My name is Ethan Chang Fix, and I’m a local resident and student from Bellevue Christian. Last summer I went with my brother, Andrew, and my mom, Olivia, to work at Bethany Children’s Home (BCH) for two weeks as part of a church volunteer mission trip. This summer we are returning with a team of 25 teenagers and adults from the Evangelical Chinese Church.

For those who don’t know, BCH is an institutional home for foster children in the Muhza District of Taipei, Taiwan. There are five sets of foster parents living inside the institution, with each set caring for 3 to 5 foster children. Some of these children have been shuffled around to up to twenty homes before arriving at BCH. Each time they move, their internal trauma increases. Often it is hard to tell from their outward appearance that they have been traumatized, but when you get to know them, the signs are quite evident. Many of them are mentally and/or physically behind in development for their age. These children have experienced physical or sexual abuse, starvation, fetal drug abuse, abandonment, and other issues.

For this mission, we were required to participate in a 15-hour training program that taught us about the different traumas these children may have suffered, how these traumas may manifest in certain behaviors, and how we needed to act to best interact with them. The goal of that first mission trip was to create a two-week summer program for these children that could bring some much-needed happiness into their lives. Each time a child smiled, it felt like a victory.

Many of our friends and neighbors know that helping foster children has been a cause that has been especially important to me. In the past, my friends and I have raised over $10,000 for a nonprofit organization called Treehouse. Treehouse is based in Seattle and helps foster children in Washington state by providing them with clothes, toys, tutoring, and mentoring. You may ask why I have been dedicated to helping foster kids. Losing our father at an early age was a difficult experience for my brother and me. I cannot imagine the traumas these young foster children have endured. My brother and I have been incredibly lucky to have an AMAZING mom, grandparents, uncles, aunts, extended family, West Bellevue residents, and fellow students at Bellevue Christian who have loved and supported us. Our faith also gives us strength, courage, and hope.

As a mission team member, it is always our hope to help change the lives of the children we work with. We went into last summer’s mission with that goal in mind. As we reflect on our three weeks in Taiwan and unpack our feelings from that trip, I realize being a part of a mission trip has made a significant impact on me. I learned and improved on so many skills—namely developing and creating summer camp curriculum and then implementing and teaching that curriculum to school-age children.

I had no idea how hard it is to teach! Speaking in front of large audiences, whether it is to share my testimony or lead a lesson, put me outside my comfort zone but increased my confidence and my public speaking abilities. Being in Taiwan, speaking in Mandarin, learning about Taiwanese culture, eating delicious Chinese food, and meeting such warm-hearted Taiwanese people was a culturally rewarding experience. Most importantly, being part of this mission has given me a sense of gratitude for all the blessings in my life and a drive to continue to work hard for foster children who have struggled and endured so much.

For my brother, Andrew, preparing and working at BCH last summer has deeply impacted him and reshaped his life plan. As he studied the various types of traumas these foster children have undergone and spent two weeks interacting and playing with them, he felt a growing empathy and need inside of him to try to make these children happier. Working with the BCH children and taking psychology classes this year in college made him decide to become a pediatric psychologist.

We plan to return to BCH again this summer with our church mission team and hope to continue to be a positive change factor in the lives of foster children. By writing this letter, we hope to instill in West Bellevue residents and students at Bellevue Christian the need to support foster children, both locally and globally. If you would like to donate to help foster children, you can donate to support our mission trip this summer via their webpage by scanning the QR code or visiting: eccseattle.org/en/give/ (noting that the donation is for the Taiwan Mission Trip 2024), or you can donate to support local foster children in Washington state at Treehouse via treehouseforkids.org.

Sincerely,

Ethan Chang Fix (Bellevue Christian School ’25) and Andrew Chang Fix (Bellevue Christian School ’23)