Taiwan Church News
3177 Edition
January 14-20, 2013
Church Ministry News

Reported by Lin Yi-ying

Written by Lydia Ma

A thanksgiving dinner was organized by Garden of Mercy Foundation on the ev儲存ening of January 11, 2013, to thank and highlight foster parents who generously opened their homes and took care of babies affected by AIDS. The dinner included an award ceremony for these parents. Garden of Mercy Foundation is an organization that raises public awareness on AIDS while also helping and caring for AIDS patients.

Garden of Mercy Foundation CEO Chang Li-shu said that recent pregnancy screenings and preventive measures had been very effective in combating AIDS among newborns. For this reason, the foundation will partner with Taipei City’s Department of Social Welfare in the near future and shift its focus to taking care of infants under 18 months of age from marginalized families. She urged parishioners from all churches to support the organization financially and to become volunteers by taking part in Garden of Mercy’s weekend foster parents program so that little kids can receive better care and spend time with loving families.

Volunteers who won this year’s awards included Rev. Cheng Ying-er from Yi-Kuang Presbyterian Church and Dr. Michaelis Christoffel Dippenaar from Taiwan Theological College and Seminary. Both of them had opened their homes to become foster parents for babies with AIDS. Cheng Ying-er was also asked to preach the message at the banquet and he referenced Matthew 25:35-40 to say that being a weekend foster parent was fulfilling the biblical command of “serving the least of these brothers and sisters as serving the Lord”.

Sharing some of his experience as a weekend foster parent, Cheng said, “Every weekend in the past year, I’ve had a little girl come to my home. When the case came to a close and it was time to say good-bye, my family’s hearts ached. We wondered how Hsiao-Tzu will turn out and whether she will be alright with new foster parents. However, we can only entrust her to God.” Cheng appeared emotional as he shared his experiences and underscored that his family had learned to take care for a little child whose future seemed hopeless because of AIDS and filled that little child’s life with love and hope.

Because of the rise of drug addicts sharing a common needle since 2003, there was an increase in the number of pregnant women who gave birth to babies feared to be HIV-positive. Garden of Mercy Foundation established a care center for these babies a few years ago and took care of some of these babies. The foundation said that babies who began treatment within the first 6 weeks of life were able to decrease their chances of contracting AIDS from 40% to 1%. There are currently 29 confirmed cases of babies with AIDS. Of these 29 babies, 3 have died and 1 has been adopted. The foundation currently runs an adult care center and an infant care center and its ministries require an annual budget of NT$12 million. Churches wishing to donate or find out more about the Garden of Mercy Foundation can call (02) 2370-3579.