The Making of a New Children's Book by Phil Wong, author of The Little GirlI’m working on a book entitled The Little Girl. It has been a real joy! 
It took a little while to find an illustrator. Janet, a dear friend in our church’s small group, connected us with her family friend, Fenlin. After seeing Fenlin’s portfolio and hearing of her own experiences in China, I felt sure this was God’s provision.Janet was to play another role: Her father, Ching Ru, provided calligraphy of the title in Chinese characters. I sent Fenlin the story and she created 35 rough sketches for the book. Here are two of the roughs, one of the risen Christ holding the baby and one of the father riding off with the baby on the back of his bicycle.
Fenlin has completed the watercolors. The paintings are beautiful! I have enjoyed working with Fenlin, who was very gracious as we went back and forth with ideas for the book.
Through some networking, I met another friend named Joy. She has started to scan the artwork and layout the text. Working with such a dedicated professional is a privilege! If you are looking for a book designer, I highly recommend Joy. It’s a pleasure to see all these different people making their unique contributions to the book! Here's a preview.
The first edition of The Little Girl will be in English. Lord willing, the second edition will be in Chinese. There are some hurdles to overcome to get the book distributed in China. But we are entrusting it to God. We would greatly appreciate your prayers for the project. Find out more about the goals of The Little Girl. If you would like to become part of a grass roots movement to advocate for The Little Girl, please visit our page on advocacy. Looking back, I can see how God orchestrated all the events of my life for his purposes. As a young boy, I experienced a lot of racism. Through those horrible experiences, God planted in me a desire to advocate for the weak, the marginalized and the oppressed. He was teaching me even before I acknowledged him. During my college years, I came to faith in Jesus Christ through the ministry of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship . Racism had left me feeling excluded. I was a stranger and God's people welcomed me. It was a formative time for me as God re-organized my life through the study of his word and the influence of his people. I began to sense that God had a call on my life to make a difference in the world. When my bride, Kristin, and I finished school, we lived in the great city of Shanghai for one year serving as English teachers in two colleges. We were immersed in a rich culture of new friends, the hustle and bustle of city life, new sights and of course, great Chinese food! Little did I know that this experience would be the backdrop for The Little Girl Early on in our relationship, Kristin and I had talked about adopting children. After the blessing of two daughters by birth, we adopted our two sons from Vietnam. We traveled to Vietnam for both adoptions. It was a bittersweet time. What a thrill to finally meet the sons that God had for us! And what agony to come face to face with so many orphans waiting for a family of their very own. It’s interesting to me how sometime the obvious doesn’t become obvious until you experience it first hand. And what became painfully obvious to me was that Kristin and I could not adopt all the orphans of the world. But what we could never do by ourselves, God’s people could do together. I hope as friends read The Little Girl, their hearts will be moved to consider adoption.
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