China Mission News

May, 2012

Charity Hospital From a Dream to Reality

Dr. Joshua (Zhai Shiwei) was born in Henan province of China and was trained in general surgery, pediatric surgery, and GI endoscopy. He has been a general surgeon for many years. When he was in graduate school, he had the opportunity to learn about God and accepted Jesus as his savior. He was converted by Bert Johnson who had just graduated from Harding that year. Bert gave Dr. Joshua a book called From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya and it touched his heart. After that, Dr. Joshua had a dream to someday set up a charity hospital in China to serve the poor people physically and spiritually like this old medical missionary did. But in China, having a private medical practice has been hard because of government regulations and it is comfortable to work in a big government hospital. So Dr. Joshua had been working in a tertiary hospital but always had the thoughtto start to work on his dream hospital even if it is only a mini one. Dr. Joshua started to work with Ron Brown in medical missions in 2002. Thereafter, every year he worked with one or two medical mission teams in China providing primary care, dental care, cleft plate surgery, general surgery and even two pediatric open heart surgeries. From those medical missions, Dr. Joshua got to know Dr. John Bailey, Dr. James Humphreys, Dr. Lou Smith, Dr. David Darrah, Dr. Rex Payne, Dale Jamison, Dr. John Morgan and pharmacist Bill Staggs, et al. Dr. Joshua was impressed and encouraged by all of these people who were willing to give their time and money to help poor patients in China.

Those medical missions were really wonderful and helped many poor people in China, but we realized it would be even better if we could build a small hospital to serve the poor people. In 2005, with Rons help, Dr. Joshua was able to visit some of the friends aforementioned and accepted a job at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. The Zhai family was blessed to have their daughter born in the U.S. with the help of Dr. Stephen Staggs who provided free medical care. They were blessed by many friends at the Middle Tennessee Chinese Church of Christ and by Dr. Dale Jamison and his family. The Zhai family also received help from Marian Whitfield and her friends in Nashville, Bob and Rachel Simmons, Gordon Borck and his family, and Dr. Mack Wayne Craig, who passed away last year. Their faith grew. Dr. Joshuas dream never ceased. He and his family returned to China in 2007. After their return to China, Dr. Joshua worked in his former hospital for a year and then worked at Marias Big House of Hope for another two years. He helped care for and provided surgeries for sick orphans. But he could still feel the need to serve God by building a small hospitalto serve Him in the way He likes with all his heart. Dr. Joshua resigned from Marias last September. Ron and Dr. Joshua began their search for a location to build the dream hospital. Eventually they found a reasonably priced property in a small town in Nanyang of Henan Province. Soon Ronald Brown will serve as the construction superintendent to begin building this small rural

community hospital. The building will be about 13,000 square feet with one Operating Room, one GI endoscope lab and 20 beds. After the facility is equipped, we are planning to run it selfsufficientlythe poor people in China will not pay. Thank the Lord we have donors like an anonymous donor who is giving a major portion for the new hospital. Also David Finchs brother has donated a set of endoscopic instruments. We are very thankful for the many friends who are helping us realize our dream and many people who will help us support this great project. We solicit donations from anyone interested in being part of this great venture. All of the funding is not secured. There will be additional solicitation for medical equipment and supplies. Doctors and nurses from the U.S. will be welcomed to rotate in and out of the hospital to assist with the work.

Dr. Joshua and family

Tired of writing monthly checks? We have a solution for you a monthly deduction from your checking account for the sponsorship of your child/children in China. Leigh Ann handles this once a month around the 15th of each month. If you are interested in signing up for this to reduce your To Do List please email Leigh Ann at ladotson1960@gmail or call her at (770) 309-5485 to mail you a form to complete and return.

A Child Leads the Example for Sacrificial Giving

Zoies 2012 Crusade to Heal a Heart Campaign
On March 2, 2012, we had dinner with Dr. Fred and Peggy Massey in San Antonio, Texas. At their home, we met a young couple getting ready to go to China. The next night, we had dinner with Deryk and Tiffany Pritchard, and their two children, the family we met the night before. We were at the home of another young family that is also getting ready to relocate to China this summer to teach English. Ayden Pritchard, who is nine years old, handed us an envelope with $231.00 dollars. He said we could use it for our work in China. I talked with him a few minutes and it was decided that he would be a co-sponsor, to support an orphan boy about his own age. Throughout the dinner, Ayden had questions about China. We were so impressed by this young childs loving gift that I asked his parents to let us tell his story. I dont think anything else needs to be said because the story written by his father says it all. I know it will touch your heart. Our family has been in San Antonio for almost 9 nine years all of Aydens life has been here as the son of a youth minister. Years ago, we were missionaries in Cuenca, Ecuador, and Ayden and Hannah have been able to share in our love for the church there by visiting our family in Jesus there three separate times. We feel that it is a tremendous blessing that our children have already been exposed to a different culture and find people there that love them as family. We have tried to make them aware of the needs that exist in our world, and God has given them hearts that have compassion for those in tough situations. A few years ago, Ayden walked out of his room and told us that he thought that God had put China on my heart. He said this without any prompting from us; in fact, we thought it was strange that he didnt say that about Ecuador since we had visited there with him. He continued to say this for the next couple of years. In fact, his consistent emphasis on China contributed to our beginning to seriously consider a move to teach English (and the most important things) in China a move that we will make in August, 2012. But before we made that decision, we wanted to give Ayden the chance to live out this call that had been placed on his heart, so we found some bracelets that he could sell that would benefit those who made them and would enable him to raise extra money to share with children in China. He faithfully presented those bracelets in a variety of settings so he could sell as many as possible. At the time, we had no idea how we would be able to share that money, but we walked in faith that God would provide the opportunity. When we met you and heard about your work among the children in China, we knew that we had found the place to share the fruit of Aydens efforts to serve.

In February 2011, Zoie Cothron, a six-year old girl, ran a very successful campaign and raised enough money to pay for one heart surgery, three cleft palate surgeries and support one orphan for a year. This year, for Valentines Day, she sought support from family and friends again to help the poor children in China. She was even more successful this year. To date, we have received enough funds to cover the cost of two heart surgeries and the support for two children for a year with a little money left to go into our general fund to pay workers in our care centers. Thanks to Zoie, her parents and to all the many people who gave funds to help with this wonderful campaign.
CHINA MISSION c/o Lewisville Church of Christ 901 College Parkway Lewisville, TX 75077-2900
Website: www.china-mission.com Director: Ron Brown ronbrown20@gmail.com 678-877-6300 Editor email: ladotson1960@gmail.com