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I want to share with you the story of Hua. Hua is from a Yao minority family. Her mother and father are gone, but she still lives by the exhortations of her father to study and learn. When I heard about her, she was in great stress because she was unable to afford her second year of college.
When I arranged to meet with her and her family, I found that her three cousins and uncle and aunt, who were both blind, were visiting Hua and her grandmother and brother. Hua was concerned for her three cousins, two primary boys and one lower middle school girl, who also needed help with their schooling.
When I questioned the family, I found that the father once had some sight and could tell his children how to plant vegetables. Their mother was born blind. We all huddled around one heater while I heard the story of their family’s poverty and lack. They were getting some government help, but Hua thought their needs were more important than hers. She wanted us to find sponsors for the three children’s schooling.
I asked Hua to let me make a movie of her explaining her own need for a university sponsor to help her with her tuition. I had to take that movie three times, but she never did stop crying all the way through. The final take out in the sunlight turned out better, and I knew in my spirit that somehow, someway, I would find a sponsor for Hua and her cousins. I told her that God loved her, which was about all I could say in Chinese just then, and hugged her. With those words, I knew that God would do something about Hua, who was more concerned for her relatives than she was for herself.
I put her video on our Youku.com channel as soon as possible and was surprised the next day when one of our sponsors contacted me to sponsor her without me even putting the video link in our newsletter. He just happened on the video and was moved. Hua soon had her scholarship for five more years of college. The sponsor even gave extra to cover her other needs and needs of her family. Her cousins also were sponsored in due season. Here is Hua’s story in her own words.
Her beloved teacher confirmed her story and added that she would come barefoot to school but would stay outside to listen since she could not afford the tuition that had to be paid back then.
Walking on a Long Journey—My Medical Dream
A dismal little room with clay walls, one small table and some tools, a small bed, this was my house when I came to this world. I was born in a poor village, and was sealed with “the poor” when I was born. When I was three years old, my mother got away from my father and me since she could not tolerate the poverty. From then on, my life became more miserable than ever before. In my father’s entire life, he has tried every way to make some money, such as growing grain, beans, working in towns nearby as a porter, but my family still could not get away from the poverty.
I was not able to go to school as my peers because my father could not afford it. I was so envious of those who were able to go to school. Many times I followed far behind them going to the school. Standing against the window of the classroom, I looked into the classroom and listened to the teacher. I so enjoying those moments.
Eventually, my father sent me to the school with a load of corn. I understand that my first class was as significant as that load of corn, even though that school could only offer lessons for the first and second grades. I started doing housework such as doing laundry and cooking before I was able to go to school. I studied diligently, was granted very good points, and won my teachers’ admiration and respect.
When I was in my first grade, my grandmother fell down from a little attic in my house and got injured seriously. It took us a lot to cure my grandmother. In my second grade, my father’s leg was broken by a falling tree when he was logging for a living. That was the most miserable period in my life. My family has entered into heavy debt since then.
When I finished my second grade, I had to go to another school which was five kilometers away from my house. For four years, I had to walk that far to go to school and ate only one meal every day. My father’s leg recovered later. When I was eleven years old, my father became an out-of-town worker in order to save money for my brother and me to go to middle school.
I graduated from elementary school with the highest honors and grades in my county and was accepted by the only key middle school in my county. On my way to the middle school, my father warned me to study hard, that was his only desire on me. Three years later, I graduated from the county key middle school and was accepted into the city key high school. Although the county key high school had offered me wonderful policies, my father insisted that I should go to the city key high school to receive the best education. He was willing to sell everything he had to afford for me to be educated. My father had little education, yet he knew the importance of knowledge. He did not want his daughter to live the same life as he did.
My father passed away when I was a junior in high school, and I lost my only support. He died owing. He worked too hard to take break, which seriously hurt his liver and consequently, his liver function failed.
Fortunately, I got an assistantship with the great help from my head teacher. I finished my study in high school and was accepted by Guangxi Medical University. I have enrolled in a seven-year program of clinical medicine.
I was happy because I realized my father’s dream; meanwhile, I was sad as I did not know how I was going to be am able to afford my study. I was very grateful that I received a college student loan and finished my first year of study. I have applied for another batch of loans for my sophomore year, but the loan I got is not enough to pay my schooling bill. My brother is an apprentice and gets little pay, so he is not able to help me. My two uncles have their families to afford, and it is hard for them to help me. I understand, it is cost to study in medical school, and maybe this major is not suitable considering my economic situation. But I believe. Since I have chosen this way, I am willing to stand on my dream, pursue and realize it.
I wish I could get any help so I could walk further.
Hua
Now let me tell you the rest of the story. She of course got her help from Blessing Hands. After she got a Blessing Hands, Hua was so grateful that she wanted to see me when I and her sponsor came to 藍奕邦 Pong Nan
again. She asked what she could do to help us with the scholarship lunch we planned to have in her city. I asked her to come early and put name tags on all the students and help them wait in the lobby until we could all go up to the banquet room together. She got busy on our qq.com internet group and talked to all the scholarship students online. She made sure they knew where to come for the meal and made a list of who was coming. This was a great help to us since I can’t speak Chinese and needed someone to talk to the students and encourage them to come.
Because of her efforts many more students came to the meal than ever had before. We almost did not have enough room at the huge table we always use. Later she asked if she could be a co-administrator on the qq.com group. I agreed, and she soon had the group in order with people blocked who were not our students and those that were in alphabetical order so I could find them by their Romanized Chinese names. She is our cheerleader spreading news and being a blessing hand to our students in that chat group. I am expecting great things of Hua and so is her sponsor.
Betty Cutts
We ask our students to do 3 hours of volunteer service a semester. I suspect she has done more than that.
