Hope and grace

The past few months have brought about two parallel monumental occasions for the Agape Asia childcare and welfare program.  Agape Asia has built its ministry model on taking care of abandoned and vulnerable children in Asia since 1997.  2022 has seen the culmination and success of two of our longest sponsored children, Hope and Grace.

In many ways these two young women are similar in story, but in just as many ways they have very different stories.  Hope has been sponsored initially by one family, Kevin and Christy and later Jeff and Phyllis, that developed into about 10 additional sponsors to get her across a timeline to independence, while Grace has primarily been sponsored by a single family, David and Suzanne.
 
Hope was admitted to our sponsorship program in what we now call our Foster Care Program near Xi’an, in 2006.  Grace lived for many years in our Refuge of Grace Care Center in Wuxi.  Both had been abandoned or vulnerable in some way, but both found love and acceptance in different ways from Agape Asia and their sponsors.  They actually met for the first time in Searcy, Arkansas, when they both arrived to attend Harding University in the fall of 2018.  At the time Grace was 18 years old and Hope was 21. 
 
Now four plus years later, they both have graduated from Harding University.  They only went home to China once in four years, albeit Covid was the primary reason their travel was restricted as much as it was.  They both excelled at their studies, made lots of friends, was tested positive with Covid, and have been the epitome of hope and grace! Grace majored in Finance and Hope majored in Education.
 
Even though Hope and Grace have both aged out of our Agape Asia care, and because of the political and world health environments, they have each decided to continue their lives here for a little while longer. The option of staying longer to get “Occupational Practical Experience,” or OPT, enabled them to have their Educational Visa’s extended. Hope and Grace each have found jobs in their respective fields. Because they are now gainfully employed, they have each chosen to enroll in graduate school to continue their education on their own!
 
They both came into the program as young children abandoned and vulnerable, and have lived to tell others about how God has cared for them physically, socially, financially, and spiritually changing the trajectory of their lives!
 
The stories of these two now young adult women are just a glimpse of what Agape Asia and our wonderful ministry partners and sponsors can do when we rely on God to take of their own.
 
Praise God for his love and care for these daughters of Agape Asia.
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