When I asked a few individuals to donate used clothes, used pair of shoes for children and adults, my wife and I went to thrift stores buying children clothes for the poor children in Mandaue City and also in Dumaguete City. These are hard times and people are not prone to give away things of great value. We washed the clothes we bought and neatly laid them away in a box for delivery to the Philippines.
Then in December I spent a night in the hospital after the heart surgeon implanted a stent in my artery. A week after I left the hospital my wife suddenly feel very weak and nauseated. We brought her to Sentara Bayside Hospital . She spent one week for observation on her heart. The heart doctor recommended a heart pacer to regulate her heartbeat. On the day she was supposed to be released her heart doctor decided to have her transferred to the Sentara Heart Center . An Indian cardiologist implanted a stent in the blocked artery in her heart. The stent allows free flow of blood to her heart. God is Good. He preserved both our lives for more service in His kingdom through the Church.
Then more clothes in big bags and boxes came and are still coming. Today we sent three large boxes of clothes for the children in Cebu City and Mandaue City and two large boxes of clothes for the poor children in two impoverished barangays (villages) in Danajon Bank, Bohol and Junob in Dumaguete City. There are still three or four boxes of used clothings and pairs of shoes still to be packed and shipped.
This ministry to the poor needs your involvement, financial support, and prayers. Jesus said that the poor shall always be with us. Anywhere in the world the poor are crying for help and deliverance. Hunger, diseases, hopelessness, exploitations, superstitions, and bad government stalk the poor every moment of their miserable lives.
Meaningful helps and services to the poor must recognize the factors which respect to their personhood. The helps extended to them should develop their talents, teach them basic skills and the development of their minds to underdstand basic virtues and morality. A great Chinese leader is quoted as teaching "give a man a fish and he will keep on asking for more . But teach him to fish and he shall always have fish to eat."
What do you have to give? - children's books, children's clothes, medicines, foodstuffs, etc .
Jesus Christ said "...anything you did to my people here, you also did it for me."
(Matthew 25:46)
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