At the end of July there was a Buddhist holiday, so all our Agape kids were home from school. Avis invited everyone to her home for a fun filled family day of fishing, and just hanging out together. We watched movies, playing the guitar, picked coconuts from the tree and feasted on a Thai style BBQ lunch. We even celebrated a special 10 th birthday together! Thank You Mae Avis for your hospitality and sharing your home with all of us… www.nikkisplace.org A place where LOVE is changing the lives of children living with HIV/AIDS in Chiang Mai, Thailand August, 2013 Mothers Day @ Agape The Agape Home is funded entirely by donations and the support of sponsors. YOU can help us care for the needs of our 90+ babies, children and teens by sponsoring a child at just $30AUD/month. Opportunities also exist for sponsoring a family in our Jarawee Village Homes, or sponsoring our Mother Baby Unit. The newsletter of To find out more go to www.nikkisplace.org On Monday the 12 th of August, we celebrated Thai Mothers Day at Agape Home. Mothers Day is a public holiday, and coincides with the much-loved Thai Queen’s birthday. As the Queen was born on a Friday, everyone decorates and dresses in blue (different colours signify different days of the Thai week). At Agape we celebrated with a big party and concert in the Sala – there were blue balloons, decorations, and displays of the children’s best schoolwork. Choirs and bands from both the Jarawee homes and Agape performed well known ‘mothers day’ songs, before we held an acapella singing competition – ‘The Voice’ style! We love to see our kids stretching themselves and having an opportunity to perform, and they love to be ‘out the front’! Finally, each child gave a special, heartfelt blessing to some of our ‘Agape mothers’ – with many tears, memories, smiles and big hugs! Fishing at Mae Avis’ House!
Transcript
At the end of July there was a Buddhist holiday, so all our Agape kids were home from school. Avis invited everyone to her home for a fun filled family day of fishing, and just hanging out together. We watched movies, playing the guitar, picked coconuts from the tree and feasted on a Thai style BBQ lunch. We even celebrated a special 10th birthday together! Thank You Mae Avis for your hospitality and sharing your home with all of us…
www.nikkisplace.org
A place where LOVE is changing the lives of children living with HIV/AIDS in Chiang Mai, Thailand
August, 2013
Mothers Day @ Agape
The Agape Home is funded entirely by donations and the support of sponsors. YOU can help us care for the needs of our 90+ babies, children and teens by sponsoring a child at just
$30AUD/month. Opportunities also exist for sponsoring a family in our Jarawee Village Homes, or sponsoring our Mother Baby Unit.
The newsletter of
To find out more go to www.nikkisplace.org
On Monday the 12th of August, we celebrated Thai Mothers Day at Agape Home. Mothers Day is a public holiday, and coincides with the
much-loved Thai Queen’s birthday. As the Queen was born on a Friday, everyone decorates and dresses in blue (different colours signify different
days of the Thai week). At Agape we celebrated with a big party and concert in the Sala – there were blue balloons, decorations, and displays
of the children’s best schoolwork. Choirs and bands from both the Jarawee homes and Agape performed well known ‘mothers day’ songs, before we held an acapella singing competition – ‘The Voice’ style! We love to see our kids stretching themselves and having an opportunity to
perform, and they love to be ‘out the front’! Finally, each child gave a special, heartfelt blessing to some of our ‘Agape mothers’ – with many tears, memories, smiles and big hugs!
Fishing at Mae Avis’ House!
The Agape Home News August 2013
2
CHANGING THE WORLD one life at a time…
W h y s p o n s o r a c h i l d a t A g a p e H o m e ? …At only $30 USD/month (less than the cost on one cup of coffee per day!), perhaps we should be asking ‘Why not!?’ sponsor a child at Agape Home!
H o w d o e s c h i l d s p o n s o r s h ip w o r k a t A g a p e H o m e ? At Agape Home, you can choose to sponsor an individual child/ren, or Jarawee Village Home (adjacent to Agape) family. Donations can also be directed towards our Mother Baby Unit, Project Lek (aiding families affected by AIDS outside of Agape Home) or to our education future fund. You can find out more about all our projects, and sign up to sponsor via our website – www.nikkisplace.org Child sponsorship occurs on a monthly, quarterly or yearly basis. Sponsors have the opportunity to build a relationship with their sponsor child through writing letters, sending gifts, or even visiting Agape Home! Our children live with us at Agape Home 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, therefore it takes more than one sponsor per child to cover the costs of that child’s daily needs. However, our children highly value their friendships with their sponsors, and LOVE to receive packages from people who love them, think about them and pray for them ALL over the world.
As a sponsor, you will also receive regular updates on your child, and news from Agape Home.
I n t e r n a t i o n a l Su p p o r t N e t w o r k s – ‘ A g ap e A r o u n d T h e W o r l d ’ Agape Home also has a number of support networks and contact for child sponsorship around the world. Currently, our international support networks and contact details are: USA/CANADA/WORLD – [email protected] AUSTRALIA – ‘Agape Home Support Network Inc’ – email [email protected] GERMANY - ‘Nikki’s Freundes’ – [email protected] HOLLAND – ‘Nikki’s Friends’ – [email protected]
On Monday 2nd September, many of our children, nannies and volunteers were blessed to be able to hear Nick Vujicic speak in Chiang Mai. Nick is an Australian who was born without arms or legs, yet travels the world speaking a message of hope, love and purpose into the lives of millions. Although 12,000 people were in attendance on the night, Nick still took the time to personally meet and hug each of our Agape children – and take individual photos! Thankyou Nick for blessing us more than you will ever know.
C h i l d S p o n s o r s h ip a t A g a p e H o m e
Child sponsorship at Agape Home changes lives. Child sponsorship allows us to welcome children who have been abandoned into our Agape family, and care for their physical, social, emotion and spiritual needs on a daily basis. As Agape Home is not a large organisation, sponsors have more freedom to form a relationship with their sponsor child, and actively be involved in their lives. Not only does sponsor correspondence mean so much to our children, we are thankful for mentors and friends for our kids from the world outside of Thailand.
The Agape Home News August 2013
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Agape
News
Saturdays are MUSIC time at Agape Home!
Around
Mother Baby Unit News
This special young woman came to live in our MBU in May this year. She told us she had been longing to be
reunited with her 6 year old son, who remained in Burma, and whom she had not seen since he was a baby.
After much prayer and planning, her son was able to come across the
border and now lives with his mother in the MBU. Whilst still suffering some health issues, he is thriving at Agape, learning to speak Thai and making
many new friends!
New children…
This month we welcomed Jeerasak (10yrs old) and his brother Teerawat (7yrs old) into our Agape family. The
boys have settled into family life in one of our Jarawee homes and are doing
well at school. Both boys are in Grade 1. Please keep them and their
Jarawee family in your prayers.
There is always a reason to celebrate at Agape. Our kids love receiving packages and cards from their sponsors, and there is always ice cream cake too! Here just some of those special Birthday kids from the past month!
MUSIC a t Agape Home
Exciting things are happening in our music room at Agape! Every Saturday morning, our volunteers Jordan, David and Mary give lessons to a growing number of Agape children. Piano, guitar, drums, violin, ukulele, bass – there is definitely a JOYFUL noise being made. Our kids also helped to re-design and re-paint the music room, creating a cool, creative learning space. We love seeing our children learn and grow in their love of music.
THANKYOU to those people who have donated funds towards Agape’s music
program. To find out how you can help
us visit our website.
The Agape Home News August 2013
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Agape Staff News Name: Saranyu Srisong (Mae Bu) Position: Night manager Graduate: Bangkok Institute Theology
Volunteer Focus…. This month we feature our lovely Asta Ashley from the UK. Asta and her husband had been living in Chiang Mai for a few months when she contacted us to see if she could help at Agape Home. Asta is a trained Neo Natal Nurse, and her knowledge, wisdom and humble servant heart
have been a huge blessing to our baby room! We wish Asta and her husband all the best as they leave for South Africa where they will live and raise their family. During June/July we were blessed to have Rebekah Perry and Caitlin McKnight with us from Abilene University in Texas, USA.
From the mouths of babes… The winning Mothers Day Essay, written by Faa (age 15) (English translation):
“I was born in Southern Thailand. My father passed away many years ago and my mother still lives in southern Thailand with my brother. I also have one older brother and a younger sister. My family is not Christian. I always pray for them and hope that they will come to Christ even though they fight me about it all the time. I accepted Christ in 1988, and was baptized in 1990. I graduated from Bangkok institute of Theology in 2002, and then came to Chiang Mai to serve with Hill Tribe people. Praise the Lord that I have come here to serve God at Agape Home. I hope and pray that all of the children will accept Jesus in their hearts, and that they will lead strong lives when they leave Agape.”
Mae Bu has already become a much-loved mentor, friend and colleague to our children, staff and volunteers alike, and we
welcome her to Agape Home.
Every 12th August is Mother’s day in Thailand. It is also the Thai Queen’s birthday. I am so proud of this day because all children will be reminded of their mothers.
A mother is a very special, great woman to give us birth. Agape Home has Mother’s day activities every year. There are exhibitions for mother’s day essays, paintings, poems, and a singing contest. Everybody is very happy to participate in this
special day.
My Mom is very lucky that she gave birth to twins – my sister and I. But it was so hard for her to take care of both her children. I thank my mom bringing me into this world. She raised me until I was 5 years old, then she passed away. Even nowadays I don’t live with my real mom but I never forget all mom’s love from my memory.
I promise you, mom that I will be a good girl for you and this society. I will take good care of myself not be any trouble to other people. Even though I cannot be good all the time, I will try to do my best. I will be your good girl forever.
In the future I will be nice to other people who have no mom as well. I will be a good girl for anyone who raises me, and be good to my brothers and sisters who grow up with me. If my mom were still alive, she would be proud of me, for sure.
I would like to encourage everyone that we should be grateful to whoever looks after us, even if they are not our real parents - they also love us too. Do not disappoint them. We are the future of our nation.
Nothing can compares to mother’s grace. Mom’s love is an encouragement for us. Sometimes we make her cry but she still smiles on us, always.
We should be good girls for our moms forever.
We also said goodbye to a number of volunteers who had been with us for 3 to 6 months. Our current volunteers are Peter, Kelly, and Jordan Worner, David Hughes, and Georgie Standen – all from Australia. We ask you to keep them in your prayers, and join us in praying for suitable volunteers to continue coming forward to serve with us at Agape Home.
Interested in volunteering? Send us an email – [email protected] for more information
The Agape Home News August 2013
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albums for our adoptive kids, sorted out cloths on the third floor for our Samaritans Purse project, fed the babies, worked in our pre school, and then organized fun afternoon activities for the children after school. Some of the girls also had a wonderful experience visiting with our ladies in our Mother and Baby Unit. They were able to sit and talk with these ladies via a translator, hold their hands and paint each other’s nails. We had a prayer time and hearts were really stirred!
Global Leadership Adventures Teams
For more information on bringing a Team to Agape, please email via our website at
www.nikkisplace.org
Maranatha Team Visit
‘Gap Medics’ Team – August ‘13
Maranatha Christian School , VIC, Australia
At the end of June, we had the privilege of hosting a team of over 40 students from Maranatha Christian School in Melbourne, Australia. This Team has been faithfully coming to Agape for well over a decade. The main objective of this group is to 'Build individual " relationships with our kids via a Buddy program. The students make personal cards introducing themselves to their Agape buddies. They had so much fun hanging out together playing soccer, swimming, hockey, table tennis, painting, doing craft activities, sweating it out on the trampoline, riding bikes & just loving one another! The Team also treated the kids to a fun afternoon at the Chiang Mai Night Safari - checking out all the animals, sharing an ice cream and having "ultimate fun" in the play centre. The Team also got their hands dirty here at Agape doing many projects that were much needed and way overdue.
During July and August we have had several Global Leadership Adventures (GLA) Teams serving with us. The various Teams of 17-18 yr olds from France, USA, Canada, New Zealand and Jordan all worked really hard cleaning cots, toys, scrubbing walls, painting our front gate, raking grass (that was more like silage, as its the wet season & things grow so fast!). They also prepared a "no dig garden", did a lot of weeding in our veggie patch, cut cardboard for Mae Jane and her precious photo
Visit from Daryl Flegg, Optometrist, NSW Australia
During July we were blessed to have Daryl Flegg, an optometrist from Bowral, NSW, Australia visit with us. Assisted by his son Alexander, Daryl was able to test most of our children’s eyes, (and some of our nannies too), and arrange glasses for those who need them. We thank Daryl for giving of his time to serve us!
GAP Medics Teams
During August we also had visits from teams from ‘Gap Medics’ – medical students from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Kuwait, and England. These teams were moved and more informed by what they saw at Agape and enjoyed their time with our kids. We are thankful for the diversity of people from all over the world who are brought through our gates each month to experience ‘Agape Love’ firsthand.
The Agape Home News April 2013
Prayer and Praise
Contact Us:
For more information - including sponsorship, and our international support networks, please visit our website at
www.nikkisplace.org
Email: [email protected] Phone: +66 (053) 351 178 +66 (053) 351 177 Postal Address: PO BOX 95, Chiang Mai, 50000, THAILAND Facebook @ www.facebook.com/nikkisplaceagapehome
The Agape Home expresses the love of Christ by providing a loving, caring home for orphaned and relinquished babies and children with or at risk of HIV/AIDS, and encouraging community care of babies and children with or at risk of HIV/AIDS.
• Praise God for being our Provider and Sustainer, and for giving us a place to call ‘home’
• Praise God for everything we have to celebrate at Agape Home
• Praise God for the Teams and visitors who bring great blessing and joy to all at Agape
• Praise God for the children who have been matched to adoptive families. Pray for these families as they wait to meet their child for the first time.
• Praise God for our staff, volunteers and supporters all around the world
• Praise God for Bu, who graduated from Hair dressing college in August. Pray for her future beyond Agape.
• Pray for the health of our children, especially during changes of seasons in weather
• Pray for strength, endurance and unity as we serve together at Agape Home
