Twittering News

In This Issue Sponsor a Child Photos of Primary Students Needing Sponsors Children's Book Valued Volunteers China Trip Clack Mt. Festival Sponsor Haung. Liyuan You can help her care about her future. $30 a year will help her have school supplies. Click below to become her special sponsor. Visit Our Photo Page You can see the Primary students without sponsors at this link. Just e-mail us which child you would like to sponsor. Click to donate $30 to any Primary student. Follow-up Links Website of Blessing Hands Photopages Blog Featured Article Which country's students study the most according to a recent survey of world students? Sponsor Middle School Student.s Zhang Lin Go to this page to see Middle school students who need sponsors. Choose one and e-mail us for details. Middle School students need $70 a year or $35 a semester to help pay for their food. Yangshuo High School students without sponsors are featured in this link. Yi Xianhui needs a sponsor. $160 a year will pay his tuition to high school. $80 a semester will help a Qinzhou high school student continue in school. $100 contributed to the general fund will help students without sponsors. Twittering With News Good News So much has happened lately that I can barely keep up, which you can tell from my lack of newsletters. I want to share with you some results of our May activities and some exciting things to serve you on the horizon. 20 new sponsors have selected kids to support this spring! $61 came from the Pizza Hut promotion - thanks to all of you who ordered pizza with our fund raising vouchers. $778 came in from sales at our Yangshuo Art Show at the Rowan County Arts Center. More came from other special events where we featured only the children's art. Jan Lewis raised support for two of our girls again this year. She loves to run as a fund raiser. She hopes to raise $500 for a college scholarship this fall. Maybe some of you would like to have fund raising runs. Besides Facebook's Causes, Blessing Hands is now onTwitter, a social network that is popular. Twitter me as @bdcutts. Followers are welcomed. We have received a Salesforce grant that will allow us to use their services for free. The list price of this donation is $15,000 a year. Salesforce is a cloud application (using no software locally on a computer) that will let us store information on the internet where it will never be lost. It will also give better service to you donors and sponsors when we get it figured out. Now we have to alert sponsors with an e-mail when they need to give to their special students. With Salesforce the system should be automatic. There is a learning curve so be patient. So far 25 graduating students have sent in essays to apply for $500 college scholarships. We expect at least 25 more. Thanks, Betty Cutts New Book Finished Daring to Dream This is the title and cover of our new children's book. The painting is by a student at Yangshuo Experimental Primary school named Liang Jingying and the painting's title isPeace will be Spread All Over the World. I love the doves they are holding and the bright red sun. Only a farm kid would know that doves have pink eyes. When I saw the unique paintings the Yangshuo students sent for our auction, I thought they cried out to be featured in a book. I didn't want to see them leave when they were sold one by one. I could keep them in a book I thought. Then I met Maggie Decker, an education teacher at Morehead State University. Dr. Decker had a whole class who were writing their own books, and she encouraged me to join them. She has a loving heart and is writing her own book about China. With Maggie's help and encouragement, a prepackaged children's book kit, and the media center at the library, a book was born. So far there are only three copies, but someday I might put it on Amazon Books and let everyone have a chance to read or download it. I want the kids in Yangshuo to see it first. After all it features their pictures, letters, and paintings. It is only 22 pages, but Maggie says I have another book in me, and I can do it next semester too. Valued Volunteers Lilly Wu (吴虹), shown at the right, and Debbie Wang (王芳), visiting scholars at our local Morehead State University, have gone back to Nanning, China. They did so much to help us while they were here. All the scholars have, but Lilly and Debbie have helped us for 9 months tirelessly. They have done translation, helped with planning, given advice, manned display tables, served tea, helped with the auction sales, edited our new children's book, and invited me to classes to talk about Blessing Hands. Debbie Wang is here shown with our postcards made from children's paintings. Without their help, I would never know my mistakes in Chinese culture. They have always patiently taught me and opened doors for our students. I will look forward to seeing them in China this summer. I especially want to thank Lilly Liu Raodong (刘 绕冬), one of our scholarship students majoring in managing records. She has begun to enter our information forms in a program that will help us manage all of our information better. She has saved me hours of work and done it much better than I ever could have since I don't know Chinese. Lilly is in her third year of college and will intern soon. It is such a pleasure to see our students start to give back to Blessing Hands, fulfilling what we modeled for them. Coming to China in July Abby Oney is coming to China. Abby is a college student majoring in Biology at Morehead State University. This will be her first trip overseas. She has helped with two "Pick Me" campaigns and is excited to be going to China with me on July 15th. We plan to meet some supporters in Hong Kong and pick up things for the schools. Crossroads Charity there will give us requested items to carry into China in our suitcases. I will ask for digital cameras and small computers that the kids might be able to use for e-mailing their sponsors and pen pals. Right now it looks like we will be arriving in Guilin on the 18th and staying there a day or two before going to Yangshuo. Doris Wells is also traveling with me this time. Doris is meeting her sponsored student and wants to know the kids she has been seeing as she worked on pen pal cards. She volunteers with us, when she has time. She is a good friend, grandmother of five, and a devoted wife. Most of all we will be interviewing new scholarship students, who hope to find sponsors for their first year of college in the fall of 2009. We already have 25 application on file. We will also visit schools and take a lot of pictures to share with you. Bamboo, one of our scholarship students who is majoring in media, has offered to make a movie with us in China. We will be in Nanning from the evening of the 24th until the 26th and in Qinzhou from the 27th until the afternoon of the 30th. We hope to see many visiting scholars in Nanning. We fly out of Hong Kong on the 31st. If you are a Blessing Hands college scholarship student and have time to have a meal with me while I am in your area, contact me at this e-mail or your Blessing Hands administrator. I hope to have dinners with you in Nanning and Guilin and perhaps Qinzhou and Yangshuo. You all come to the Clack Mountain Festival! 1st Street Saturday, June 6th 9 am until 4 pm. Morehead, KY Come out and enjoy this great music and craft show the first weekend of June. Look for the booth that we will be sharing with Jackie Scott at the Festival. You can see from this picture that she sells beautiful hand made jewelry. We will have Yangshuo art for sale too, especially the student art. (Jackie is on the left in the picture). The festival features folk art, Kentucky crafts, and our own brand of Bluegrass and Country Music. Admission to the street market is free. There is something for kids of all ages. Come enjoy Kentucky culture. You can be the most important person in a student's life. Give now to give them a future. Volunteer so they can be blessed. You will be blessed too. Sincerely, Betty Cutts Blessing Hands p.s. See the side bar to select a student to sponsor.

Checks can be sent to Blessing Hands, 106 Timber Lane, Morehead, KY 40351

Which Country's Students Study the Most?

Survey: Chinese high school students study more.

www.chinaview.cn 2009-03-24

BEIJING, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese high school students have the longest study hours compared to their peers in Japan, the U.S. and the Republic of Korea, a survey conducted by the four countries said.     The survey, released by the China Youth and Children Research Center (CYCRC) on Monday, was jointly conducted with institutions in the four countries in September-October of 2008. It covers nearly 4,000 students in senior high schools and vocational high schools in the four countries.     About 78.3 percent of Chinese students said they spend more than eight hours at school and 56.7 percent said they study at least two more hours each day at home.     By contrast, only 24.7 percent of their peers in the U.S., 20.5percent in Japan and 15.4 percent in Korea study more than two hours after school.     Around 60 percent of all students surveyed said their burden for studies were the heaviest, however, the Japanese felt their burden was the worst with respondents reaching 79.2 percent.     Among the five biggest headaches for young people in the four countries were: over-scheduling ranked first, followed by a monotonous leisure life, unsatisfied appearance, little time for exercise and making friends, and no spare money.     "Moderate study pressure can better drive students to develop, however, too much will squeeze their development space, and can even cause harm to their physical and psychological health," the survey said.     "Balancing their studies and all-round development is a very important task," it said.

Bidding is Almost Over Yangshuo Art Show Rowan County Arts Center at the Old Courthouse 215 Main Street Morehead, Kentucky 40351 606 784 4785 Bidding is Ending Soon The Yangshuo Art Show paintings at the Rowan County Arts center will be sold by this Thursday, April 30th to the highest bidders. You have only a few more days to get your bids in. Just sign up at the registration table for a bidding number and use the number in the bid sheet books. The center is closed on Mondays, but it is open every other afternoon from 12 to 6 p.m. except 2 to 5 p.m. on Sundays. While you are at the show, you can select a pen pal or student to support. If you leave a donation, you can have a post card of the children's art. The Born Again Music CD is also for sale. You can hear a sample of the CD at this link. These Chinese paintings are extra special since they are from our Sister City. You can buy them at a very good price. Come and also enjoy the exhibition by the Rowan County Christian Academy that in the upstairs of the Arts Center this month. They also have some outstanding children's art on display. Christina Oney and Tina Wang both persuaded their mothers to buy them student paintings. You are Invited National Day of Prayer National Day of Prayer Blessing Hands will be involved with the National Day of Prayer on the 7th of July, and we hope you will be taking part in events in your area too. In Morehead there will be several events. We will have a Blessing Hands information table at the Morehead Conference Center before the evening prayer and praise service. Where & When May 7th, 2009 Noon Hour Prayer- Morehead Conference Center. Praying for Our Leaders Prayer Circle & Balloon Launch- 3-4 p.m. on the Old Courthouse Lawn. City-Wide Prayer Walk- 5:30 p.m. Prayer walk begins at the Morehead Conference Center Community Worship Service- 6:30 p m. Join Morehead area believers in worshiping Jesus. Community Prayer Service- 7-9 p.m. 21 New Sponsors April Report We have had a successful month recruiting new sponsors. Gan Shifeng who was featured in our last newsletter got a sponsor as did 14 other lower middle school students. We have a few middle school boys to find sponsors for still. Xu Tainfu (Jack) from Putao Lower Middle School is one of them. He will be a junior three student next year. You can sponsor him for $35 a semester. Use Google Checkout on this link, or give through paypal. If you want a pen pal, we are matching them now too. Over a hundred people signed up for pen pals during our events this month. Just drop us an e-mail if you want a pen pal Event Pictures Thanks is due to all who made our events a success this month. Enjoy the pictures. Three of the visiting Chinese scholars helped us at the Farmer's Christian Academy Bazaar and at the MSU art sale. Thank you Cindy Ye, Faye Zhao, and Debbie Wang for helping our kids. Rhonda Bailey, Director of the Rowan County Arts Center graciously helped in every way with the art show. She was on call when needed and hung most of the paintings. Her advice and support was invaluable. Johnathan Thornsberry works as our intern doing many things, but most of all he made movies that were shown at the art show. His enthusiasm is contagious. The Phi Beta Lamba Business Club helped us with our Blessing Hands table at the MSU student center for two days. They are the ones who signed up all the pen pals with the help of the visiting scholars, Cindy Ye, Lily Wu, Debbie Wang, and Faye Zhao. Mike Rayburn shown on the right, was our enthusiastic recruiter of sponsors during our art reception. We also thank all the volunteers and businesses who gave food for our reception. John Goodwin, the manager of Ponderosa Steak House, sent enough chocolate cake to feed 85 people. Root-A-Bakers Bakery sent cookies. Walmart helped with punch ingredients, and Kroger gave us paper products. We sure thank them . Dr. Yuqiu You and Lilly Wu served Chinese tea to our guests, and Doris Well, Carol Karwatka, Carol Rose, Jackie Scott, and Linda Barker volunteered in the kitchen or tea room. We could not do what we do without all our wonderful volunteers. Most of all we thank all of you who bid on the paintings and attended our show. It is not over yet. Come back and bid one more time. Doris Wells and Wilma Grote are shown at right. Doris is a great volunteer with Blessing Hands. Wilma was one of the first people to open up Morehead to the China. She is the wife of our former university president, Dr. Nelson Grote. They were the ones who first initiated contacts with China and encouraged students to come to Morehead from China.

Thanks from Blessing Hands, Betty Cutts

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