Agape Care Centre

As my workload was gradually shifted from the Alor Gajah campus to the city campus, I had been more present in Melaka town since last year. As God was blessing me with few teaching hours, I thought of using my free time to bless others. Carol remembered my offer to help when the non-governmental organization (NGO) she was involved in was looking for Mandarin-speaking volunteers.

A few weeks ago, I was attending an IT course when my cell phone rang. So I went out from the computer room to answer. When I came back, I was all smiles. KC assumed that it must be from a guy. After I told her the call was from a Christian lady who needed my help to look after children, she could not understand why I was so happy about it. To me, the great joy was that God was opening doors for me to serve another community.

During my MLM class two weeks ago, I confirmed with Carol and Diana to give a hand regularly at the care centre. They especially needed someone on Mondays between 5.30pm-7pm. As my classes ended at 4.30pm, it was perfect for both parties. So last Monday afternoon after I had dismissed my class, I took my time to explore the Tengkera area for my destination. Unlike the Calvary Care Home which is a corner house, Agape Care Centre occupies a middle shop unit.

At the office on the first floor, I met three full-time employees: Siew Hong who had contacted me previously to give directions to the location, Mr Pang and Diana. SH led me to the second floor where I saw several children from five to thirteen years old were either in the living room

or in one of the small rooms.

My task was as simple as to keep an eye at them while their parents, all single mothers, were having devotion with a Christian support group on the ground floor.

I had never really handled children of this age besides my nephew and niece. What did they expect a new "teacher" to do with them at that period of time where the learning mood was generally low?

Gathering them to give a group tuition or to tell them Bible stories?

The answer was : I just let them do their own activities as long as they did not fight or quarrel.

To get myself familiar with the children one by one, I replaced the eldest boy Johanan to play "Carrom" with MQ. The objective of the game that I was just initiated to was to shoot disks into the four corner holes of the board. My fingers were already aching after flicking the heavy "striker" for ten minutes!

Later I also tried to talk to MQ's quiet younger sister who was also hanging around alone with her toys.

It was no surprise that I lost to MQ who was a much better player. So we all put back the stuff and stayed in the living room where the two girls had finished watching the movie "Lu Bing Hua" on DVD. They took guitars from above the book rack and started pulling the strings.

I thought of my conversation during lunch earlier with Vince about his failed inspiration to learn playing the guitar. If he were there, he might be determined again to master this musical instrument to lead this girl band...

When the adults' devotion was over, I was invited to have dinner with them and the children. Some sisters had prepared porridge and several appetizing accompanying dishes voluntarily so that we could sit together to enjoy the ready meal and continue our fellowship instead of rushing back to cook. That was their loving way to bless others.

We care, because of agape.