PASA LOVE STORIES

I believe that Christians are saved to serve God. However the term “serving God” has been misconstrued to be “serving inside the church.” And by that it means doing anything inside the church for the church. Not that it is bad, but serving God is about a lifestyle reaching to people however, whenever, and whatever. It’s not limited by location or position but it so much more on being obedient to God in our everyday lives.

The most common excuse why we don’t do acts of service or kindness is because it can be expensive. We tend to believe that to do service or kindness would mean some money. Quite true, but misleading. Acts of service and kindness will not always involve money, but it sure helps a lot if we have lots of it.

So we decided not to have the church any excuse of not engaging themselves in acts of kindness. We decided to give members who would involve in the kindness project P100.00. They will use this to do acts of kindness to people. They are not allowed to use it for themselves or their family. It should be done towards other people. Members can combine their money and to do greater things. They can reach anyone God is convicting them to help out.

Last February 14, 2010, we release P3,400.00 for 34 members who decided to join this project. The following are our stories.

PANTAL SNACKS GIVEAWAY
What surprised us was our 20% Group (Senior Citizen). They live in Pantal area. A place where there are many poor people. Our Senior Group saw that many elementary kids go to school without any snacks for their recess. Some of them may not even have anything for lunch. 6 of them decided to pool their money and bought biscuits and candies and repacked them. At 6:30 in the morning they went to the street and handed out the snacks to the kids.

The kid’s faces were surprised with what was going on. But it turned to joy when they saw they were being handed out snacks. The people in the community were also surprised with what was going on. A lot of them appreciated what these Senior Group did. They were able to serve 103 kids that day.

REGION I HOSPITAL FEEDING
Our youth group also did something powerful. There were fourteen of them and they decided to go to the hospital. Region I Hospital is one of the largest hospitals in our province. If you pass by at night you would see hundreds of people outside the hospital sprawled all over the ground waiting for their patients. They are not allowed to go in because they are only allowed one watcher. It’s hard not to feel compassion for them, they look like patients as well. You can see hunger, pain, anticipation, and bewilderment. The youth group decided to bring their acts of kindness here.

Doing the project means we have to ask permission from the Director’s office. Our youth pastor had to wait in line among many people who were waiting for the Director. Most of them are soliciting for help. When the secretary went out and asks for their letters, she was surprised that our letter was asking to serve the hospital and not asking for help. The Director was amazed that he said, “You should be doing this in the ward.” We only wanted to serve the people outside and the Director wants us to go in. Amazing! Truly, servants have access to the king’s palace.

Saturday night (February 16, 2010) when they went. We cooked two large pots of arrozcaldo (chicken rice porridge) and brewed coffee. The security guard gave us a good spot. We were at the side of the main entrance of hospital. At first the people were skeptical of what we were doing. They thought we were selling. But the moment they realized it was free, they started coming. It was too bad that we were not able to video well the event because the video camera came in late. In less than an hour, we have serve about 300 people. The watchers in the ward came out. Some doctors and nurses came out and ate.

What were great about this are the young people. I saw how they would bring the arrozcaldo to people who can’t leave their spot because they are guarding their things. The youth brought food to them and some them talk with them. And the stories they shared are very touching. And our youth are just new believers. They tasted what it’s like to serve God.

As we left, we prayed and praised the Lord. We know we’re going to do this again.

TREATING THE GARBAGE COLLECTOR
The youngest member who took part in this project is Rheyster Moyano, a 12 year old kid. When I saw his name on the list I wondered if he knew what he was doing. But he understood what was going and what he wanted to do. He has classmates who are garbage collectors who picks up garbage for recycling so they can go to school. So he decided to treat them out at their canteen. Too bad the pictures in the camera got erased. He told us that he sees his classmates having large sacks picking garbage that can be recycled: papers, plastic bottles, and metals. He felt he can do something to help them out so he treated them for snacks.

He was only able to spend P46.00. The remaining money, they bought some rice and groceries because a fire broke out in their area and many were affected. They gave it to the fire victims.

We’re very proud of this kid.

RANDOM KINDNESS WITH THE NEEDY
And there are many among the members who used their one hundred to help others. A member gave money to a family who had 11 children. When it was given they had no money to eat at that time. One member treated out the garbage fee collector of our area. One member gave money to a grandma who is taking care of her grandchild. A member brought slippers for some children. A member gave money to a volunteer worker of a different church. A member gave groceries to an old lady who had eye defect. One member gave grocery to a blind father who has difficulty providing for her family. Another cooked arrozcaldo for the children in their community.

We will never know how this would turn out. If they end up in our church, that would be great. But our goal was not to have membership in our church. We simple obeyed what God said in Matthew 5:16, “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” We wanted our church to realize that we were created to help others and not simply exists for ourselves. We believe our church is meant to serve God in a world filled with darkness and pain. We believe we are salt and light.

We have adopted PASA LOVE (SHARE LOVE) as our official term for out kindness project. This is not an event that we will have, but it is integral to every ministry we have. It will be our lifestyle

We’re going to take part in our BANGUS FESTIVAL this coming May. We’re giving to give away free cold drinks (palamig) to people attending this great festival. If you want to help us out, please do. We’ll let you know how you can help out.

Glory to God!