Written by Kristy Kwong
Among all the countries in the world, the Christmas spirit is probably felt earliest in the Philippines; Christmas songs start playing on the first day of September, and malls are already decked with Yuletide decor at around the same time. I used to believe that this was a reflection of the joyful and optimistic spirit of the Filipinos and not just a gimmick to promote consumerism but what I saw during the last two weeks of 2010 made me realize otherwise.
Every year end, the members of Evangel Family Church Cagayan de Oro donates canned goods, rice, noodles, and the like to bless the needy. This yearly practice was to give these goods to the members of outstation churches and select members of the city church who are really in need. This year, however, God impressed upon the hearts of the pastors to give to random people in the city who were in need; the fact that they may not even know where our church is was immaterial, we just wanted to bless them and show them that there still is hope in their seemingly God-forsaken world.
The collection of goods took place over a month-long period and the packing started in the morning of the 23rd of December. The distribution was done in the evening to maintain discretion as we would not be able to distribute to everyone within the barangay. I must mention that we sang a Christmas carol before giving the packs and no one expected us to be giving them anything after singing to them; rather, most were either telling us off or digging into their pockets just so we’d stop singing.
When we reached the first barangay, there was a woman who was busy doing some form of handicraft that she later explained was her only source of income to support her grandchildren since both the parents of these children are in jail. She even told us that she had nothing to give in return for the carols we sang. When we gave her the pack of rice and the goods, she cried and thanked us profusely.
I never actually saw what good 3 kilos of rice, some canned goods, and a couple of noodles would do for the people we are giving to until I saw one house in the same barangay that the old lady I mentioned was from. We knocked on the door of that house and we were greeted by a child, 7 years of age, who informed us that her father was out driving the trisikad, which is his only means of livelihood, so we gave her the pack and told her to give it to her father when he arrived home. I heard from the other children in the neighborhood that the mother of that girl had left them so she was left to take care of her younger siblings while her father would be out working. When we stepped out of the convoluted pathway inside the slum area, I asked whether the small floor space I saw when the child opened the door was all that family called home; my suspicions were affirmed and it was heartbreaking to see that an entire family was living in an area that was even smaller than half my room’s. It was then that I realized how much a single pack of what we were giving could bring a family immense joy.
I thought that that house was the worse possible shelter a family could live under; but as we visited more barangays, I came to see that the previously mentioned family was relatively “better off” than the other families we encountered. There’s a place we visited that is humorously called by its residents and those who live near it as “the land of the dead.” It is actually a cemetery but sadly, many families found shelter living among the dead; most of the tombs are even more decorated than the houses of the living. It was here that I saw houses within the vicinity of the city having no electricity, utilizing mere candles or kerosene lamps as their only source of light. I certainly hope that we brought not only food but the light of hope as well when we visited them that night.
We not only gave to the different barangays, we also took time to drive a bit slower to look out for people in the street who were in need. In doing so, we found trisikad drivers and laborers on their way home. It was already about 11 in the evening, and the only reason why these people were not yet home was because they were trying to earn as much as they could for their families. When we crossed their paths, most of them were sporting drooped shoulders, dragging their feet as if they were sick and tired of the life they had and were dreading the days that were to come. However, a sudden change in their countenance occurred when we gave them the pack of goods; it was as if a light had shone through their faces. They thanked us profusely and went their way with a bounce in their step, eager to go home to their families with the pack of blessing they had received.
After our Christmas distribution, our Founding Chairman, Rev. Dr. Robert Lim, heard about the pre-Christmas giving, especially the story of the first lady aforementioned, and was moved by God to send money so that we could bless more families. We received SGD 1,550 (equivalent PHP51,527.81), which was a great sum of money that financed the second distribution of Spreading the Joy of Christmas that resulted in a total of 187 packs containing 5 kilos of rice, noodles, and canned goods.
The packing and planning of the second round of giving was even more exciting for the distribution committee as we remembered the joy we saw radiating through the faces of the recipients during the pre-Christmas giving. We set out at night once again on 30th December and tried looking for different areas that were in dire poverty, a plight not too hard to seek out in the Philippines. After giving more packs to the first old lady we visited during the pre-Christmas giving, we continued to seek out barangays that were inhabited by families who lived below the poverty line. When we found the barangays, we were surprised to see how terrible their living conditions were. Small, electricity-devoid houses that were situated next to other houses without so much as a passageway to separate them was a common sight. There weren’t only one or two houses like those but almost entire barangays were living under such conditions.
The second wave of distribution reached so many more people than the first one as we went around distributing the packs until midnight. One of the most heart-warming experiences was a boy we met at around ten o’clock in the evening. He was trying to sell us some pieces of cloth for cleaning cars. When we gave him the pack of rice and goods, he was beaming with joy; the smile on his face was priceless.
The act of giving those packs of blessing may not seem much to us but the effect it had on the recipients and even to onlookers was so much more than we imagined. The Sunday after the distribution was done, one of our member’s father, who had witnessed our team distributing, came to church because he was intrigued by how we gave to people we don’t even know. Unknowingly, our act of kindness challenged him to visit church. Another fruit we harvested from the giving was the opening of outstation works in some of the barangays where we did the distribution as the people first saw the love of Christ radiating through His people and thus sparking a receptivity that would have otherwise been difficult to ignite.
I wonder if we will ever see all those people again but knowing that we touched their lives and reminded them that there is hope in Jesus is the greatest blessing in itself that we could ask for in return.