Blessing Hands Upcoming Events

Several opportunities for Blessing Hands to find new sponsors for our students have come lately. I hope some of you will be able to come to these events in Morehead and choose a student to sponsor. If you are not in Morehead, you can still sponsor one of our students. See the middle school students on this site. They all need sponsors. $35 a semester makes such a difference to them. The Whole Month of April The Yangshuo Art Show April 1st through the 30th. The most exciting opportunity is our art show that will be at the Rowan County Arts Center for the month of April. The opening reception will be Sunday April, 5th from 1-3 p.m. The Morehead Theatre Group is producing the play Steel Magnolias this weekend, so folks can come to our reception and then attend the play. We also plan to have someone at our BLessing Hands table during the intermission of the play. The art show features art by Yangshuo, China professional and student artists. They have sent paintings to be sold for the benefit of our Blessing Hands kids in Yangshuo. The professional paintings and the student paintings will be in a silent auction for the whole month. Come get some great buys. The student art is so outstanding that we had postcards made of them. We will send you one if you tell us you want one. The professional paintings are by artists who are drawn to Yangshuo by the beautiful scenery to paint. Yangshuo is known all over the world for their beautiful mountains and for the art that is inspired by them. Mayor Li, who is a famous artist in his own right, encouraged the members of the Yangshuo Artist's Association to donate their paintings to our show. He sent two of his own calligraphy pieces and gave us a private tour of his studio. The government of Pubei also contributed to our show by sending several calligraphy scrolls. Luo Xianxin, the government leader there, is very supportive of our scholarship students. He personally found a donor to fund two $500 college scholarships last fall. We invite you to enjoy our show and support our students. There is also a great display upstairs of quilt square art from the local Rowan County Schools, who are Sister Schools with Yangshou Schools. Come see how creative the Yangshuo and Rowan County kids are.

Farmer's Christian Academy Spring Bazaar April 4, 2009 9 a.m to 3 p.m This Saturday is the Spring Bazaar at Farmer's Christian Academy. Blessing Hands has been invited to have an information table. Lesley Tackett is the head teacher at Farmer's Christian Academy. She is very interested in China and hopes to go there someday. Her school is a Sister School to Puyi Primary School in Yangshuo, China. They have sent two boxes of items to their Sister School this year. The schools' Spring Bazaar is Saturday, April 4th from 9 am - 3 pm at the House of Prayer Church, 600 Whispering Oaks Road, Farmers, KY. Vendors will have items to sell, so come on out for a day's adventure if you live in the Morehead area. There will be a restaurant open for breakfast and lunch as well as pony rides and games for kids. Bazaar proceeds will be used to send their seven medal winning students to the International student Convention in Warrensburg, Missouri in May. ADUC ART SALE April 14 and 15th The Phi Beta Lamba business group is hosting a table for Blessing Hands kids at Adron Doran University Center the 14th and 15th of April from 10 am to 2 pm. They will have some of our kids' paintings for sale on the second floor and sponsor and pen pal cards on display. Last year our "Pick Me" campaign was where Johnathan Thornsberry volunteered to help us with movies. This semester he is our film intern. He has recently produced several public service announcements. This is him in the white shirt last April. You can see some of his Blesssing Hands movies at these links. Maybe we will find other volunteers who will help our kids this year. 60 second video 30 second video 16 second video 2 minute video of our New Year Charity Auction Last Month On March 22nd, I was invited to represent Blessing Hands in a community spotlight interview at Cornerstone's Fusion of Music, Faith and Community. Coffee house guests were invited to the Morehead Folk Art Center for fun and fellowship. I had a good time talking about Blessing Hands, and four students got new sponsors. I want to thank the Well Fellowship for their support of our kids.

You Are Invited to the Yangshuo Art Show

Yangshuo Art Show




Blessing Hands invites you to our Yangshuo Art Show in Morehead, KY. It will be at the Rowan County Arts Center during the whole month of April. The center is located at 215 East Main Street in the old Rowan County Courthouse. All of you who are near Morehead come.

The opening reception will be on April 5th from 1:00 - 3:00. The Morehead Theatre Guild is producing the play Steel Magnolias that weekend, so playgoers are especially welcomed to come to our reception before the play begins at 2:00. Their evening shows are on April 2-4 beginning at 8 p.m. The play only cost $8 or $5 for students You can get advance tickets to the play at Coffee Tree Book Store. We hope patrons enjoy our art show during intermissions.

The art show features art by Yangshuo, China professional and student artists. They have sent paintings to be sold for the benefit of our Blessing Hands kids in Yangshuo. The professional paintings will be sold for a set price, but the student paintings will be in a silent auction for the whole month. Come get some great buys. The student art is so outstanding that we had postcards made of them. We will send you one if you want one.

The professional paintings are by artists who are drawn to Yangshuo by the beautiful scenery to paint. Yangshuo is known all over the world for their beautiful mountains and for the art that is inspired by them. Mayor Li, who is a famous artist in his own right, encouraged the members of the Yangshuo Artist's Association to donate their paintings to our show. He sent two of his own calligraphy pieces and gave us a private tour of his studio.

The government of Pubei also contributed to our show by sending several calligraphy scrolls. Luo Xianxin, the government leader there, is very supportive of our scholarship students. He personally found a donor to fund two $500 college scholarships.

We invite you to enjoy our show and support our kids. There is also a great display upstairs of quilt square art from the local Rowan County Schools, who are Sister Schools with Yangshou Schools. Come see how creative all the kids are.

Cherry's Volunteer Report

Subject: Cherry Volunteers at a Primary School

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Cherry Writes about Her Experiences Blessing Others IN THIS ISSUE The Experience of a Volunteer Morehead Silent Auction Dear Sponsors and Friends, It is very rewarding to get letters from our college students and see their progress. I want to share Cherry's (Chen Yanfang) last letter. It shows how our students are giving to others what they once received. I am delighted to see them reaching out to help others. Cherry is in the Mathematics and Computer program at Guangxi Teacher's College in Nanning, China. She is from a rural area of Yangshuo County, China. She saw herself in the children that she helped through her volunteer work. Blessings, Betty Cutts The Experience of a Volunteer My life during the first semester of my sophomore year in Guangxi Teachers College was quite colorful. I've gained a lot of experiences in my personal life and achieved great success on my courses through my hard work. Under the leadership of the Departmental Student Association, we went to the Fensi Elementary School in a small town called ShiKa to practice the activity of "Serving the countryside". The town was located in a mountainous rural area. We packed all our necessities with great excitement and arrived at the destination finally by bus. We came to realize how simple the classrooms are and how eager the kids want to learn. All this made us more determined to bring them hope for tomorrow. We also received a warm welcome from the school's teachers. We not only taught kids knowledge from the textbooks, but also played with them. We sang and danced for them on our first day there, and then played games with them and taught them new songs. We helped them during their night time studies. We taught them math, Chinese and the English language word by word. Unlike some spoiled kids in cities, these kids paid great attention to what we taught. Although their life in the rural area was quite harsh, the kid's desire to learn was very strong. They reminded me of my childhood and brought back the feelings I had when I was in elementary school. We were so close that I felt I was a part of them. I had a great time and learned a lot during our stay. I was reluctant to leave. Although the life there was a little harsh, I enjoyed it and gained a lot experiences. When the time finally came, and we had to say goodbye, we sang together with tears in our eyes. They asked, "When will you be back?" We replied "We will be back. Please study hard and get good scores!". We hugged and waved good-bye finally. It was full of good memories and joyful laughter inside the bus on the way home. I personally received great experiences, and I told myself to study hard and be a good teacher in the future. I want to be a role model for these kids. 义工资料 大二的上学期我在广西师范学院丰富的度过了，在这个学期里我通过自己的努力，在生活上得到很多生活阅历，在学习上，刻苦努力，也得到了不少的成就。在系里面学生会的领导下，我们去了石卡镇风思小学，即我们所谓的"三下乡"活动。去为山区的孩子做义务教育，我们带着行李拿好我们该拿的东西，带着兴奋而又带着希望随着车慢慢开往目的地。 到那里才知道孩子们的简陋的教室和孩子们那求知的目光，让我们更有信心为他们的明天带去希望，老师更是热烈的欢迎我们，与他们在一起的每一天都在学习，在教室里在教室外，我们都围绕着中心给他们知识，教他们学习生活，学习，娱乐。我们第一天为他们表演了唱歌，跳舞，做一些互动游戏，跟着我们的步伐，他们也跟着唱歌跟着学，我们晚上在那里住宿，我们还帮助他们学习，学习数学，语文，英语，我们一个字一个词的教，他们学得很认真，集中注意力，不像大城市里的孩子那样娇生惯养，也许是大山村里的孩子又苦的精神，求知欲更高强，看着他们那求知劲，我深刻体会到当时我读小学时那种感觉，却是那样的真切，那么又感觉，似乎我已经和他们融入一体了。 几天来我都是这样欢乐的过来，收获很多，看到这一群可爱的孩子，真有点舍不得他们，虽然生活有点苦，可苦中作乐，一切都值得了。回来的那天，我们一样的依依不舍，大家都在唱歌，他们哭了，还说："哥哥姐姐，你们什么时候再来啊，我们都想你回来看我们"。我们说"一定会回来看你们的，只要你们好好学习，考出好成绩"。走了，我们拥抱着，挥着手，上了车，一路上只有回忆和笑容，我们收获了很多，并告诉自己，我一定要努力学习，以后要做一个好老师，为孩子们做榜样。 陈艳芳 Morehead Silent Auction We invite our Morehead friends to our Lufei Children's Fund Silent Auction at US Bank this week. The items will be on sale from 9 to 4 in the lobby of the bank all this week until 3:30 on Friday. The student paintings from Yangshuo are also for sale in bins. Come and get a good buy while helping our students with their educational needs. A New Way to Give to the Students Two friends of Blessing Hands' kids have indicated they wanted to give more into the general fund for students who don't have sponsors. Many of our high school students still don't have sponsors. If you would like to give but don't want to be a sponsor, we would love to accommodate you. Sometimes it is just too much of a commitment to be a sponsor, but you don't mind to give to a general fund, or as one person said, the sponsorship is so little money, and we can afford to give more. A way to do this is to set up a automatic bill pay through your bank account. Money would be sent periodically to Blessing Hands without you having to write a check monthly or quarterly. The bank would write the check and send it out to us with no fuss or bother. Just ask your bank to include Blessing Hands in your monthly bills or start an automatic bill pay especially for us. You just give our name and address (Blessing Hands, 106 Timber Lane, Morehead, KY 40351) and how much you want to give every month or quarter. The bank does the rest usually without a charge. You can also just send us a check whenever you want for the general fund. We always need funds for our kids and would expand to include more students if the funds were there. Times are hard right now for many people and in China too. We had to delay sending a wire this time until more funds came in for the spring semester in Yangshuo. We don't want to have to shrink our program next year. We always want to expand and help more kids. These two girls, Wu Yanming and Gan Shuifeng, at Jiulong Lower Middle School are supported from our general fund since they don't have sponsors. QUICK LINKS Visit our Web Home page Contact us Give with Google Checkout on Our Blog You can always give online with a credit card too. Google Checkout lets you give any amount with no fee to us. The donate button is on our blog at this link. If you want to use PayPal, you can use the buttons here to give. $500 College Scholarship $100 General Fund $80 High School Tuition for a Semester $35 Middle School tuition for a semester $15 Primary School School Aid Betty Cutts Blessing Hands