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As Beihai and Nankang develop, our new village is in an ideal location.  We border the main road going south, connecting Nankang to the freeway to Beihai.  This road is being repaired and improved, with new apartment complexes being built next to LSV. 

 

Across the street, to the East, is Nankang’s largest gas station.  And across from our main entrance, facing north, is Nankang’s largest bus station.  As Nankang develops southward, this station should begin operations, and provide many customers to our Commercial Building.

Nankang's largest Gas station

Nankang’s largest bus station

new apartment complexes being built next to LSV

new apartment complexes being built next to LSV

 

Looking westward, are beautiful fields and Eucalyptus forests, making for our beautiful sunsets.  It is a wonderful area to take quiet walks, and enjoy the fresh air.  Everything is green and growing, just like our children and our new village. 

Our new LSV village is truly full of light.  Every building has large windows, to soothe our eyes and allow our fresh air to flow freely.  All the windows are cut to size and assembled on site by very skilled workmen.  As required by China’s building code, all windows have a heat resistant coating.  This cuts down the hot summer rays, and saves electricity.  This reflective coating also prohibits people from looking inside the buildings.

 

The Auditorium, Arts Building, and Commercial-Classroom Building walls are going up.   The Classrooms are spacious, with high ceilings, and wide corridors.  The Arts Building connects the three buildings together, and will serve for music, dance, and other fine arts.  Our Auditorium is designed for music and drama performances with optimal sound quality.  As construction speeds up, the buildings grow more impressive by the day.

Though mostly unseen, our water supply and waste water system are essential components of our village.  An important part of this system is a wastewater tank.  Wastewater is carried by underground pipes to this large, underground, concrete tank.  As this tank fills, the water then goes into the town’s drainage system.  Our building site fresh water now comes from a well.  In the future, we will also be connected to Nankang’s water supply.

 

When the windows are in, the walls are up, and the water turned on, we can move in!

In the current world financial crisis, there is a Chinese silver lining.  As foreign exports have decreased, Chinese companies are selling more to Chinese consumers.  At the same time, China is stimulating its economy by huge expenditures on infrastructure, housing, education, and social welfare projects.   We can see these policies translated into real life here in our home town of Nankang.

One critical area of investment is medical care.  Up until the 1980’s, China had state sponsored medical care for workers.  With the economic reforms, medical care became more privatized and expensive, leaving care unaffordable to many.  The government is now embarking on an ambitious plan to bring quality care to all, especially reaching into the rural areas.  Our local hospital has plans for an entire new, modern building.  All the old buildings will be removed, replaced by a spacious courtyard.  This means a higher level of medical care for our town and LSV.

Housing is also growing in Nankang.   The other day we heard sounds of heavy machinery outside our window.   Looking out, we saw a tractor clearing out another area to build a house.  

  

There are many new houses, similar to our own, being built around town.  And down the street, across from our primary school, an apartment building is rising into the sky.  This is the first private development of this kind in Nankang.   The complex will be 7 floors high, the maximum allowed without elevators.  Previous to this, the closest high-rise apartment housing of this kind was in Beihai city, 45 minutes drive away.

 

In anticipation of new retail customers, several new stores have opened near our main crossroads.   Two of them are dealers for top companies in China.  One is Media, among China’s best home appliance companies.  And yesterday, we saw a red banner announcing a new store with Siemens (German based company) products.   There are also brand name, expensive, clothing stores now opened here.  In the past, the closest dealers were in Beihai.

There is also investment in our education and schools.  Recently, a long row of shops was torn down, to build new apartment buildings for Nankang High School teachers.  And, our local school principals are young, capable, and eager to raise the level of education and improve living standards.

LSV benefits from all these efforts to make Nankang a better place to live.  And Nankang will also benefit from our new LSV community services.  Yes, Nankang, China and Living Stones Village are truly building together!

From a LSV Village Parent who now serves the fatherless at LSV

Summer is coming, and for most families that means taking a vacation.  This year’s challenges are how to fund your getaway, and not hurt our delicate environment.   More importantly, how will your vacation be a meaningful event that brings blessings to others?   The answer is easy, enjoy your vacation while experience the joy of giving to those who do not have such a priviledge!

Consider simplifying  your vacation and thus you can donate part of your vacation expense: the air tickets to Florida, the gas and hotel to LA, the cruise to Alaska or Mexico, the $80 ski lift tickets and rental costs, to the LSV children’s summer program and new home completion.  The joy of giving leaves you refreshed in a special way!  Other creative ideas to live simply and thus can give to others.

1. Use the money for Fresh Choice, or whatever buffet restaurant you think of, to make your own buffet at home.  Let the kids build a salad, make a burrito, or whatever.  Have a lot of dip and chips.  For the mornings, make your own pancakes and omelet or whatever you were going to have out.  Eggs are cheap, and so is flour.  The costs will not be too much more than usual.
2. How about switching houses with another family for a week?  Let the kids enjoy some new toys, another backyard, Neighborhood Park or whatever.  The kids will enjoy it more than a hotel and the price is right- free.
3. Instead of going to Disneyland, get some healthy DVDs and popcorn, and splurge!  Our kids always complained that we would never sit still to watch a movie at home.  Just offer a DVD every night and stay seated, and I guarantee happy kids!
4. Instead of eating out, buy some chicken and marinate it in hot sauce, and BBQ it at the park.  Bring a Frisbee and play together.   You can also drive a bit farther to a State Park in the woods or beach to hike together.  Some other ideas for small kids are camping in the backyard, going fishing at a local pond or lake, riding bikes on a bikeway, fly kites.  We live within an hour drive of several parks that allow wonderful hiking and camping.
5. Take pictures during the day and look at them together as a family at night.  At the same time take time to look at the LSV website and newsletters.  Read some of the stories together or to the younger kids.  You can look at the LSV video together too, and pray for the kids you see.

Bless you to have a wonderful and meaningful vacation!   And that you and your children will know the joy of helping others!

Yesterday, I walked through our new LSV Kitchen.  Workers are busy tiling the walls on two large rooms.  No, we do not have 2 kitchens.   The Health Department requires us to have one room for preparation of the precooked food, and another for the actual cooking.  In addition to this separation, the preparation room is also divided in 2 parts.  One part is for preparing vegetables and another is for preparing the meat.

The bright rooms have high ceilings and good ventilation.  A hallway leads from the cooking room out to the long distribution counter in our Cafeteria.   You can imagine the wonderful smells, as dishes are carried out, and hungry children and adults served.   Up to 250 people can be seated, and will gaze out of huge glass windows, covering an entire side of the building.  The unique V shaped roof of our Cafeteria, is truly impressive.

As with all our buildings, the Kitchen and Cafeteria building standards exceed the local requirements.  The modern design, and use of quality materials and fixtures, ensure the new LSV will serve our childrens’ children, and beyond.  Your investment will enable us to move into our new home as soon as possible.   Then we can turn on the stoves and invite you dinner!

This March many uncles and aunts who care so much for us that they came all the way to visit us, from USA, Canada, HK, and Australia!  

The LSV Board members came for a meeting and also visited us.  They took us out for a nice dinner and gave us some nice notebooks as gifts. 

Some of our uncles and aunts brought their children and we had a great time playing together!

 

 

The construction of our new home continues but is at a slower pace due to funding.  Besides that we are doing well in school and making good academic progress.  You probably notice that we have grown quite a bit! Our older siblings are either in College or working out of town.  They are becoming independent and contributing as much as they can as good citizens and workers.  We are happy that they come home and visit us sometimes.  Thank you for all your support and blessings!

From LSV children and staff

Last Sunday, our overseas staff was doing some Karaoke singing together.   We sang joyful songs with thankful hearts. When I happened to look behind us, I saw Melanie at her desk.  She was listening and copying down the words.

Melanie

Of all our kids to come and listen, Melanie is the last one I would think of.  This is not because she is unthankful.  The reason is that she has hearing loss and was given a hearing aid at age 11.  However, Melanie often frustrates us by forgetting, or choosing, not to wear her hearing aid.  So, we decided to check her hearing and see if the hearing aid was working properly.

Yesterday, we took Melanie, and several other kids, to Beihai City People’s hospital for various checkups.   We were joyfully surprised when the doctor said Melanie’s hearing is not that bad, and she does not need to wear a hearing aid.  He said there still is a small hole in the inner ear, but her main problem is ear infections.  Her ears and hearing have improved!

Our joy was tempered by some regret.  We realized that Melanie’s resistance to wearing her hearing aid was largely because of discomfort from infections.   Being a shy girl, she had not complained much to us.  If we had asked about her infections, we could have brought her to the doctor earlier.   While most kids complain too much, Melanie complains too little.

Melanie has many things she could complain about.  She has soft bone tumors in her arms and shoulder, and her feet have no toes.  Arriving to LSV in 2001, her records also showed she was mentally “weak”.  However, 8 years later, her grade 8 grades are as good as other Junior High schoolers.  She may be a bit slower walking and catching up than others, but she certainly has a good mind.

So, Melanie does not complain.  She is grateful for to be able to hear, think, and even ride a bike with club feet.  Yes, the tumors are and club feet are still there.  But when Melanie hears our songs, she comes to listen.  She listens and copies down the words, with a thankful heart.

Melanie on Bike

Usually we walk to LSV the same way we drive, along Chaoyang Road, the main road into Nankang.   Recently we tried another route, from the fields in back of our village.

These fields are planted with ‘mushu’, a small bush that is used for starch.  Surrounding the fields are tall, slender Eucalyptus trees, to be later harvested for paper manufacturing.  And past these are endless fields of sugar cane.  Our trail leads to a log bridge over a creek, and up the hill overlooking LSV.

From the corner of the fence, you can see we still have plenty of land.  Our plan shows villas built in this area, overlooking the fields and trees.  This back corner faces west, and the sunsets are very beautiful.   Why not reserve the corner villa now?

From any angle, our Commercial Buildings, Arts Center, and Auditorium are an impressive sight.    Towering above Chaoyang Road, the main artery entering our town, they form our eastern boundary.

On the roof, you can see the length and breadth of the buildings.  The concrete roof will be later covered with the dark blue tiles already on other buildings.   Underneath, the first floor can be divided into many businesses, fronting on the main road.  The second floor can serve as classrooms for our future international school, and other functions as needed.   We hope to have a large bookstore here in the future, complete with reading area and coffee shop!

View from Roof of Commerical Building

The Arts Building and Auditorium are linked together, and also to the Commercial Buildings.  We want to light this as a digital signboard, with pictures and messages about the village.   You can imagine LSV villagers and local people lining up for music concerts and movies in the Auditorium.  And afterwards, many will visit the bookstore, and other shops.

Inside the Commercial Building

With income from our businesses and schools, we hope to become a self-sufficient village.   Our children will find work and training for productive lives here and elsewhere.    Can you picture this glorious sight?   There is plenty of room for your business at LSV.  Come and join us!