Welcome to our Blessing Hands Blog

Thanks for visiting our website and learning about our charity that helps impoverished children stay in school.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Christmas Spirit


  The Christmas Spirit is Here



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Merry Christmas


Christmas Spirit

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Recently I got to worship with the Lexington Chinese Christian Church. Their choir sang beautiful Chinese Christmas music. They are a great family of people and so friendly. I even got to teach their English Sunday School class and eat lunch with them after the service. Yesu (Jesus in Chinese) is very real this time of year.  I listened to Handel's Messiah all the way home in the car, and it has been in my spirit ever since.


I also got in the Christmas spirit when Clark You and Lilly Li, two visiting scholars from China, came to help us with decorating our Christmas tree. They had never decorated a tree and enjoyed it very much.

We also made pizza together also, so they had a lot of new experiences that night. They are good cooks and decorators as you can see from the pictures.  We also went to a musical Christmas program at the First Church of God in Morehead that night. Clark posed with a friend with their huge tree
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Our grandson, Josiah, is old enough to enjoy Christmas this year. He will be the center of attention at our family Christmas tree party.

iGive.com


Christmas shopping online has been fun this year. I have been shopping through  iGive.com which gives a portion of every purchase to Blessing Hands if you register at the 




For a limited time, new members who shop within 45 days of joining will bring an extra $5 donation to Blessing Hands. They let you make a search for the item you want across many merchant sites. You can compare prices and also the % the merchants give to Blessing Hands out of every purchase.


They also have a  iGive search link that will give 2 pennies 
to Blessing Hands every time you search online.


There is a tool bar that you can install that takes you right to search or shopping with one click. Grab the new  iGive Toolbar and make sure you never miss out on a donation when you search the web or shop online.  I've already made $6.62 for our cause in two days.  The service is free and will help many charities this Christmas.


St. Alban's Episcopalian Church's College Group


 
Clark You and I went to talk to the St. Alban's college group about China and Blessing Hands recently. We had a great time sharing pictures and answering questions. Five of them took pen pals and the group will consider sponsoring one of our kids in the future.  We enjoyed the worship service and pizza party as well.

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 We also got to share our mission with the First Church of God of Morehead this year. They are placing us in their mission budget for $500 in support if pledges come in for us.

If anyone wants to invite us to a church or youth group, we would love to share our experiences in China and tell about our Blessing Hands kids.

Blessings to your family this Christmas.


Sincerely,


Betty Cutts

Saturday, December 05, 2009


Happy Holidays from Blessing Hands

    
Christmas Shopping with Goodshop & iGive
 


I want to remind you that you can give to your Christmas list folks and help our Chinese kids at the same time.  

Goodshop.com and 
iGive.com are two portal sites online that allow online purchases started from their page to count toward giving a small percentage of the cost of an item to our kids.

We have registered as a charity. All you have to do is go to their web pages to shop and list us as your preferred charity and shop from their portal with large retailers like Ebay, Best Buy, and Expedia. com. Shop online at over 700 brand name stores and a portion of  your airplane ticket, Christmas gift, or Ebay auction purchase will be donated to Blessing Hands.
China Intern needed



We are looking for a Morehead State University student to be our intern next summer and fall. If you are a junior or sophomore now, you can apply for our $500 grant to go to China next summer for a few weeks in July. 

When you return to Morehead State in the fall, you will be our Blessing Hands representative on campus to help promote our kids' needs with campus talks and activities. 

You can get grade credit as a special problem student or intern depending on your qualifications.  For an application that needs to be sent back by January 11, 2009, call 606 784 4785 or write to Bdcutts@blessing-hands.org 
.
  Volunteer Reports

We ask our college students to do three hours of volunteer service a semester and send us a report. They do many more hours than three. 











Huang Juanhua (黄娟华) works with disabled kids.

I went to the natural history museum to be a 
guide for a  day . When the teacher asked who voluntarily wanted to go,  I  raised up my hand, because I want to exercise my eloquence. After I finished the work, my voice was hoarse, but I think it was very meaningful.
 Xie Meiling 谢 美玲 
     








Last
 term, I went to the Welfare House in Songjiang District to visit the elderly people. We planned to know something about their everyday life, chatting with them and making them less lonely. So we did. Some of them have to lie in bed all days and some are living without any relatives in the world. Seeing their smiles, we couldn't be gladder. 

        I also went to a large local supermarket to do some activities for the purpose of helping some kids in Songjiang before New Year's Day. First we placed a few trees at the entrances of the supermarket. In the trees there were many cards. It's up to the customers to pick up the cards and then donate for our kids. I think it was a creative way and how rewarding it was. I'd like to bless those lovely children and people who are warmhearted.  Tang Hua 唐华

I am very proud of our kids who are becoming Blessing Hands themselves. Please help them stay in school.

This is the season for giving. We hope you will remember our students' needs.

  

Blessings to you and yours this Christmas.

Betty Cutts 
Founder and Director of Blessing Hand
DONATE NOW
Please consider giving food money for our junior high students for next semester. They need extra money so they can have good meals at school. $2.75 will feed a student three meal a day for a week.  You can send a check to Blessing Hands, 106 Timber Lane, Morehead, Ky 40351 or give by cards at the link below.  Get your end of the year tax deduction and help a hungry child.

Give to Lower Middlle School Kids' Food
Thanksgiving







So many students wrote to thank you supporters at Thanksgiving. I have put a few of their letters here without editing.

 
Happy Thanksgiving Day!  Thanks for you have be
en helping me for four years.I feel very happy. I bless you from the bottom of my heart..  Zhang Xuxin 绪新      .

 Happy Thanksgiving!
  Today is a special day, for me, for everyone. I hope my wishes can make you happy.I t is a big holiday,in my heart.  I have been believing it have important mean:there is love, so we thank, love link up us. Zhou Pingping 周萍萍 

    Today  is  a special  day -  Thanksgiving  Day. I  want  to  sincerely  say  thank  you  to  you.  When  I  were  a  high  school  student,  you  have helped  me  for  three  years  and  helped  me  get  through  the  difficult  days. Now,I  am  a  college  student, and  you  still  help  me. I  know you all  work  hard  to  help blessing  hands  students. Thank  you!  And  please  pass  my  appreciation  to  your  partners  and  all  kind  people  that  have  helped  blessing hands!  Su Lingyun  苏凌云
                                                                                                           
   Today is Thanksgiving, thank you for the help has been, thank God I met you, know you I am very happy.Thanksgiving is a disclosure and infiltration dry soul, Thanksgiving is a fire, warm the cold waiting for. Thanksgiving is a lamp, light the lost hope. We should now have all the Thanksgiving and happy life.  Liang Youfen  梁 又分   
              

Sponsors and Donors










 

Now is the time to give to support your special student for the spring semester. You can give by checks sent to Blessing Hands, 106 Timber Lane, Morehead, Ky, 40351or by credit cards online at this link.

High school students need $80 a semester, middle school kids need $35 and primary kids get $15.Contact us if you need to know more about what is needed by your student.

Businesses are encouraged to give before the year is up so they can get a timely tax deduction. We have schools that need new wells and libraries, if you would like to do a special project to benefit many students.

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Blessing Hands Intern Needed From Morehead State University

Blessing Hands Intern Needed


Apply for a Summer Internship in China

Blessing Hands is a Morehead public charity that seeks to help rural children in Guangxi, China stay in school. http://www.blessing-hands.org is our web page and our blog is http://blessinghands.blogspot.com.

We are seeking a Morehead State University student who will be a junior or senior in the fall of 2010 and is interested in visiting China as a Blessing Hands intern next summer. We will give $500 toward your travel with a Morehead group. We are seeking an internationally minded individual who could continue to be an advocate at MSU during the fall semester for the needs of Blessing Hands' students.  Interested students would need to apply by January 11th and be interviewed by a committee of our board.


Our intern would participate in at least one service project benefiting Blessing Hands students while they are in China.  In the fall of 2010 they would be a voice on campus for the needs of Blessing Hands children and an interpreter of Chinese culture. Some campus fund raising may be involved. Arrangement for class credit is possible. 

Interested applicants can contact Betty Cutts for an application at 606 784 4785 or write to bdcutts@blessing-hands.org.

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Recent Letters from College Students


October/ 2009
College Students Report

Thanks to you, we have 11 new Scholarship in the works!


I want to thank all of you who were moved by the needs of our college students and stepped up to help. I have one last challenge to give you.

A sponsor who is out of work has given $100 toward Mo Chunfeng's $500 scholarship. I want to challenge you to match his sacrifice and complete her scholarship.

All it would take would be for four more people giving $100 each or 8 people giving $50 each.  She has recently written again to ask for help. I know some of you have thought about giving, but never did it. Mo Chunfeng's need is your chance to help. This is her letter.
 
My name is Mo Chunfeng, my house is located in a small village. As a child my mother went to town to work, but only eked out a living. Unfortunately, my mother was in a car accident in 2002, and we had to go around the whole family to borrow money to pay for her medical expenses. But my mother was disabled, and my family's little source of income was cut off.  What is undoubtedly worse. is that Dad has always been frail, and my grandmother has been disabled since childhood. 

Now my younger brother is in high school, and our family has put all their hopes on me. I would also like to support my family as soon as possible. I have always had a dream to go to college, but the university tuition fees for our family is undoubtedly out of reach. 

I hope that good people can give me a hand out of love. I would be grateful.

Thanks,  


Mo Chenfeng  莫春凤
 
Featured Students
Huang Zhang Er

.
Dear friend, are you
all right?
Yesterday, I took part in the British charity's Save the Children volunteer training activities. A  total of more than 50 volunteers are involved in the training activities. I am very happy to know so many caring volunteers and friends. They are excellent  and very humble. Yesterday, I trained a total of one and a half hours.  Under the agreement,  in the coming year, in my spare time I will be doing volunteer work.  My job is mainly to teach elementary school kids at Yuxing Primary School some cultural knowledge.  I am very worried because I am afraid I will not be able to teach good. I want to bring them knowledge and happiness..

黄章娥
Zhang Er is fully sponsored

Huang Xuan
 First, thank you for your help.
  Then, I will tell you something about my college life in Changsha.
At the beginning, I couldn't  adapt to the new life here, I often felt homesick. I didn't know what to do. Luckily, I came across a group of lovely people. They're my new classmates.We come from different parts of the country,and we make a new big family here. Now, I have made many friends here. As to me, I just try my best to do everything I will come across.
    Everything here is going well.
    Last, I want to say thank you to you again.

 Huang Xuan
[黄 璇

Xuan is fully sponsored.

Lin Jiafeng
Dear sponsor,
  Thank you very much for helping me in my troubled
time. I am a student at You Jiang Medical College for Nationalities. My name is Lin Jiafeng. I am very grateful for you because you have given me a university  scholarship which is very important for me.
  I am majoring in nursing in Guangxi Province of China. I  have made up my mind to study harder.

Jiafeng was the first student to get a new scholarship this year. She made the highest score in our scholarship process. I am sure she will do well in college.

林.家凤

Jiafeng is fully sponsored.


He Songke
I am He Songke, a student. I am very happy to tell you that I am at college now. I am enrolled in Xia Jiaotong Universty . I like it here, and I like studying here. I know I will learn much after I study here for 4 years.

I want to tell you something. I joined  a club in our school. Its name is 扬帆社。 It helps helpless children very often. I Joined the club because I want to help them in their lives and study. I know what I can do is limited, but I will do as much as I can to help them. And what is more, I want to carry forward the spirit of Blessing
Hands.
何.松珂

The Biology and Ecology Clubs at Morehead State University have chosen to help sponsor Songke. He still needs $50 if you would like to help him top off his scholarship. Give at thislink by credit card.

Report by Abbie, Betty, and Doris of their July China Trip.



     People ask me how many times I have been to China. I have lost count. I will go again before April 30th because my Skymiles expire then. I am always eager to go and see what is happening with our students and friends.

     I am posting a news report that appeared in our local paper after we returned from our last China trip. Abbie Oney and Doris Wells give theirimpressions of the trip along with me.  I will give you a quote here, but you can read the whole article at this  link.  July China Trip 
 
Abbie Oney:  My trip to China has open my eyes to the world and to people that I have the ability to help, knowing that if our situations where switched they would do the same for me.

You can see pictures of our trip at this link. 

Photos of China

             







Yangshuo Fishing Birds


                                        Grandmother Mo
Sacrifice a Few Sodas



For the price of a few soda pops($2.75), our middle school students can eat three meals a day at school for a week. We have 53 middle school kids who need these meals. The price for a semester is $1,930. Through vacation Bible schools and the 5 K Run for Families we have raised $1,054 of the needed money. That just leaves $876so they can all have vegetables and some meat with their daily rice. Help them have a full stomach every day.

You can send your checks to Blessing Hands, 106 Timber Lane, Morehead, KY 40351 or give at this link on our web page. 
   
 Middle School Meals   


Sincerely with Thanks,
 
Betty Cutts

Blessing Hands
106 Timber Lane
Morehead, KY 40351

219 232 8887

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Report of the 5 K Run for Families

sh to receive our emails.

A Beautiful Day for a Run
90 Registered for the Run


We had a great day for a Run and a great course. All the runners seemed to enjoy the day very much. You can hear their comments by watching these videos on Youtube or our Flip Camera Channel or YouTube Channel. Check them out. You might see yourself. Photo are at this address. Photos of the Run

Challenging but didn't kill us.
Two called Emily

A Good Run, a Good Course
Colton Halverson, Winner
Blessing Hands' Table

Gunilla Bowling and Tim Kelly
Daryl and Diana Caskey
Student Runners


Runners waiting at the start line.




The Gamma Phi Beta Sorority volunteered at the run. They did a great job at registration and the food table.




The Huang Family helped at the Blessing Hands display table. We were looking for sponsors for our students and displaying the Yangshuo student art for sale. Clark You, a visiting scholar from China, also helped from beginning to end.




5 K Run for Families Awards

Area businesses gave many great prizes for the leading runners in age and gender categories. Everyone got a chance for a door prize. The overall winner with the fastest time was Colton Halverson. He won a $300 home stereo given by Colorama.




Two teams raised money before the run. The team from the Diagnostic Imaging Department of St. Claire Medical Center raised $1,000 with 23 members. The team captain was Kevin Sharp. They even had their own t-shirts for Team Rad. 













The Maysville Community and Technical College raised $200 with three team members
attending. Thanks goes left to right to faculty member Karen May, student Ellen Brown, and vista worker Hannah Diedrichson.

They raised t
heir money $2.75 at a time with a Sacrifice a Soda Campaign. $2.75, the price of three sodas, will feed one of our lower middle school students three meals a day for a week.


Earl and Diana Caskey with friends at the run. The Caskeys run every day.

Not all the donations and expenses are in yet, but it looks like we will have at least $1,400 to divide. Send in your donations now before we settle the run accounts.

If you have received this newsletter because you registered for the run, we encourage you to remain on our newsletter list. If, however, you are not interested in receiving our regular newsletter, just unsubscribe safely in the line above the header. Our newsletter comes about twice a month and gives news of our kids in China and Blessing Hands events.  Your information has been saved to contact you about the run next time.

Warming Up
Great News

Qin Qiong just got a $500 scholarship given by a Morehead Businessman.
Now she and her sisters can get an education.

This makes 9 new scholarships given through Blessing Hands by sponsors. One student, Mo Zongli, received a scholarship through another Yangshuo charity after his need was advertised by the Yangshuo TV station.


If you are thinking of giving a scholarship,
now is the time to act.


Link to give

Forward this e-mail to
 your friends and family and change a life.


Checks can be sent to

Blessing Hands
106 Timber Lane
Morehead, Kentucky 40351
Phone: 219 232 8887


Ezra Dike, Habitat Director               Jamie Sparks, Physical Education                                                                              Teacher at McBrayer Elementary School and Runner

     
Dustin Coyle, Youth Pastor At First    Bob Grueninger, retired MSU PhD.
Baptist Church and Runner              Teacher and Runner

 
Jan Lewis from C.Roger Lewis Real Estate Agency and also a Runner

Committee Members of the 5 K Run For Families

Thanks Everyone,

Betty Cutts
Twitter with me.
                                        Blessing Hands