MSIA minister Stacey Medalyer is serving in China at children’s orphanages. In this interview with eNDH reporter Valerie Peake, Stacey shares about her experiences of China and her service work.

Stacey, I’d love you to tell me about your trip so far and how you came to be in China right now.

It was the end of October 2006. My work contract was going to end just before Christmas and I had the choice to choose what was next. It could have been anything. I wanted an adventure. I wanted something different. And then it just came to me. I decided that I wanted to volunteer my time in a children’s orphanage. A children’s orphanage in China. I had the thought, started researching the Internet and took some action. Pretty much the first orphanage I came across sang to my heart — it felt the right one. Very quickly I was taking all the steps as though I was going to China. On the 22nd November 2006, I confirmed with the Philip Hayden Foundation (PHF) that I would be joining them.

Tim and Pam Baker the founders of PHF asked me to work with their twin sons — Nate and Zack. Tim and Pam adopted the boys from a government orphanage in Hebei China when they were just one. The twins had a pretty rough beginning for their first year in the orphanage. As a result they are really delayed. Tim told me that it can be very difficult living in a country like China with special needs children, but he shared that they are very hopeful for their sons’ future. I agreed that I would assist the boys however I could and it was also agreed that the rest of my time I could be with the other children of the orphanage. PHF have 107 children in their care.

Once I committed to going to China, the miracles began. I was clear I was going to China, but in the beginning I wasn’t sure how I was going to manage financially. I needed quite a bit of money in order to take care of my outgoings in the UK whilst I would be away and also for my time in China. Friends supported me in asking for sponsorship — a huge stretch for me. I was blown away by the response. I was so very blessed. Friends, colleagues, even people I had never met (friends had forwarded my request) dug deep into their pockets and sponsored me. I doubled my target figure and received many blessings along the way. (Once all my expenses have been taken care of, the extra money will go to PHF).

So I arrived in Langfang, China on 23rd February and having been here for two months now, I can certainly say I made the right decision. All the great things that have happened, dealing with a completely new culture, a new environment and being completely outside my comfort zone have brought with them challenges. But, I know that I am blessed and my heart has been so deeply touched so far, that the memories of what I am experiencing will live with me forever.

I am teaching Nate and Zack who are just great. They are so different to each other in every way — physically, emotionally, academically. They are almost 10 years old, but in certain areas are functioning around the age of five or six years old. In the time I’ve been working with them, I’ve seen positive changes with them and my prayer is that this continues. We have definitely shared lots of laughter together. It’s definitely been a huge learning along the way for me as well!!

One of the highlights of my week is when Nate and Zack do their spelling tests and as I mark Zack’s paper and he is getting his words correct, his eyes light up and at the end when he passes (which he is doing pretty well at doing), we exchange a celebratory hug.

There are endless times when the boys say or do things that are just so lovely and during a lesson on nouns, when Zack read a sentence off the whiteboard as “Miss Stacey likes to eat feet” instead of “Miss Stacey likes to eat fruit”, I didn’t think any of us were going to stop laughing. Nate has an amazing imagination and there is never a day that goes past when he doesn’t surprise us with some imaginative story. He also likes to talk like a grown up, so when he suddenly announces he wants a credit card, it doesn’t really come as much of a surprise to us!

I am also teaching Philip, their 5 year old brother. Philip was born with a cleft lip and palate that has been repaired. Philip is learning a lot about classroom rules and boundaries. He too is making steady progress and I love his innocence. With him I am working mainly on his handwriting and math. He is a bright cookie and it warms my heart to watch him grow and grow.

Visiting the orphan homes is just totally amazing. Each home is very different. There are six homes in total, all very different to each other.

There are so many babies and kids that I’ve totally fallen in love with. One is little Heather. To me she is an angel in human form. She is about 28 months old, very tiny, and has a face deformity. It looks like she has been burnt, but she hasn’t. She had a cleft lip and palate that has been repaired. As soon as I go into her house, whatever she is doing, she leaves it and crawls over to me, holds her hands up and wants me to pick her up. Because of the way her face deformity is she has very, very tiny eyes. Nonetheless the love that comes from her eyes almost reduces me to tears of love. One of my most precious times with her was when I sang to her “You are so Beautiful”, and she just looked me in the eyes and then tilted her head. She has the softest, purest energy and I totally love her. I have seriously considered putting her under my coat and bringing her home with me. Fortunately for her, she is currently in the adoption process.

Even though the kids only speak Chinese, I still feel like on the whole we can communicate with one another. One of the kids, Gregg, (who is about 6 years old and has just been fitted with his prosthesis -he had his leg amputated a year or two ago-) and I shared some great times just the other day. I was reading to him in English and he was trying so hard to repeat the words in English. His face erupted in huge smiles every time I cheered or tickled him for saying the words correctly.

Since I have been here I have visited some of China’s sights. Tian’an Men Square, Temple of Heaven, The Forbidden City and a Tibetan Temple have been some of the favorites. I’ve had some great massages. I’m getting used to being constantly stared at by the Chinese people and I can’t quite get used to the spitting that goes on constantly in the street.

However, all of it is part of the amazing journey and ministry I am on and I am blessed beyond measure to be having this experience.

You sound like you’re having a very stimulating and fulfilling time! What is a typical day like for you?

After breakfast, I cycle to school which is just a 3 minute bike ride, but nonetheless a journey I always enjoy. My morning involves teaching Philip on his own, Zack on his own, I read a story to all three boys and teach Zack and Nate a lesson with one of the other teachers. Each morning is very different. However, each morning seems to just fly by. I usually am reminded that it’s lunchtime from 11.30am when Zack reminds me constantly for 30 minutes that it’s nearly 12.00 noon!

I cycle home for an hour lunch break. Food is provided for us at lunchtime — usually rice and vegetables, or Chinese bread or dumplings (I usually make my own food). After eating, I often prepare materials for school on my computer — surf the Internet for worksheets and create worksheets that will suit the boy’s individual needs. I then cycle back to school.

The afternoon session is two hours in which I teach Nate and Zack together and Nate on his own. My afternoons are always fun as this is when Nate and Zack and I have our science / social studies lesson and are either experimenting or being creative.

After school I visit the orphan homes. There are three orphan homes in the compound which I visit three times a week. Twice a week I cycle 4.5 km to the other children’s village where there are three more orphan homes. Whichever site I am at I really just enter a house and see what is presented to me. Sometimes I read with the kids, sometimes I play with toys with them, sometimes I sing with the kids, sometimes I just hold and cuddle and tickle the kids. Each baby / child is different and each house is different so it really does depend. What is the same is that the love I receive in each home is immeasurable and I always leave feeling uplifted and blessed. Sometimes I plant Light columns and I have even called in the Light with the kids. They don’t know what I am doing and that doesn’t matter — what does matter is I know that most of them seem very open to receive the love I have to share. I stay at the orphan homes until early evening when I either walk or cycle back home.

The evenings are very relaxed. Sometimes we go out for dinner and once a week on a Thursday evening we have Fellowship at the house of the founders of the orphanage (which is four doors away from our house). At Fellowship the team gets together and catches up, has dinner and takes time to sing and pray. It’s a nice evening. Each time I leave these evenings being reminded of the importance of prayer. As a result, I have been praying a lot more for myself and really like it!!

What skills do you bring to this?

I feel the skills that I am bringing with me are organizational skills, my knowledge of positive reinforcement — I am working with sticker charts with all three boys – my ability to be consistent and my patience. I guess my main skill which is not really a skill, is that I love kids, so working with the kids and sharing my love really assists me in my teaching and I hope them in their learning.

It’s really a great experience to teach in another country! I am very blessed.

Do you see this as being part of your ministry? If so, in what ways? How is it manifesting?

When I first thought to myself I would like to volunteer my time at an orphanage I wasn’t sure where that thought came from. Might sound funny, but it just literally popped in and before I knew it I was taking action. The way I like to see it is that the thought was actually a calling from God. I’m glad I answered the call!

I do see this very much as being part of my ministry. As I write, what stands out for me most is the part in the ministerial blessing that says “ministering to all regardless of race, creed, color, situation, circumstance or environment”. Some of the babies and kids have severe physical deformities that I’ve heard about and yet have not witnessed in my life. Sometimes it is quite hard to see these little ones with these deformities — for me it’s sometimes hard because I think they are in physical pain — in fact most of them are not in any physical pain. However, what I have been so aware of since being here, is that once I have realized they are not in physical pain and I am just being with the babies or kids, it’s as though their deformities disappear from my sight too. This is what I have always prayed that “ministering to all regardless of” really means. It’s a blessing.

I also feel like this is part of my ministry because I plant Light columns in their homes, call in the Light with them and bless them with the Traveler energy that I hold inside of me.

And in the bigger picture I see being in China — a country in need of a lot of Light — as a great place to be to shine my heart and to share my love with those I come into contact with. Whether I exchange words (which is quite hard to do as I don’t speak Chinese and most Chinese people I have contact with don’t speak English), or I exchange a smile, I hope to be sharing my Light.

From my perspective, you certainly are sharing your Light! I imagine your life in China is very different from what you are used to. Would you like to share anything exciting, challenging, amazing or amusing that you’ve witnessed or experienced lately?

Well, well, well. Where to begin! My life here in China is so very different to what I’m used to in my life back home. The culture, the food, the people, the weather, the environment, the fact that I am living with four other people, that I can speak hardly any of the language, are just some of the differences and there are plenty more!

Something very amusing was that I went into a local convenience store to buy some bottled water. In China you can only drink bottled water, so I bought three bottles of water — six liters in total. I thought it was a little pricey for water, as everything is so cheap here, but because it was still very cheap compared to what I pay back home, I didn’t think too much about it. However, when I got it home and went to use it, something inside told me to smell it first. Well, it certainly didn’t smell like water. It smelled quite toxic! So I decided it would be best not to use it until I could find out what it was. It turned out to be 42% volume wine / liquor!

Another time I was in a Chinese restaurant having dinner with my housemates and we were waiting for our food, a waiter brought a live frog to our table in a net wanting to know if we wanted it to eat! We declined.

An amazing time happened when I was in the House of Peace — one of the orphan homes — and I had about four of the kids surrounding me — two on my knees and the other two right up close and we were playing a really basic game with plastic cups. However, the excitement and smiles on their faces were a beautiful picture and the love that we shared, being so close and intimate, was a time I’ll cherish forever.

Another amazing time was seeing the Chinese acrobatic show in Beijing. There were about 40 children aged from approx 7 — 8 up to 15 — 16. One of the acts was twelve of them on one bicycle doing acrobatics — it was profound and breathtaking.

A recent exciting time was when we celebrated one of my housemates birthday and we ate cake with chopsticks — needless to say the cake was very mushy by the time it reached my mouth!

There are endless amazing times here with the kids and I especially love it when Nate and Zack come into my classroom and ask if they can give me a hug — it’s very precious.

Everything being so different here and completely out of my comfort zone has not caused it to be a challenging time for me. I’ve just used each experience to learn and grow and make it part of my experience being here. What I would say has been the most challenging times here are not having my family and close friends with me. Thank God for email and instant messaging, and although I am entirely grateful for this, it’s not the same at the times that I’ve felt homesick and wanted a big cuddle from one of them. In the time I’ve been here, it has really been a time to evaluate my life and think more about what’s important to me in my life. I am so blessed to have such amazing friends and the most wonderful and supportive family. I knew this before I left England for China, but being here in this environment has given me a deeper appreciation for them.

My diary that I keep each day has captured all of the amazing, exciting, challenging and amusing times I’ve had from day 1 and I know that over the next four weeks of my stay here there will be many, many more to capture and write about.

It makes me think, what’s next for me?