Today's journal is written by our own extraordinary Tam Tong, S.E. Asia director. It is part 1 of this year Tet Store experience. As always If your led to wirte a note of encouragement I will forward it to Tam!
"At first, I did not want to write this journal because I thought that I should have someone from our team do it. And I did assign someone lol. I thought that I would not have much feeling about this event because I have written about it for the past 7 years. But guess what I was wrong. I could not stop myself from writing this journal to share great things I experienced."
|
family of a recipient of heart surgery
|
"This year, we served 200 families from different locations of Da Nang and Quang Nam. Each family will have a budget of 40 USD to spend, but GIBTK will cover 90% of this 40 USD, the family has to cover 10%. The main purpose of this Tet store is to help build up family value. We hope that the parents will be proud of themselves for they can provide this Tet basket for their families."
|
One of the families we had funded a compassion home for
|
"This event was not just for poor families with children under 18 years old in the communities but also for poor families we funded compassion house or heart surgery or orthopedic surgery. Not just helping them to have surgeries, we go beyond to be relational with families through follow-up calls. I did not know that these families were invited until I saw them at the Tet store. This really put a big smile in my heart when I see how much our team cares for them. It is working, the vision that our fearless leader has for this organization, to be relational."
"Among 200 families we served today, there were about 20 families that are difficult families from environment company of Da Nang. I had a chance to talk too few of them. They (both male and female parents) responded back with big smile on their face. They said that this gift would make their Tet time greater. We would not be able to spend this much on Tet because our income is limited, and we have too much to take care of. They thanked us for inviting them back. They left in hurry because they had more streets to clean up but the sincere and happy smile, they left with me will not be fade in my heart. "
|
Happy families returning home in bus we provided
|
"Seeing the families elbowed one another to get back to the buses after the event (buses were donated by some local enterprises), I felt that one more time, this event brought such happiness to disadvantaged families. I can't imagine how many children will go through excitement when they see new clothes, toys and candies and cookies brought back by their parents and how much they will be thankful to their parents. I was in deep thought for a moment and then told myself: It was the right choice to join this journey to serve people. Maybe I am the person who received today because my heart is fulfilled."
Sincerely;
Tam
If you can and feel led to help off set our expenses for this Tet experience it can be done safely at www.givingitbacktokids.org Put Tet store in the comments box.
Thank you!
Be sure to read the team note coming in next couple days
|