We are a team of five (Jose Chan, Angela Gong, Mary Chan, Elissa Lin-Rathe and Susan Tseng) from New York City that God has joined together with a common interest and purpose to love the orphans. In January 2010, we had the privilege to volunteer at Shepherd’s Field Children Village (SFCV) in Wuqing, Tianjin China.

The primary work of PHF (Philip Hayden Foundation) is the establishment of the children's village in China; where they take in at-risk and special-needs orphans, love them, provide them the medical treatment needed to correct their special needs conditions, and work to find loving families to adopt them. Currently, PHC is seeking funds from contributions and grants to begin construction on the vocational school for older orphans, to provide foster care to more than 150 special needs orphans and to provide surgery to 50 orphans with special needs.

About Lucas (Fu Chang Song) ~
Lucas was born on May 26, 2006 and came to Shepherd’s Field Children’s Village from Jiaozuo on 9/1/06. His special needs are cleft lip and palate and deafness. His lip was repaired on 12/2/06 and the palate 4/2/07. He has been evaluated for his deafness and the studies indicated that he needs a cochlear implant. He is a very active and friendly boy and has been in good health.

Team JAMES met Lucas in the House of Blessing at Shepherd’s Field Children’s Village (SFCV) in Tianjin, China (near Beijing) in January 2010. Team JAMES’ mission was to personally engage these special needs orphans and also explore ways to support and partner with the foster home in the future. See the team’s blog at: http://james2010mission.blogspot.com/

During the trip, SFCV workers shared on a number of occasions with Team JAMES a particular need for one of the orphans, named Lucas, who was born deaf. Lucas was assessed to be a candidate for a cochlear implant, but is fast growing up and reaching an age where the implant will no longer be effective in helping him to process sound and learn to speak.

SFCV has already received estimates that the cost of a cochlear implant in China is is between US $25,000-$35,000. They have determined that it would be impractical to start the process of giving Lucas the implant without being able to see him through all of the follow-up, mainly hindered by the cost that is. So the current path for Lucas is to wait to be adopted before getting the implant. But since Lucas will soon be 4 years old and the adoption process in China can now take 3 years or longer.

Will you help us raise sufficient funds for Lucas to obtain his cochlear implants? The earlier he receives the implants, the quicker he will live in the hearing world and be a child who laughs when he hears a funny joke. We feel that God has given us this assignment and even if the funds we raise do not entirely hit the mark, that God will provide a way; perhaps through other teams’ efforts for Lucas similar to ours and bringing it all together. We hope to achieve this target in 2010.

Please help us spread the word by sharing this story and praying! If we could recruit 3,000 people each donating $10 or 600 people each donating $50, we can easily achieve this goal! Your donations will be tax-deductible. Please remember to indicate “LUCAS” in the Designation box when making a donation. Thank you and God bless!