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Category Archives: The Children

Fall 2022 Update: Jan Swensen and Jim Ice Visit Angels’ Place

In October, James Connection Executive Director Jan Swensen and Board Member Jim Ice traveled to Angels’ Place. These regular trips have several goals that center around maintaining a safe, healthy, and nurturing life for the children. They both kept a full schedule during their week-long stay, and their activities included: meeting with the children; meeting with the staff in order to review operations, programs, and financial management of Angels’ Place; reviewing the educational progress of the children and their medical care; and assessing the facilities for maintenance and capital needs.

Jan had a special intention for this trip, which was to meet with some of the recent graduates of Angels’ Place, and his report underscores one of our most important goals for our work. Angels’ Place exists not only to take care of the children but also to prepare them for their lives as adults. Jan’s report contains many heartwarming stories of how these precious children have grown into young adults who are making their way in the world. As for Jim, he has been working for several years on developing the vocational programs at Angels’ Place. During this trip, he devoted significant time to reviewing curriculum, mentorship, and facilities. He is pleased to report substantial growth in the program – another effort to ensure that the children become productive and self-sufficient when they enter adulthood. To read the full reports, click the links at the end of this article.

By both accounts, the children are doing well and the staff at Angels’ Place are providing good care for them. Please see Jan’s and Jim’s summary reports below for more detail. We thank you for your ongoing support, for you have made Angels’ Place a nurturing home where children can count on a brighter future - one that they would not have had without you.

Read Jan's full report

Read Jim's full report

Sponsor News: Staying in touch after Angels’ Place

Second grade teacher Ann Smith and systems analyst Todd Smith have made room in their family for many children at Angels' Place, but the first one - Chinsanglem - holds that special place.

By: Leslie Swensen

Most of our sponsors choose to pay monthly by credit card and, inevitably, that credit card expires giving me the opportunity to contact that sponsor. Often that contact results in gratifying testimony. Such was the case recently when I talked to Ann Smith of Scott Depot, West Virginia.

Ann and husband Todd have been sponsors since 2008 when they learned about Angels’ Place from a presentation at Pine Grove Church of Christ. They have sponsored four boys through the years and graciously welcome a new child each time we ask.

When I asked Ann if we could count on their ongoing support of the children at Angels’ Place she responded, “We absolutely will continue to support the wonderful work you do. I’m in frequent contact with our first child, now a man, through Facebook. He loves that he is the first person to tell me Happy Mother’s Day due to the time difference.” He also provides practical advice: “When I was stung by a hornet, he was the first to offer an Indian homeopathic pain alleviation and it worked.”

Chinsanglem was ten years old when he came to Angels’ Place in 2006. He studied hard and qualified to attend Rayburn College for grades 11 and 12. Because he got a late start at school, he was 21 when he finished grade 12. He left Angels’ Place in 2017 to study at the Imphal School of Preaching and then to study hospitality at Imphal University. Upon his graduation, he found a job in retail sales. He supported himself and helped his siblings as well.

“When the pandemic hit, we saw how bad it was in India. I had to ask – he wouldn’t volunteer – but he lost his job in retail when everything closed,” said Ann. “I asked him if he was okay for food and money. He assured me that he was. He had enough beans and rice for a week and one week’s salary saved.” When the Smiths offered to send him money “he adamantly refused, saying we had given him enough when he was at the home as a child, that he was an adult who could figure it out, and …. he had plenty of beans and rice.”

Eventually and at their insistence, Chinsanglem accepted help from the Smiths until “he told us he had gotten a job and didn’t need it. I was humbled that he waved off the money as soon as he had a job.”

“He’s working again in retail, I believe. I’m not sure how their system works, but I do know that the work you do at Angels’ Place gave him far more opportunities for his future than he ever would have had. We are thrilled to be a part of this work!” says Ann.

James Connection committee member Jim Fields noted, “As I listen to Ann’s story, I am obviously struck by her love for Chinsanglem and by his desire to be self-supporting.  But I am also struck by something else! Angels’ Place does so much more for the children than provide food and a place to sleep; they promote Christian values like honesty, hard work and integrity.  Chinsanglem is certainly a shining example of that!”

Many sponsors tell us they wish they could maintain relationships with their sponsored child after he or she leaves Angels’ Place. With improved access to social media around the world staying in touch becomes a real possibility now. Although the James Connection cannot facilitate that ongoing communication, sponsors are free to invite it themselves. Simply include your social media information in the letters to your child and he or she can reach out to you when they are able to if they so desire.

Says Ann, “I won't forget the first time we used FB Messenger to video chat.  He and I both cried buckets.  He is on my FB background with my son and grandsons.  He is a part of our family and always will be.”

REMINDER: Letters are due postmarked by August 1. Please write to your child today!

“We are so grateful here!”

Kids smile in gratitude for the gift of new art supplies!

We are pleased to report all children are doing well despite an outbreak in November when 18 children tested positive for Covid-19. These children were immediately isolated, received medical attention, and are now back to enjoying all the opportunities available at Angels' Place. If you want to learn more about the outbreak, read the most recent message from our Executive Director, Jan Swensen.

And now, an update from Miss Sangi, Career Coordinator at Angels' Place...

Greetings from Angels’ Place! We are delighted to share the overall progress and activities that have taken place here in Angels' Place. As we all know, schools and many institutions have been closed due to the pandemic. This situation has affected the learning of the children in many ways, especially for children who can't afford the digital resources to stay connected. We are extremely grateful here that the children at Angels’ Place are able to read, write, learn, and do their assignments with the help of the supervisors. Things are returning to normal slowly. Children in many grades have resumed classes on alternate days, and consultation classes have begun for the children of classes 11 and 12. The schools continue to follow the Covid protocols of masking, using hand sanitizer, and social distancing.

We are delighted to report on a number of activities that are providing enrichment and growth for the children.

Online Painting Class: Mrs Smriti Ahuja, an alumni of National Institute of Design, continues to provide an online painting class called “Healing with paint” for children below the age of 12. They have the class once per week, for two hours every Thursday, where they learn the different techniques of painting. Currently, they are learning to paint different forms and shapes in a flower arrangement, and every week they spend at least one hour painting practicing their flower painting. They enjoy the experience, and at the same time their English vocabulary has increased by learning new words every day through their painting.

Letter Writing: The children received their letter in September, and supervisors helped them while they write their letters responding to their sponsors. The letter writing was organised on different days by class level, to avoid any chaos and mistakes from the children. For the younger children who were unable to read and write, a the supervisors assisted them in translation.

Awareness on Body Safety: Many studies indicate an increase in violent and child sexual abuse during the lockdown. To make sure that the children are aware of their safety rules a session on 'Body safety rules' has been conducted by Ms Sangi on September 15, starting with children from class 6 and below.

Counseling sessions were held for children who need counseling support. The counseling included both one-on-one sessions and, for children who face the same difficulties, group sessions.

Special Learning and Health Opportunities: Angels’ Place hosted a learning event on Anti-Malaria Day, targeting those in class 10 and above, and also a session on alcohol addiction for children ages 13-17.

Sewing/Tailoring: Children who learned sewing were improving day by day. For now, they started learning how to sew simple tops of their own and from this month they will be stitching a dress for children who were above class five under the guidance of their instructor Ms Donnem.

Thank you for everything you do to make this all possible. We could not do it without you.

~ Miss Sangi

A Special Thanksgiving Message

Dear James Connection Community:

In the season of Thanksgiving every year we send this heartfelt thank you to you for supporting the James Connection’s work to provide food, clothing, shelter and Christian love at Angels’ Place – home to 160 orphans in rural, northeast India. Given Covid-19, our thanks abound.

We could not be more proud of the way our staff managed life at Angels’ Place throughout the pandemic. From the time the Indian government closed group homes throughout the country Sanga, Englian, Siam and Sangi stayed in touch with the children, distributed rice and dal to their families, and encouraged them to stay healthy. Because we sustained their salaries, our staff dedicated themselves to learning safety protocols to prepare the campus for the children’s return. With children back but schools still closed, our staff diligently organized enrichment activities and games to keep children busy, and they engaged qualified and vaccinated tutors to conduct classes on our locked-down campus mimicking a routine school day.

As life returns to as-near-normal as possible, there is no better evidence of the quality of our work than this fact – not one person or child at Angels’ Place has caught the virus.

That was then. This is now. Now it is time to look ahead, to set new goals, to reimagine the future our kids will encounter, and to re-evaluate the best way to prepare them for it. Through consultation with local schools, tech companies with international reach, and employment advisors around the world we have uncovered an obvious but alarming gap.

From the start, our children’s future is disadvantaged because the unemployment rate in northeast India is 74%. They are being left further behind and are, therefore, further less employable because they are not learning computer science. Yes, we have some computers at Angels’ Place, but they are used mostly by the older children who have picked up knowledge at local internet cafes; the younger children watch over shoulders and seldom have hands-on experience. No, the area schools do not offer any computer education and cannot afford any computers.

The James Connection board of directors is unanimously committed to meaningfully addressing that gap. We call this initiative Building Digital Natives – a reference to kids whose native speaking language is the language of technology because they have grown up with it, because they have been immersed in it. If we are successful, our children will be better prepared for the workplace – be it a seamstress who starts a cottage industry or a math-whiz who goes to work for an international company. They will be competitively eligible for a job anywhere……. anywhere in India ……. in fact, anywhere in the world.

Thanksgiving is also the time when we ask you to consider a year-end, tax-deductible gift. Gifts of all sizes are critical to our success in raising $110,000 to research, design and implement with equipment, tutors and a qualified director the Building Digital Natives program. Please help us as much as you can. Click here to give now.

On behalf of the board, the exceptional staff, the beautiful children at Angels’ Place, and with gratitude and hope, I am yours truly.

Jan C. Swensen