First meeting with Chongwu –
Last June, the Rainbow Missions short-term service team visited groups of disabled children in China.
The first stop was Angel House (a rehabilitation center in NN). After having a simple lunch with the young disabled youth there, we had to rush to the hospital to visit the other two funded children.
One of them was Zhao Chongwu, who was almost two years old. He was an orphan with severe cerebral palsy. He was hospitalized because of pneumonia and had a low fever. We asked an aunt to take care of him.
At the beginning of last year, one of our colleagues had been lying at home for almost two weeks because of pneumonia. That kind of pain can only be understood if you have experienced it. What’s more, this child has sputum in addition to cerebral palsy, and it attacks several times a day…
We often visit patients in the hospital in Seattle. Relatively speaking, the quality of the overall medical facilities, sanitary equipment, and services in the local hospitals in China is simple and crude, which makes us feel bitterly disappointed and sad.
Chongwu—the abandoned Baby
In May 2017, when Chongwu was only about eight months old, he was sent to the CZ orphanage and rehab center. He was actually abandoned by his parents in a county. At that time, a pedestrian passed by, heard the sound of a baby crying, and reported it to the police. Chongwu was then found in a cardboard box. Apart from the clothes he wore, there was only one note with his birth date.
When he first entered the orphanage, Chongwu was very quiet during the day. He didn’t cry or make trouble and slept after every meal. However, he started crying at night, and caregivers had to take turns holding him all night in their arms! They found that he had symptoms of spasms. When he had a spasm, he was stiff, left eye would pump, both eyes would then roll back, and he would spit milk. Sometimes it happened 5-8 times an hour, each lasting 10-30 seconds. Based on the past experience, they suspected the child had cerebral palsy with epilepsy, so they took him to a nearby hospital for diagnosis and initial treatment.
After two weeks of treatment and observation, Chongwu’s seizures have significantly reduced from when they first began, only 2-3 times a day, 5-10 seconds each time. His mood has become slightly more stable, and the number of cries at night has reduced greatly. His sleep has stabilized but he still often cries in the middle of the night. The staff who takes care of him during the day tries to entertain him and even makes him laugh out loud! In terms of diet, in addition to milk powder, porridge has been slowly added. Now he can also eat some congee and noodles.
Zhao Chongwu –
This past April, Rainbow Missions short-term service team went to visit the children in the orphanage. Their president shared with us more about the story of Chongwu, including how he got this name. In fact, when Chongwu first came there, like some other children, he was sent in by people and had no name. However, the president needs to give each child a name, so she started by choosing from the name list Chinese people usually use. It happens that the first surname is “Zhao”, so Chongwu was surnamed Zhao. Then there already was a child before him called Chongwen, and Chongwu ‘s crying at night was particularly fierce (wu, in Chinese, means a lot of actions and even fighting), so they simply named him Chongwu.
Chongwu is very cute. He is very quiet during the day and often sleeps, but at night, Chongwu is not quiet at all. When we lived in the orphanage, we always heard the sounds of crying children at night. With their physical disabilities and other diseases, the children feel pain and uncomfortable. However, children don’t know how to express their pain; they can only cry. We are thankful for the hard work of the staff who take care of the children at night!
Chongwu is congenitally deficient, his body is weak, and he recovers slowly after sicknesses like pneumonia. If you listen carefully, you can hear he still makes a rustling sound when he breathes, and it is heartbreaking to see.
For the abandoned children, the government provides a meager basic subsidy, but the orphanage still needs other resources to subsidize the children’s living and treatment costs. Chongwu is one of the children funded by Rainbow Missions. We are still eager to find sponsors and intercessors for him.
This month, our short-term service team will visit the children again. If possible, please lend a helping hand by sending your prayers and financial support for those little “angels.” We are trying to provide these children a better future and are sincerely grateful for your loving support.
初見崇武—
去年六月，彩虹工程的短期服務隊走訪國內的殘障孩子。
第一站到安琪的青年中心。在那裡跟年輕的殘障孩子們吃過一頓簡單的午餐，我們就不得不匆匆而別，趕到醫院探望其他兩名資助的孩子。
其中一位是差不多兩歲的趙崇武，他是重度腦癱的孤兒，當時因爲肺炎住院，低燒不斷。我們請了一位阿姨照顧他。
去年初我們的同事也曾因為肺炎在家中躺了差不多兩週。那種辛苦，也只有經歷過了才能體會。更何況這孩子除了腦癱，還有痙攣的毛病，一天要發作好幾次… …
我們在西雅圖也經常有機會前往醫院探望病人；相對而言，國內醫院在整體的醫療設施、衞生設備及服務品質都顯得簡陋粗糙，令我們這些外來訪客感到心寒又心酸。
被棄的嬰兒—
2017年5月，當崇武還只有約八個月大的時候，他被送到CZ兒童福利院。聽說他是在一個縣城被親生父母遺棄的。當時因為行人經過，聽到嬰兒哭聲便報了警，崇武被發現放在一個紙箱內，除了身上穿的衣服，只有一張寫有他的出生年月日的紙條。
剛住進福利院的時候，崇武在白天特別安靜，不哭也不鬧，吃飽就睡；可是一到晚上就開始哭鬧不停，一整夜都要阿姨抱著，根本就不能離手！而且她們發現他有痙攣的症狀，痙攣發作時，他全身僵直，左眼一抽一抽的，眼珠向上翻，伴有吐奶，有時候一個小時發作5-8次，每次持續10-30秒。憑福利院員工的經驗，孩子可能患有腦癱伴有癲癇，於是帶他到附近的中醫學院住院確診及作初步治療。
經過兩個星期的治療和用藥觀察，崇武的癲癇發作比開始時明顯減少了，每天僅發作2-3次，每次5-10秒，情緒也稍微穩定了，晚上哭鬧的次數明顯地減少，上半夜睡眠基本穩定，但是下半夜還會常常哭鬧。白天照顧他的阿姨逗他玩，他還會笑出聲哩！飲食方面，除了奶粉，慢慢也添加了米糊，現在他也能吃點稀粥和麵條。
趙崇武—
今年四月，彩虹工程的短期服務隊又到了福利院，院長跟我們談及崇武的故事。其實崇武初來福利院時，跟其他一些孩子一樣，是被人送進來的，沒有名字。但福利院的負責人需要給他們每人一個名字，於是他們從百家姓開始；他們的百家性的第一個姓氏是「趙」，所以崇武姓趙，又因為之前已經有一名孩子叫崇文，而崇武晚上哭鬧起來特別的兇，所以 就乾脆叫崇武了。
其實崇武的樣子很可愛的，他白天特別的安靜，很多時候都在睡覺，但相對來說，晚上可就不安靜了。我們住在福利院時，晚上縂會聽見孩子的哭聲，因為伴隨著他們身體的殘障，還有其他的疾病，孩子又不會說話，身體不舒服了，就只能不住地哭鬧，實在辛苦了照顧他們的阿姨！
崇武先天不足，身體本來就很弱，肺炎後恢復緩慢，仔細聆聽，他呼吸時仍會發出沙沙的聲音，看見令人心痛。
對於被棄養的孩子，政府也提供了微薄的基本補助金，但福利院仍然需要其他資源補貼孩子們的生活及治療費用。崇武是彩虹工程資助的其中一個孩子，我們仍然逼切地為他尋找資助人與代禱者。
今年六月，我們的短期服務隊又要出發去探望孩子了。倘若可行，請您伸出援手，在禱告與經濟上支援他們。我們深切盼望能夠讓孩子們有更好的未來，衷心感謝您們的關愛。