Xiao Wen was diagnosed with congenital heart disease during his university entrance physical examination in 2014. His family has 4 members in it, but none of them were doing very well. His parents did not work in the city due to poor health. The whole family relied on a few mu (less than an acre) of mountainous fields. Xiao Wen and his sister attended school but life was difficult for them. Xiao Wen successfully underwent heart surgery with the help of Little Red Scarf in June 2014. 

In 2015, Xiao Wen was accepted into the university, which was a significant event in his life, but his family had to take on a heavier financial burden. Since 2015, Xiao Wen and his family have been part of our Adopt a Family program through Gansu Care. With the help of loving people, Xiao Wen completed his first year in the university. 

In July 2013, Lulu underwent heart surgery with help from Little Red Scarf. Unfortunately, her father passed away due to diabetes complications 3 months after her operation, which brought a lot of pain to the family. Her grandmother is 71 and has to take care of 3 children. Her mother has to work in a factory in Lanzhou. 

Lulu helps with some fieldwork during the weekends. She also takes care of her brother and sister. 

​​When Hongyan had been suffering from congenital heart disease, she didn't have the opportunity to play with other children. She couldn't even walk. Her grandmother had to carry her on her back, and her parents had to spend more time and energy to take care of her. In 2014, Hongyan underwent a successful operation with help from Little Red Scarf. After surgery, Hongyan recovered well and was able to walk on her own. 

Half a year after her operation, Hongyan was invited to participate in the 2nd session of Little Red Scarf's summer camp. For the first time, Hongyan was able to make friends. She became cheerful and adapted to her new life, thanks to the operation. 

In August 2016, Hongyan was invited to participate in Little Red Scarf's 3rd session of summer camp. We found she was completely different. She could communicate and speak to strangers. During the hospital activity in the provincial Children and Women's Care Center, she heard her heartbeat. "I can hear my own heartbeat--ba bum, ba bum, ba bum!" she described excitedly. 

​We give glory to the Lord who enables us to move forward. We tasted the goodness of the Lord in spite of challenges and hindrances. All is going well by the grace of God, through the prayer support of TFish and all of our other prayer partners around the world.

The pastor from the Agape Vietnamese Alliance Church in Taiwan asks us to pray for the following issues:

We hope that a Bible student from Vietnam can be sponsored to intern with us. This will encourage the Tin Lanh church in Vietnam that is involved with our Vietnamese ministry in Taiwan. Our church is in the application process. Pray that God will allow this strategy to be implemented smoothly.

Thank God that after the financial assistance from the C&MA mission was terminated last year, our church members, along with some Taiwanese supporters, are giving generously to cover our financial needs. This year our goal is to increase the budget to include the expense for a student intern. Please pray that more church members will volunteer to work in the prison ministry and that they will increase their financial giving.

Pray that God will give wisdom for the 8 university students coming from Vietnam. They will be helpful for the church in filling different positions.

In early August 2016, I received an invitation to attend a summer camp that was organized by Little Red Scarf. 

This was my second time participating in Little Red Scarf’s summer camp. The first time was in 2010, just three months after the completion of my surgery. Since then, six years have gone by.

Hao Yu is a cute and shy little boy who is one year and nine months old. He looks more mature than most kids his age. He is from the Yao tribe in Yunnan. Both of his parents are farmers, and they own 0.3 acres of land. Their annual income is around 10,000 RMB ($1,500 USD).

There are 8 people in Hao Yu's family. Both of his great grandparents are approaching their 90's and need assistance. It costs several thousand dollars to cover their medical expenses. Both of Hao Yu's grandparents are almost 60 years old. Hao Yu also has an older sister who is 4 years old. This family is mostly composed of seniors and children who are not able to work.

When Hao Yu was 5 months old, he kept getting colds. This led to his diagnosis of an atrial septal defect. His parents spent a lot of time going to the hospital for his checkups. However, the doctor told them that only the hospital in Kunming would be able to perform the surgery for their son. The surgical expenses would be tens of thousands of dollars, which is an astronomical figure for this poor family. 

Little Red Scarf is in Yunnan province and provides financial support and encouragement to children suffering from congenital heart disease. In addition, they provide families with post-operative care and help the children sustain a healthy lifestyle.
 
A cute and shy little boy from tribe of Yao. Jin Jun is 8 years old but looks mature for his age. This young boy from tribe of Yao of Yun Nan is still not able to speak Mandarine fluently. He speaks his own dialogues with his family.

He looks confident when he communicate with his family. However when I ask him questions using Chinese, I can sense the nervousness and uneasiness from him. His grandfather told me Jin Jun is not able to understand much Chinese, he can only speak some simple words so he is struggling at school. The school teachers are all speaking Chinese  and he is not able to understand the language well enough so he is behind in his class which makes him feel less confident about himself. Because of language barrier, he did not want to go to school for a long time. The happy school life has become stress and nightmare for him.
 
The first time I saw Jin Jun was in an afternoon at the time when his grandfather and aunt brought him to Yun Nan hospital for medical examination. His parents were working at Xishuangbanna so they were not able to come back in time to go with Jin Jun.  They arrived two days later. His grandfather told me only one of his parents would come for his operation for the purpose of saving money.

When I went to visit Jin Jun the second day, he was happily eating his congee dessert. When he saw me, he stood up immediately next to his bed. Unfortunately I was not able to take a picture of him. This is the only second time we met. He is still not comfortable with me because I speak Chinese to him all the time. However I can totally understand how  he feels.

​Yihong and his sister Yixia came to the 2016 LRS Summer Camp in Lanzhou. Whenever Yihong's name is mentioned, the image of him racing in the fields always come to my mind. That memory was from when we made our follow up visit last summer, eight months after his heart surgery. I witnessed an energetic, naughty boy who had been transformed from the serious sick kid he used to be. Our team was very happy, and we sensed the joy in the family as well.

​During that visit, we also met Yixia, the younger but taller sister, who was full of curiosity.