AGAPE left us agape

On a sunny afternoon that was June 25th, 2006 we paid a visit to AGAPE – a home for the children of God. The noun AGAPE means the love of God. So apt a name for the house of God, I must say.

AGAPE is run by a kind Pastor – it has two separate wings for both the sexes. The children of this house are those blessed by God, yet unlucky. Unlucky because they were orphans and left to the vagaries of the street; blessed because they had a kind soul in the like of the Pastor to take care of their housing and primary education. We visited the girls’ house on that fateful Sunday and found 16 odd sweet little brats. The oldest of the lot was about fifteen years of age and the youngest was around four. Each of the girls is put up in neighboring schools. After negotiating around a ferocious looking, yet (apparently) harmless dog, we entered the community room that doubled up as the TV room and the drawing room. The kids had just finished their afternoon siesta and were quite charged up. After the initial hiccups, the kids quite swarmed around us like a bee around its hive. Boy, were they glad to see us! We had a helluva time singing and frolicking around and before long came snack time. This was personally one of the most gratifying moments of the day as I was given the honor of leading the prayer before the snack. After more frolicking we got down to business and had a long discussion with the Pastor

We found that, increasingly the Pastor was finding it difficult to fund the higher education of his children. After some calculations, we found that it cost around INR 3000 for sponsoring a girls for her 10th standard education and about INR 2500 likewise for a boy. After taking down some more statistics like these, we were satisfied that AGAPE was indeed a first step for EDUCATE to take…a step that means a long stride in the lives of some of the children we hope to touch

Now came the final part of the day – the goodbyes. I was actually dreading that this would be the most difficult part…but, interestingly I found the kids somewhat indifferent of our leaving. It was then I realized the dearth of hope in the life of these kids. Each one of them – aspiring doctors and teachers – had experienced so much in life that the flame of hope was endangered to the point of darkness. Let us rekindle that flame – let us provide them with what is most important – HOPE; hope of a better future, hope of living their dreams…

Retrospectively - the thought that, I could easily have been that kid at AGAPE pushes me to redouble my commitment for the betterment of their future. As a final word, AGAPE indeed left us agape!