Choosing to SEE - Mary Beth Chapman [94]
An overwhelming number of our supporters, friends, and family turned out to support us in the process. We had a packed house and several key media outlets were on hand to capture this bittersweet time, dedicating this facility that can serve orphans in China! While I still don’t like the fact that Maria isn’t with us in the flesh, I am humbled to have a front row seat to watch God do a new and amazing thing in her honor.
Here’s Show Hope’s “official” word on this incredible ministry:
Location: Luoyang City in the Henan Province, China
Size: 6 floors, 60,000 square feet
Capacity: 128 orphans with special needs
Staff: 190 staff members and nannies at full capacity
Medical Staff: Full time doctor and 5 full time nurses
Maria’s Big House of Hope, located in one of the poorest provinces of China, was built by Show Hope, a ministry founded by Steven Curtis and Mary Beth Chapman. Show Hope created this beautiful home to give over 120 orphans with special needs the love, shelter, medical care, and hope they so desperately need.
The painful reality facing orphans with special needs is that they don’t have the advocacy of a parent or resources of a family . . . so they don’t often receive care and lifesaving treatment. As a result, many are left to languish alone, and too many die, though their special need might well have been surgically correctable.
Maria’s Big House of Hope cares for the least of the least, saving the lives of those we can, and giving the highest level of holistic care to all the children who pass through our doors. This remarkable facility includes floors for children in need of acute care before and after surgery, a floor for those waiting for a forever family, and hospice care for the children who will soon pass away, so they can look to the hope of heaven while being cared for with tender love and attention.
July 2, 2009
Maria’s Big House officially opened today! National and local government officials were there to honor Show Hope’s efforts to help the special needs orphans of China! We really felt the Spirit of God as we stood there in front of Maria’s Big House and dedicated it back to Him and in honor of Maria, who was a special needs orphan herself!
There were several speeches, certificates given to us to commemorate the day, and Steven sang, of all songs, “Yours” – which was so awesome, standing there on a stage saying, It is all God’s! Right there in China!
July 4, 2009
I wish I had the exact words to describe the emotions and thoughts that were flooding through me as we pulled up to Maria’s Big House after all the business and excitement of the grand opening was over and it was just us.
Our group from Tennessee pulled through the gate in the morning with nothing on the agenda but to play, hold, sing, pray, bless, experience this place that has been honored with Maria’s name!
There are so far about forty children transitioned into the house, with room for about ninety more. They will transition in groups from mostly the Luoyang city orphanage. Some will come from other areas for surgeries and special care.
We took tons of pictures, cried lots of tears, and sang lots of praise songs through the halls of this special place. We walked into every room, singing praise and worship over the entire place, ending on the roof! We read blessings that Show Hope sponsors had written for the children and prayed that God would do a mighty work in this place.
We ended by going to the Tinker Bell room. We sang “Big House” as loud as we could while the children who are with us started a train through the room.
A pretty special day, but a hard one. I spent some quiet time alone sitting under the mural of the Disney movie Cars painted in one of the rooms, which is currently empty. Maria loved Mater. She used to say all the time, “My name is Mater, as in toe-Mater except without the toe!”
As I sat there quietly, I tried desperately to hear her sweet voice saying that phrase. She would have loved all the rooms, but the one that