The first love, a promise of life…

The first love, a promise of life…

Dear Friends of Heart of Hope Asian American Hospice Care,

In 2020, the COVID-19 Pandemic burned like a hot flame, leaving indelible scars in the hearts of millions of people. Many fathers, mothers, children and loved ones were in isolated beds wrapped in loneliness, breathing the air of despair and silently saying goodbye to their loved ones. Many lost their love, their jobs and careers, and their happiness and peace of mind in helplessness and hopelessness. At the same time, the Heart of Hope Asian American Hospice Care also experienced the most difficult year since its establishment in 2012.

As the pandemic swept through the country like a tsunami, there were many unpredictable and uncontrollable situations at all levels of the health care system. During the first six months of the outbreak, Heart of Hope was also affected by the outbreak and faced an unprecedented impact on the dropping of patient census and staff shortage, as well as decreased revenue and community donations. Even as the only nonprofit health care organization in the nation focused on providing Asian American hospice services and actively promoting for end-of-life care education in the community with many free-of-charge community services, we had to suspend our most expensive clinical services in order to protect our precious and extremely limited resources. With tears in our eyes, we let go of the hospice department that we had built up over 3,000 days of hard work and dedication.

However, we have not let go of our “hope” and our “heart”, our “heart of hope” for the underserved community!

Although we have suspended clinical services for terminally ill patients, we have expanded our free telephone care and bereavement counseling for critically ill patients and their families, established the Rainbow COVID19 Pandemic Support Hotline, and offered “Pandemic New Normal Life Webinars” to help the impacted community better adapt their emotions for mental health. We provide free-of-charge advance directive & hospice consultation to help patients and families who are panicked by the sudden onset of serious illness find appropriate community resources and referrals to hospice agencies; and expand the end-of-life care volunteer training to provide systematic and professional ongoing training and in-services through virtual meeting for Chinese people in the U.S., North America, and Asia who desires to serve and support serious illness and end-of-life patients and family . We continue to conduct breast & women cancer support group to help cancer survivors connect with, support and encourage each other; and we have provided nearly 3,500 attendees at nearly 60 free health wellbeing and end-of-life care webinars to learn vital knowledge to help others.

At a time when our ministry is at its most staggering and rocky, and our ministry is at its most exhausted and strained, we have received many requests from families and hospitals, and to date, 102 Chinese American patients in the San Francisco Bay Area have requested our hospice services. Each helpless and frightened sobbing on the phone brings up a deep sense of indebtedness in our hearts… that we are unable to provide the medical care to help these suffering lives’ need as they enter the most difficult final stage of their lives. And this sense of indebtedness serves as a constant reminder of the original love that calls us to follow Jesus into the suffering of the very sick and terminally ill…

Heart of Hope’s California Hospice license is currently on voluntary suspension and must be reopened by the end of July next year or we will lose our license to practice. Once we lose our license, we must reapply for a new one. Due to the varying quality of hospice agencies and the many abuses of health care resources in recent years, the state of California is working on a regulation that may be passed next year – a moratorium on licensure for the next few years. Therefore, after prayerfully seeking God’s heart, the board passed a motion to prepare to restart a full range of hospice services no later than April or May of next year. We will need to raise $500,000 to cover the high cost of medical staffing after the resumption of clinical services until we are re- accredited the Federal Medical provider to receive medical reimbursement, which may take about six months to a year to process. Thankfully, God moved the heart of a long-time, loving donor to offer a $250,000 matching opportunity, and we need to raise another $250,000 in the next five months to restart hospice care as planned.

One day, I read a profound story in Luke 8.

On that day, for no apparent reason, Jesus asked the disciples to cross to the other side of the lake. The disciples didn’t know why, but they obediently sailed the boat. As he was going, Jesus fell asleep, and suddenly a storm arose on the lake, and the boat became full of water, and it was very dangerous. The disciples woke him up and said,

“Master, Master, we’re going to drown!” He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm.  “Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples. In fear and amazement, they asked one another, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.”

After the crossing to the lake, Jesus did many miraculous works of love and mercy. For the disciples, the violent storm and roaring waves on the lake was definitely not a fun experience. But Jesus had a plan to bring the disciples to a whole new level of faith and knowledge of Him through the experience on the lake. And it was also through crossing the lake that they had the opportunity to witness the miracles and wonders of love and mercy and power that Jesus performed afterwards.

After I received this insight from God, the challenges that Heart of Hope went through took on a different meaning. God will lead Heart of Hope across the lake, and after the lake, Heart of Hope will experience another page of richness, serving more people with God’s love and mercy. And in the midst of the storm, God is always on board!

Dear friends, we sincerely invite you to join us for an online Thanksgiving gathering, on Saturday November 13th from 2-3pm Pacific time, to hear the many loving stories and sharing of witnesses. They are–

Patients’ families who trusted us and gave us the opportunity to serve.

Coworkers who have worked with us and served the community with great dedication.

They are the friends who have never met us but seem to have known us for a long time from participating in online seminars.

They are the volunteers who have been with us at different stages of our journey and have served the community with us selflessly.

They are you who have been praying for us from far and near, encouraging us and supporting us generously through phone calls and emails.

They are –YOU, who are passionate about life care, eager to learn and give love, and want to know about and be friends with the Heart of Hope Asian American Hospice Care!

~ We invite you to come, accept our thanks, share your expectations of the organization, and give us your blessings! ~

Blanche Weishan Chen, LCSW

The Funder of Heart of Hope Asian American Hospice Care

**The first 200 people who register and actually attend the gathering will be entered into a drawing for a prize which will be held on the spot at the gathering.

Registration link:
https://forms.office.com/r/unGn5HPFxj  

For supporting Heart of Hope Asian American Hospice Care —

• Please send your check payable to HHAAHC.
  You can send the check to
  1879 Lundy Ave, Suite 223, San Jose CA 95131 
• by PayPal, please click the link below 

https://www.paypal.com/donate/?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=E5QGTRPF5EZE6

If you have questions, please feel free to contact us at 408-986-8584