Malone Service Learning - China

By Kimberly: Today we left the New Hope Foundation and it was bittersweet. I wish we would have been able to spend more time there, but it was time to move on to the rest of our trip. After that, we went to the Great Wall and the Beijing Olympic Park. Out of the whole day, I would say the Great Wall was my favorite. Even though it felt like I was hiking for many hours, it was worth seeing something that most individuals will never get to see in their lifetime.

Possible titles: Cold shower Count your blessings Ever willingly take a cold shower? Probably not, after all why would you? When you can take a hot one instead. Much more comfortable. When we arrived in the yurts yesterday, we tried out the hot water to no avail. I decided to skip my daily shower to avoid the discomfort. I experienced said discomfort while in Guatemala, and wanted to hold off on reliving that moment. The girls who did brave the cold shivered the night away in the frigid yurt. There is nothing quite like a cold shower. We spent our day playing with kids today at an orphanage. One in particular caught my heart. Shroger. If I wasn't living off an intern salary and living with two other college girls, that little guy would be on the flight home with me. I absolutely fell in love. After spending the day with my little buddy I certainly needed a shower. He took me into the sand box so I had sand everywhere. I couldn't skip a shower another day, for my sake and the s...

By Kelsey: May 13, 2014 We all had a beautiful day today visiting the zoo with the children we met earlier at Shining Star. Each child seems to have found a place in our hearts which made parting with them rather difficult. I found myself growing quite attached to the oldest boy of our group, a boy aged nine named TaoTao. Within a few minutes of our trip he informed me that today was Elephant's birthday and there would be a party for him at the zoo. TaoTao knows such things and we don't question him as about it-we just take him for his word. As a result when we showed up elephant had a full group of us singing him happy birthday. I think it was TaoTao's favorite part of the trip. For the rest of us our highlight was seeing the zoo's pandas. What an experience. I have been very impressed so far with Shining Star and their attitude towards the children. Rather than coddling the kids and making them dependent, Shining Star is focused on teaching them...

By Dr. Welling: Dear family and friends, The mission of Malone University states in part that we prepare our students to serve "the church, community, and world." Our students surely embodied Malone's mission as they served Mifan Mama at the organization's warehouse today. Mifan Mama collects clothing, furniture, and other goods on behalf of regional orphanages. Today we sorted new and used clothes and moved boxes and other items at the warehouse for nearly 6 hours. We were well synchronized as we sorted, counted, and packaged hundreds of items.  Dr. Chen and I were very pleased with our students' efforts, as was our service partner. Our eight team members would certainly have kept working had our ride to the subway station not arrived. After a brief respite, we finished the day with a time of debriefing over a Chinese meal -- shared family style -- and Magnum ice cream bars. Although imported from Belgium, I first enjoyed this sweet treat when Dr. Chen and I la...

[caption id="attachment_326" align="alignnone" width="225"] Moore Memorial Church[/caption] By Kate: Hello friends and family, Amidst the rain and smog, so far we have all been finding Shanghai to be an amazing and exciting city. Much to our amusement, we have discovered that the natives feel the same way towards us. Before leaving for this trip, Dong-hai and Jacci had warned Casey and I that we would be an instant hit because of her being blonde, and me being a red-head. They were absolutely correct! Today our group visited the Pearl Tower in Pudong province and found ourselves to be the targets of their many cameras. I now have a fonder appreciation for the lives that zoo animals live in their display cages... Nevertheless, we all thoroughly enjoyed our moments as celebrities today. With every line we waited in we were gleefully beckoned to join people for their keep-sake photos of a random westerner. I kid you not, Casey and I probably posed for about ...