Boundless Love
Boundless Love programs help rural students with opportunities for a hopeful future.
China Service Ventures assistance has enabled rural children from poverty-stricken homes to begin or resume elementary and middle school in Henan Province, China since 2003. In China, these children are identified as “Stay Behind” because their parents sought work in other cities outside the province and were left with grandparents or neighbors.
Continuing one’s education past 13 is an optional, if unlikely prospect. Those who choose to attend high school are compelled to live in dormitories at their own expense — an impossible cost for many rural children.
In cooperation with the local & regional government, CSV worked to make it possible for some. It was a government official who suggested the name “Boundless Love” (Bo Ai) for the intitiative. We found the name descriptive of our programs and inspirational for future vision.
Under the arrangement, CSV would cover room and board as well as text books and other school supplies. The government would subsidize the schooling as tuition-free. Those who showed academic promise and qualified for assistance were enrolled in a scholarship program called “Bo Ai” (boundless love). This was a program not for the elite but was hoped to be the beginning of a wave of hope to lift many on society’s lowest rung.
Central to this program was personal contact with each student and ongoing mentoring, assuring rural students of ongoing friendship and concern, literally, “boundless love.” The expression is now a unique container of successful history of collaboration with Chinese government that may resume someday with the personal components restored.
The simplest picture.
Our logo tells a story. For me, it swells with meaning as I review the history that supports my work today. Its image contains people, intention, and deep sacrifices. The following are excerpted from Charlotte Gronseth’s book, “Boundless Love: Twenty Years of Life-Transforming Service in China, 2000 to 2020” (Outskirts Press, 2023).
China Service Ventures has been committed to fostering mutually enriching relationships between Christian communities in North America and communities in China, including Christian communities
We understand mission in so far as it reaches beyond the boundaries of the church, as held together by the twin poles of confessing the name of Jesus Christ and service to the neighbor. It is our intention to hold these poles together. In so doing, China Service Ventures will always identify itself as a committed group of Christian people who are convinced that witness occurs in and through relationships.”
A blend of word and image, a blur of motion is enscribed in crisp Chinese characters. These name the word service and portray it at the same time, a kneeling figure with a bowl. Holding two founding concepts together, with an invitation.
“Acts of kindness to strangers get noticed, and the servant spirit pervading all these labors raises curiosity. When we are asked why we come so far to serve total strangers, we have the opportunity to tell of the goodness of God who loved the world enough to come among us as a servant.”
The asymmetric concept of service is expressed in Christ’s words—“Not to be served but to serve”— and is beautifully illustrated in CSV’s logo, designed by Mr. Lu Wei. I am again captured by his imaginative simplicity: use of three letters ‘CSV’ to depict a kneeling figure who is offering assistance to someone unseen — a neighbor, or a stranger. Exactly who is not for us to decide or know in advance.
The most natural, effervescent personality.
It all begins with an person. Thinking carefully about the circumstances of our meeting, why was it important that our lives collided— maybe even in hindsight. What special gifts did they offer and what was it like to receive? No human is replaceable and that is why this story must be told. You have people nearby who need to remember their importance, too.
HUANG RUI
“Fostering Understanding & Acceptance while Working Together to Build Community”
Thinking carefully about the circumstances of our meeting, and why was it important that our lives collided, I reflect now on the special gifts our Nancy offered and the irreplaceable talent she exuded on our team.
In 2011, a young woman named Huang Rui attended a China Service Venture “Bo Ai” (Boundless Love) International Youth Camp on Rooster Mountain (Jigongshan) and became a Christian, and since then has dedicated her life to serving children through camping ministries. She became known as Nancy. As fluent speaker of Mandarin, English and Cantonese, Nancy helped to lead many of our China Service Venture “Bo Ai” (Boundless Love) International Youth Camps.
She longed to organize cross-cultural camps along the principles of the Ireland Ulster Project, to put Americans with Chinese in a setting where they could appreciate each other’s history, build relationships and practice mutual understanding.
Currently, Nancy serves as Children’s Director for the Chinese Lutheran Church of Honolulu.
A three-fold program.
It all begins with an idea.
PAUL VARO
MARTINSON
(Nov. 9, 1934 - Aug. 19, 2022)
““ Though our funds are limited, our connections for implementing these things are rich and ever growing. The potential is great.””
Born in Xinyang, China to parents Harold and Charlotte who served among the rural Chinese people as teachers and missionaries, Paul built his own life of service. He wanted a future that would give intergenerational meaning and significance to many lives focusing on children and youth.
Paul’s address to the 2010 Jigongshan International Culture and Tourism seminar (Jan. 15, 2010) was a pivotal moment when the CSV mission gained a public audience within China. Paul was invited to speak in the Great Hall of the People, in Tiananmen Square. The large hall was slowly filling to capacity the shuffling sounds of feet finding their places. Overhead, the soft whir of the air conditioning blended with the quiet over a podium, as Paul articulated the early aims what would become China Service Ventures.
“We are developing a high quality children and youth education program with expert training in language. We expect to see youth from the US and Hong Kong as well as other countries come to Jigongshan for a variety of programs and to engage in cultural exchange with Chinese youth. Retreats and gatherings of many kinds involving people throughout Xinyang, China and internationally, are planned for the future.”
All this now sounds as familiar history to me and I see a thread of continuity that leads from Jigong (“Rooster”) Mountain to where we are now more than a decade later.
Chinese Culture. English Language. International Exchange.
There are elements of Paul’s sketch in the work we pursue today, but credit goes to breadth of imagination that has been a groundswell from our volunteers, board members, and Chinese affiliates. We are indebted to Paul and his wife Ida for their years chiseling the rough contours of our earliest programmatic work.
To learn more about Paul Martinson and his life, click here for additional resources.
His transformation was beautiful.
It all begins with an idea.
DU CHUANLI
Chuanli was born with several developmental disabilities, including complex medical and developmental needs.
“I finally stumbled upon it, a horse ranch that was only rumored to exist.”
I was living in Henan, China and had been searching quite extensively for horses, guided only by the rarest, most vague countryside recollections. But in the process I found someone I hadn’t been searching for: Du Chuanli. He was curious about my arrival, he been hiding nearby the gate at a window where I parked my electric car. Both Chuanli’s parents worked away from home and without local resources for their child’s needs, they had resorted to chaining him to the bed when gone. The chain was just long enough for him to navigate their humble dwelling and to risk a curious glance in my direction.
Disbelief settled in like a heavy weight in my chest upon seeing the chain. Yet almost as quickly a horse galloping over to me indicated a special solution was right beside him.
Horse therapy (aka “equine-assisted therapy”) is especially effective for children with developmental needs, including those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, and other developmental disabilities. Clinical observations support this approach, which yields physical , cognitive , emotional & pyschological and social benefits and provides sensory integration.
We secured permission from his parents to work with their child on a weekly basis. During our time with him, he learned how to ride, shoot archery, and draw using an ipad. We became good friends over a full year, and his photos are my own favorite recollection and wayfinding memory.
In the updates I get, Du Chuanli appears to be smiling and laughing more. Horse therapy was just one way we served the needs of children with special needs.