7 weeks of sewing…
7 weeks of crazy kids…
7 weeks of attempting to teach English…
But most importantly, 7 weeks of being submersed in pure LOVE.
It’s no mistake that this ministry is named after the highest form of love, the love that is selfless, sacrificial, and unconditional: AGAPE LOVE.
Agape Home is an orphanage for kids with HIV, most of who lost their parents to AIDS related diseases and were left with no one to take care of them. Since May 1996 Agape Home has grown to provide a loving family for 100+ children aged 0-21yrs old. These kids are given a home, a family, an education, a foundation in Christ, and most importantly, the love they deserve.
For the past 7 weeks, I have had the privilege of volunteering for Agape Home’s founder, Avis Rideout.
This woman is something else. Avis is 72 years old, but her heart and energy is that of a child. She is simply astounding. Years ago, God called her to open a home like this in Thailand and she obeyed. To this day, she loves each and every child and volunteer at Agape Home fiercely and give all of the glory and success to God.
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My team and I did many things during our time at Agape Home, but most of our hours were spent working in the Life Center. Agape Home partners with another ministry to make shoe boxes full of goodies for kids in an orphanage in Africa. These shoe boxes consist of a jump rope, a school bag, a pencil bag, and a wash cloth all handmade in the Life Center. Most older kids at Agape Home work in the Life Center to earn extra spending money. My team and I spent our days working along side the older kids to make jump ropes, cut fabric, sew bags, and everything in between.
This is where I sat and worked for about 5 hours each day. I became an expert seamstress over these past 7 weeks, as I sewed countless straps for school bags, then the school bags themselves!
Seriously, I mean COUNTLESS straps…
It was very satisfying to see the finished products!
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After lunch every afternoon, we took a break from our jobs in the Life Center to teach English to the kids at Agape Home!
Each day we would have a different worksheet to explain and teach to the kids. We could control them enough to work on this for about 20 minutes, but the rest of our “class” was usually spent drawing or playing hangman!
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Finally, my favorite part of the 7 weeks I spent at Agape Home, THE KIDS!
My team rotated each week to work in the morning arts & crafts class for the 5-10 year olds.
In this class, we would do one craft then play games and sing songs! One day we even got to blow bubbles!
In my one short week working in this class, I fell in love with these kids, ESPECIALLY the twin boys Tannowat and Tannokrit. For the remainder of my time at Agape Home these boys were basically attached to my hip.
At lunch time every single day, they would stand at their tables and wait for me to walk out of the Life Center. As soon as they saw me, they would start to scream my name the whole time I was walking towards the cafeteria. “NAAATAALIIIIIIEEEE” became my favorite sound in the world. I absolutely adore these boys.
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The love I encountered at Agape Home left a tremendous impact on me. It is impossible to walk into that place and see those kids and not be overcome by the presence of love. That love made it’s way into my heart and I will never forget it.
