeze, however you prefer to look at it. Karen has to send her last off to college this fall…David, Will’s best buddy and one of my favorite people who happens to be Julia’s brother… and our family has to say good-bye to the Berends…Ruthy’s (Will’s girlfriend) family, who move to South Bend, Indiana on July 26th. They actually move while I’m still gone, it seems surreal that they are really not going to be there when I get home. This Fall will find my oldest daughter, Emily and her husband Tanner moving to Ireland for a year of Bible College. Something that Steven and I are so excited about for them as a young married couple, but still, the change of having them gone for a year will require adjustments for all of us. So, as I join up with this group, Team #2…it represents yet Change again, and yes…time passing and moving on. Everyday that I wake up, I say to myself….I’m one day closer to seeing Maria! I was So excited to see faces I knew from Nashville and surrounding areas, yet apprehensive as to if they would love China and our purpose here like me! Boy did they LOVE on me well when I showed up at MBHOH! They had worked so hard so that a lot of what I saw when I walked in was finished! I was in complete shock when I saw how beautiful they had made Maria’s memory and Big House look! I have to admit though…..What I remember the most about walking in wasn’t the beautiful painting…..as much as it was THEIR smiles…..so badly wanting me to approve and love it! How could I not LOVE it? I represents so much to me! This whole team has come together at a level that I could have never imagined…As I ponder what changes I’ve been through this past 14 months, and the changes that I mentioned above, I’m reminded of the CHANGE and transformation of MBHOH by people who are simply here to serve and do whatever they are asked to do! Today is day 2 of me being here and to watch the system that sweet Emily and the team have going on is nothing less than impressive. Time to paint and time to love on these precious little ones that God has entrusted to us here at MBHOH! I have SEEn so much change….In the physical sense as it pertains to the painting on the walls and building (my brother outside on Chinese scaffolding is another story), the change in the hearts of my sweet friends who are here in China with me, and the change in the faces of the children as well as the Chinese workers who are here at Maria’s Big House. I still so find myself walking around this place, named after my sweet Maria, begging God to rewind time, to CHANGE it back to the way it was….Even as I SEE the amazing things going on here. I know God understands this momma’s heart, because he is the one who gave it to me in the first place. But again, as I really stop…as I really listen, as I really observe….I SEE the good change and the God change that is taking place here in this place. Miracles happen every day. Some children live and receive life-giving medical care, and others are comforted as they live out their number of days this side of the vail. In a strange way, I feel Maria closest to me when I spend time with the ones who are in a hospice situation. I can only imagine it is because these little ones are so close to seeing Jesus, and Maria IS SEEing Jesus, that vail must be ever so thin and I picture her there waiting to receive those little ones from MBHOH and usher them into the arms of Jesus! I have so many amazing miraculous stories to tell that I could write a book….I’m gonna let the pictures speak for them selves. I love you all so much. Pray for me as I say good bye to Steven in the morning as he heads back to Beijing to take Stevey Joy back to the states on Wednesday. Shaoey and I will be here with Emily until the 28th of July. We do not have internet at MBHOH and I am currently at Mikey’s (our Show Hope person on the ground here in Luoyang) apartment to post this blog! Blessings from our whole team. Everyone is doing great… We are on an amazing journey here to SEE what God is gonna do!
With increasing gratitude for Change,
Mary Beth
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