One Year Old and Happily Running

It was such a pleasure to see Kiki the little girl that lives with her mother and her brother in our team house in Banda Aceh, running around and being an inquisitive child. Kiki has been walking for about two months. I last saw her in October when she was still crawling. When I arrived back in Banda Aceh, we found her not only walking but running and around the house, screaming with joy and laughter.

You see it was a pleasure because Kiki almost wasn’t born into this world. Her conception was a result of the tragedy of the tsunami of 2004. Her mother and brother had to move into the relocation barracks at Camp Mataie near Banda Aceh, as their home was destroyed by the wave. While their Kiki was conceived out of wedlock and almost done away with, our team member Santy was able to intervene in time and convince her mother to continue the pregnancy. Today Kiki is loved by all of us at Asian Children’s Relief Fund. We don’t know what the future holds for her and her family but she does know the love of God through all of us who love her very much. Please continue to pray for Kiki, her brother and her mother.

Mataie Camp moving out

These two, along with the others, will have to move soon. The army is reclaiming the land that the Tsunami victims have been using as an IDP (internally displaced people) barrack.

We hope to help them relocate into the Lhok Nga project in the next month or two.

A wedding and a visit to Mataie

We were privileged to be present at the wedding of our manager (with ACRF) in Banda Aceh, as well as to be able to visit the children at the Mataie Camp.

More work & more workers

For the next few months, an external team from the Philippines will be working together with our team in Banda Aceh. They will be working with the children in ACRF projects in Punge, Lampulo and Paenayong.

Our work in Banda Aceh will be increasing as our kindergarten and after school program will be starting next year. This is for about 250 children in Camp Mataie.