A week after attending FCCYA's National Gathering (see previous blog regarding this), a fellow Fil-Chi Catholic sent an invitation to the group chat, that they previously created for the purpose of National Gathering, that they are going to held an outreach activity that Saturday and there will be an opening mass at St. Peter the Apostle Parish at 6:30am on that Saturday.
Still being new in the group and the community itself (like how do they operate?), you would technically not know what it was all about and be like all in the I wanna try it mode.
Off Track: In the middle of the week from the National Gathering and the day of the outreach activity, I attended a Gospel reflection where Father Peter Tieng presided the Gospel and he would explain all the readings - most especially the Gospel. It's like an extended homily, but now it allows you to ask him questions which normal masses never gave us opportunity to. I could say it was also probably one of the first times I've encountered as a Catholic (well I didn't include me being a Filipino-Chinese since I think it's open to all lineage). If I'm not mistaken I think I already encountered somewhat similar to this Gospel sharing I think it's called Tahanan ng Pagmamahal but that one does not involve a priest explaining but more of some lay minister and they include praise and worship I think. I think I only attended there once because I sent a prayer request for my friend something like that. After that, it's gone.
So back to the main blog, the caveat: I don't even know if I could make it. I think there was a bible saying that says it's better for someone to not agree then complied than the one who agreed, but didn't comply. You see I have to make sure to do some receivables from our mom and pop business every Friday night. I don't know how fast I could finish the task. However, it says on the photo invite that it's RSVP. Which means I have to commit on joining. So I bravely messaged the organizer and inquire if I we really need to reserve. She did say that she'll write my name. I still said I cannot promise.
The day has arrived. I think I woke up like 4:30am because I felt like I have to make it. The night before everything falls into place like I finished all my errands before 9pm. So I did whatever that was needed to be done like prepare stuff for that event etc. Oh, have I forgot that there's no LRT train that time so I really have to ride a jeepney going to UN Avenue?
So as I traveled to St. Peter Church, I read the messages and saw it's one of the outreach organizer's birthday. I was like ah, it make sense. It's her birthday, but she opted to spend her birthday on doing outreach. So it wasn't like a Fil-Chi Catholic Activity, but more of a personal choice and she just made it like an organization's activity. Normally, if I knew it was someone's birthday, I would give gifts (of course I somehow already created rapport with them). I could have picked those tin-can cookies that we bought from Duty-free, but I realized you know it doesn't matter if I didn't give because how am I supposed to know it's her birthday? Also, maybe it might be a little heartless gift or whatsoever.
As I reached the place and looked around wondering where are they and minutes before the mass started, I just realized that the place for the mass is not the same as the place for the outreach. I searched and realized the place was in Quezon City. I was like being silently hysterical like how am I supposed to go there? I don't even know people around the place - like I told you guys it's my first time. I was thinking am I doing all these things in vain? I'll be honest I was only half listening to the mass and maybe tried to peek on the phone (even if it's not allowed) because I don't know what was going on. Thankfully I already knew the gist of the Gospel reading, but I knew I was still so worried about it because I can't see anybody. As the priest wraps up his Homily, I saw the birthday celebrant on the side of the church wearing the FCCYA shirt that we used during our last conference. I immediately stand up and approached her. Aside from greeting her a happy birthday, she's happy that I made it. I am now relieved because at least I knew someone in there. Being an ISTJ you would really really start to panic when something is not working in your favor. Haha.
After the mass, I told them that I was nervous if I misread something and the birthday celebrant assured me that they were just late. So it was me, the birthday celebrant's family, the lead organizer and the scholars of the church were able to join in her outreach.
While waiting for her family to fetch us from the church, the birthday celebrant and I chatted like me asking her the outreach-related stuff and also me telling her that it's my first time to get engaged in an outreach activity that was not part of a school requirement or forcing yourself to create one so your organization would be kept afloat. Just a caveat during my college days, doing an outreach would pull your organization points up, most especially if your organization was on under probation.
So we reached the place and it's called He Cares Mission. It's a place that caters to street children. If my memory serves me right, this is the first time I will be serving to these type of group. I mean I went to assisting kids on poor areas but they have a house, we went to orphanage to help build houses in Sto. Tomas, Batangas and also gave used clothes and toys to those children at PGH.
In every outreach, I think they have this sense of feeling satisfied, grateful or some sorts. I guess if you are really into these kinds of activities, you felt like it was easy for you to do on a regular basis. As for myself, the only thing that would connect me to an outreach activity was some random classmate, schoolmate or batchmate of yours wanting to raise funds to fund their passion in doing charity activities, and you be like okay I have extra tithes to spare, you can have it so I could help you fund your passion in helping those who are in need. I would admit that maybe sometimes when you had surplus of tithes allowance, it came into a point that it's heartless.
However in my visit at He Cares Mission, things are different - way different I should say. I did not spend a single centavo in participating this outreach activity - which is extremely weird for my part. Knowing that I didn't spend any cent in this activity, you can't just stand there and just say I came, you have to do something else. So apparently Brother Joe (one of the founders of He Cares Mission), have this organized program for the street kids, then he also gave a list to us where we are assigned to do an activity in facilitating the feeding program. I think I volunteered the sweeping. I mean first of all, food is delicate and who knows something might happen to the children; second, I cannot exert a lot using my hand due to the damage that the tuberculosis of the joints did to both of my wrists. So sweeping it is.
At the end of the activity, when all children were being fed and they left the vicinity, that's the time I realized that I was already tired. I mean aside from sweeping (which I technically didn't do much), I also helped with the food preparation like passing the containers from one place to another. Then I also assisted the scholars of the church as they are the ones hosting the games while I do the prize giving. I mean there's no way I'm going to host that games because I already had a bunch of hosting activities especially during company Christmas parties.
I can say it was really a nice experience on having an encounter with these children. Not only that, it was a different experience where before you're only doing things behind the scenes such as giving money to aid the main person who wanted to do the activity, this time, you are immersing yourself in helping the main person who wanted to spend her birthday with the less fortunate children by offering your time and effort - which I admit was really hard to give to.
If there is anything that I would learn from this experience is that maybe... Just maybe it wasn't actually that bad to help these less fortunate ones financially.
