Dorcus’s idea of joining residential home care service stemmed from an orphanage described in a Japanese cartoon back in the 70’s. Her bright smile and majestic voice became her signature here. She loves to take care of children, just like she took care of 4 younger siblings when she was young. In ten years, this “Big Sister” has taken care of dozens of “siblings”, what’s unchanging is love.
Changes in 10 years
Dorcus is a member of the Evangelical Church. She has heard about Evangel Children’s Home (ECH) for a long time. Full of fantasies in her mind on how the main cartoon character grew up strong in the orphanage “Bonnie’s House”, she also hopes to raise up the children in ECH. She became a full-time houseparent after serving as a volunteer. This change was a big challenge to her. Looking back on those 5 years, she said, “There were endless works here.” Working on shifts also distanced her from relatives and friends. She started to question if this job is really suitable for her. She left here and trained handicapped adults in Hong Kong and the Mainland China. After a while, she returned Hong Kong to take of her elderly parents. At the same time, an ex-colleague suggested she rejoined this big family. Since she loves children, she had decided to come back and serve primary school girls again. Another five years gone by.
Unconditional Love
This time, Dorcus found that there were more children with Special Education Needs (SEN). Based on her past experience, she gained new insights into raising up children. In the past, she trained children against her own standards. Now she places more emphasis on discovering the children’s potentials and giving specific instructions. “Schooling is not only about chasing after grades.” She pays more attention to whether the children are trying their best or being sloppy. This change brought her closer to the children. In fact, learning is not limited to the children only. Dorcus realizes that God sent her to serve here so she can grow and change. Through these children, she sees God’s unconditional love. Sometimes she asked God, “Have you also tolerated me like this?”
Giving and Returning Love
Even though the children sometimes exhausted Dorcus physically and mentally, some of their actions also moved her. She remembered when she first came back, there were lots of adaptations and changes. Seeing that she was busy, a quiet girl came to her and said, “Dorcus, I know you are suffering with loads of work”, then the girl went out. Unknowingly, tears ran down her face. Another stubborn girl who could hold a grudge for two hours became friendly with her after two years. Dorcus was curious and asked why, the girl replied: “Because I feel loved, then I can change.” The dialogues with true feelings reflect that the children can feel the care of houseparent and give back, thus healing both parties.
Houseparent Dorcus encounters new challenges every day in face of the children with problems of broken families, special education needs, emotional instability and behavioral issues. In addition to the training in knowledge, skills and experience, she also strives to care for children based on the unchanging love of Christ.
Dorcus realized that God punishes human but He only deals with their behavior, and does not hate that person. When children challenge her, she constantly reminds herself that she may not like their behavior, but everyone is lovable in the image of God. This has become her greatest learning.
