The what?

Welcome to my blog! If you have known me for awhile, you will know that though at heart I have always felt I am an author/writer, I have NEVER been good at keeping up with a blog. And yet, here we go again. I am going to try to keep one. We shall see how this goes!

"Journey to huh?!" 

When I joined Bring Me Hope at camp for the first time, years ago, I was bitten by the China bug. {No, not that one. Ok...so,true I have been bitten by many China bugs, but this is the good one!} China is now my home, and it is there that I see myself having a future. When I could no longer take just going for a month or two and working the summer there, I moved for a year to study the language so that my transition over would be smoother....some day soon I hope. There was one year that a friend and I made plans to move over and begin taking classes together, as we built up some sort of a rapport with the local orphanages so that we would better be able to advocate for the kids. While the idea and plans were tabled and put away indefinitely, the seed had been planted in both my head and heart and has continued to grow for the past two to three years. As I was in China taking my language courses, the ideas took more shape and form since I saw more of what was needed and what could be useful to the community in which I would like to live.

I do not think I could handle running a foster home,or an orphanage, nor could I raise the number of kids that I want to impact on my own. Though my heart breaks that there are not enough arms to hold all of the precious gems that I have met in the orphanages and homes I have visited, I don't see that my starting another one is the way I am to go.  This is where the bridge comes in. I have met many people over the years of summer camps, who have asked if there is a way for them to return to the area at any other time during the year to see the kids with whom they have bonded. I would like to provide the bridge, the ability for people to return to China, stay with someone who knows both the area and the language, so that they may serve. A home for people who are just passing through and need a place to stay, and in return they use the gifts that they have to impact the children and students in my home area.

"Ok, but a bridge?"

Ultimately what my dream involves is getting tutors, drama enthusiasts,musicians, nurses, chef/cooks,bakers, seamstresses, you name it,each one with a heart for Father, all excited about coming over and lending their talents to the local orphans. I want to build a relationship with the directors of the orphanages so that they would allow me to cultivate friendships with the kids who are aging out, those who will need to know life skills and more, so that they could come to Lotus Bridge and learn. I have plans to do workshops and parties, book clubs and sewing circles, hang outs and Skype chat days. While I would not want to leave out the kids that are waiting for their forever families to arrive and pick them up {my home/apartment would also be open to families who need a place to stay on their way to their sons and daughters} my heart has been stolen by those who have been left behind. Those that have ages out, those who have no papers, for those for whom adoption is not an option.

I have loved watching what it does to bring people from all over the world together with students in China and put them together with kids from an orphanage. I want to be apart of doing that all year round as well! My hope is that people would come back to see the translators who gifted them with the help of translation during camp, and then together go and visit the kids that made that life changing week of camp all that it was.

Since this dream took root in my head, I have talked it over with many people on both sides of the pond, asking for advice, opinions, criticism etc. I know that there are many ways that you can travel to China and volunteer with kids! And I am thankful for all of them. I know that my idea is not exactly the most original of them all. But I also know it is where Father is leading me, and it is something I see a need for in the area I call home.

"There is the bridge, but where does Lotus come in?"

I was at the airport during one of my first trips over when I got a text from my Mum commenting on  how much I had in common with a lady from long ago: Amy Carmichael. She told me how she had been talking to Father and He reminded her that I even shared part of the same name!
While I was at school, and dreaming more and more about what I would do once I had somewhat of a grasp on this simple language {can you tell sarcasm in type?} which I was learning, I began to read a book written by Miss Carmichael, in which she described coming across a pond with flowers and was told that they were not to be touched because they belonged to the temple. Like those flowers, the children to whom she gave aid had been told they belonged to the temple only and were unwanted otherwise. She called her children "Lotus Blossoms". It was her goal to teach her blossoms about the One that made them beautiful and to Whom they really belonged. I want to help others reach the Lotus Blossoms of China.

The Bridge home is still a long time in becoming a reality, but each step I take I feel gets me closer to my little Blossoms and the Bridge that will teach them.

Please join me, both online in print, and at the Throne as I make my "Journey to the Lotus Bridge"

-Carm-
安雅慧