The Story--Their Story

Simply try to imagine.

An 8-year-old boy living in an orphanage in Xi’an, China. He is not an orphan but a son of an ayi there who now lives and is growing up with the children his mother also cares for.

Everyday, he lives among these children who have no family. He eats with them and plays with them but gets to leave the grounds to go to school as “normal” children do.

There is another young boy in that orphanage about the same age who doesn’t have the same life as Kobe. He is an orphan, but one different from many of the children there. No “special needs;” but an orphan nonetheless. He wasn’t entirely alone—his older brother and younger sister had come to the orphanage with him after their parents had died. And, that is where they stayed, not ever even eligible to be adopted because they had at least one living relative.

This boy, CongCong, became a big brother to Kobe and his closest friend as they grew up side by side.

When Kobe left the orphanage to live with his father at their home in Baoji, their hearts hurt. But, every summer, he still came back to the orphanage in Xi’an and joined his brother CongCong until one summer when he was no longer there. He had aged out at about 15 years old and was somewhere on his own.

Years later, Kobe is now a man, a man doing life again with orphans as he works in Xi’an with Bring Me Hope. A few months ago, when he saw an old friend from the orphanage, he heard news that broke his heart. His dear friend CongCong is dying, suffering of acute non-lymph leukemia. Alone. Kobe wrote, “It's just like when you find a lost precious thing but it turns out to be broken.”

Since then, every Saturday he has spent with CongCong. Encouraging him through their Heavenly Father, the only Father CongCong knows, and caring for him. His treatment is expensive, too costly with no guarantees. At last visit, he had 300 yuan in total, the equivalent of under $50.

Kobe knows he cannot do anything to help. But, he can pray. And, he has—though he has struggled to continue to trust through it all.

And so, now, we are joining him, praying with him, holding the arms of Kobe up and holding this young man CongCong up as he prepares to meet His Father who created him.

And, we are asking you to do the same. Pray. For easy breathing. For strength. For the ease and supernatural removal of pain.

Please also consider caring for CongCong in a tangible way. Send him words of love and encouragement; send him messages of hope. Each word will be read and translated to him by Kobe himself. And, consider giving financially even if only a small portion to help him spend his last days differently than he would be spending them otherwise.

Together, we can help CongCong spend his final days knowing that he will not leave this world with no one knowing his name.