Go big or go home - A Christmas reflection 2021
EDante Grande Centre Point Hotel, Ratchadamri, Bangkok, 31 December 2021 On 16 December 2021, I stood in the garden behind my parent’s home in Mindanao awaiting to see the coming of Typhoon Odette. I videoed the powerful storm breaking the trees and the horrible howling sound it made. After a few hours, the wind died down and some damages became visible. Electricity and water supplies were cut off. What I saw was just the tip of the iceberg. Some 200-300 km away from where I stood, the eye of the storm passed through several islands and decimated many cities and communities in northern Mindanao and the central Visayas. Millions of people lost their homes and livelihood and over 400 people died. Horrible footage of the storm and plea for help soon flooded social media. A few days after, I joined a meeting with the governance team of CFC Thailand to discuss how to respond to this disaster. The message from the meeting was clear, “Go big or go home”. This is an exhortation to go all-out, to put all our efforts into helping out. It is a call to be bold and impactful. Anything less is not acceptable. The team decided to allocate a significant portion of the community’s fund to support ongoing relief efforts and provide financial support to affected members. They sent out communications to the community regarding the relief efforts and searched for information on ongoing relief efforts on the ground to support. I messaged Atoy Franco, a childhood friend and one of the leaders of CFC Agusan del Sur. Some eight years ago, Atoy and a few other friends joined me in a relief effort in Leyte following Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan). That contact brought back memories of our experience in Leyte in 2013 and immediately paved the way for another joint relief effort. On Christmas eve and Christmas day, I found myself busy packing relief goods together with Atoy’s family and other friends. While packing, we enjoyed chatting, recalling our childhood memories, and sharing stories about our common way of life in the CFC community. Forgetting the time spent and body pains, we completed 776 food packs containing 3 kilos of rice, 6 canned food and 6 packs of noodles. In addition, we received donations of 5 sacks of rice, 350 kg of squash, 450 new shirts, 228 bottles of 10-litre purified water, some biscuits and used clothes. In total, we had over 7.5 tons of relief goods. The day after Christmas we took a long road trip to the ravaged towns in Surigao del Norte and dropped off relief goods in seven areas along the highway between Butuan and Surigao City. Devastations were seen everywhere. No house was left untouched. About 90% were completely destroyed. Trees were broken or uprooted. Children were standing on the road with a note “Help”, “No Food”. We witnessed a repeat of the horror caused by Typhoon Yolanda eight years ago. A young couple from CFC Surigao guided us along the way. They organized the drop-offs in an orderly manner to avoid confusion and mob attacks. They themselves were victims of the Typhoon, having lost their home and many other possessions, and experienced the horror of surviving daily without electricity and limited access to drinking water. We completed our journey in Surigao City where we handed food packs to over 100 people in front of the CFC office. As we were preparing to return home, our couple guide advised us to take another road to avoid the city traffic. It turned out to be providential. As we were driving, Atoy spotted a convoy of trucks carrying relief goods and huge signage “1 Bukidnon Help Movement”. Suddenly he knew that our other good friend from high school must be in the convoy. We stopped and were amazed to find our dear friend Pol Murillo. We were jumping with joy. Pol was equally overjoyed and came to hug us without restraint. The last time and place we met with Pol was in 2013 in Leyte where we delivered relief goods in separate Typhoon Yolanda efforts. It was an unexpected reunion among friends with a common love for service for typhoon victims. I learned that Pol leads the 1 Bukidnon charity movement and is currently the Vice Mayor of Valencia City. It was an amazing experience and a wonderful way to spend Christmas and discover the true essence of Christmas through charity and love. Some 2,000 years ago, on the first Christmas day, the people in Bethlehem were busy going about their lives and had no room to offer to pregnant Mary and her spouse Joseph. The people had no clue of the significance of the time and place they were living in. They were completely unaware of the awesome divine action happening in their midst. They failed to recognize the “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6) in the baby lying in the manger. They disregarded the presence of Mary, the greatest joy of the Father and the most perfect human being. Her perfection is inferior only to God. They overlooked the Christmas star, dismissed the shepherds, and ignored the three Magi. Darkness enveloped the little town of Bethlehem. The world today remains blind to the spiritual reality of Christmas. It busies itself with things of the world and does not accommodate the Holy Family in its hearts. It fails to see the wonder of Christmas beyond the visible celebration of exchanging gifts, setting up Christmas decorations, organizing parties and shopping. It is, therefore, our prayer that God gives light to this world to see and recognize Him in everything around us and within us. We live, we move, we breathe, we walk, we see, we eat, we talk, we drink, we work, we laugh, we jump because of God. St Paul says “...nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love” (Romans 8:39). God is present in all around us, how can we fail to see Him? |
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