Kieren Kong（威全）: Andrew & Grace Home

Today we went to Andrew & Grace (AG) home. Many of us went in clueless thinking it was a home for the elderly, but we encountered something starkly different. This was a girls home that housed children that were abused, mentally challenged or delinquents. We were warmly welcomed by the staff and given a presentation and tour by Pastor Adrian. He told us the core values of the centre:

Affirming

Graciousness

Honoring

Optimistic

Magnanimous

Empathetic

 He told us that AG home was founded as a result of Andrew and Grace finding a baby in a trash bin and having their hearts broken. They took the baby in and subsequently also fostered many other children. It started out as a family, but due to the intake of girls, was changed to be an institution. However, recently, AG home aims at returning to its roots - that of family. This means that they celebrate weakness and  vulnerability as it gives the children and them hope to follow Christ because he died for all. The goal of the centre is to serve the kids and to give them a hope and direction in life.

One of the ways action is being taken ion these goals is the formation of the STARS (Students Taking A Radical Stand) academy. This academy was created to equip the kids with people skills, self-care and self-awareness to prepare them for life outside the home and to help them earn an honest living. They were also supported in their endeavours by the sponsors listed below.

 Pastor Adrian shared with us his methodologies of helping the centre transit to one that was more like a daily. He emphasised the need for a continuum of care where the helpers had to ask themselves: What more can I do for the children? What if this girl was your daughter, what would you have done?

 Many of these girls had never experienced a proper family and the love that all children required. As a result, they found 'family' outside of their moral boundaries and ended up in the home. We learnt that no one was beyond hope and that we all required the power of God to help change the girls, because he is all powerful. We also learnt of how God is a gracious God and has provided for the needs of all the workers. We just had to pray and God would do wonders.

He ended off with a few lessons that he shared with his staff which I think is applicable for all of us:

1) Have fun

2) Eat well

3) Don't be foolish.

This whole experience really came as a big shock to me. I had never come into contact with these type of people in society so I was thoroughly shocked when I heard stories of girls doing acts such as stealing or getting pregnant. It was so real for me because it was all true and testified by someone who had been in the field for many years. 

It also forced me to wonder: What gave me the right to be where I am now? It is by the grace of God that I can be worshipping him right now and having this experience. It is scary for me to think that I could have been influenced by birth or circumstances and have been no different from these kids. In a sense, we aren't very different anyway - we are all sinners lost in a sinful world and we both need the grace of God. I do believe in the grace of God and I will continue to pray for these kids and thank God for the immense grace he has had on me thus far.