Uniquely Untitled

Children, “Child rin”

During our vacation in Cebu, we visited the famous landmarks like the Magellan’s Cross and Fort San Pedro. In the middle of walking along the streets, there was this little kid who asked my mother for alms. We thought that with one “hindi” (Tagalog for “no”), we can get rid of the kid and continue our journey. But this kid follwed us persistently, while walking and crossing the streets. This was unusual, so we decided to give him a penny. Then the pastor we were with bought him food. Then, he stopped following us.

When we were riding the taxi to the airport, the red light flashed for a couple of minutes. Suddenly, there was a kid who knocked on the window and asked for alms. We waved, signalling we cannot give anything. He went away. Then after a few moments, a teenage-looking mom with her child knocked on the window and asked for alms. We decided to give her two bananas. She thanked us for it. The next minute, another kid knocked. We thought we cannot give our leftover food because we will have long waiting hours in the airport. But he or she (I can’t remember the gender) kept on persisting. So we decided to give him or her our opened bottle of soft drink. The kid left. Then, another kid approached us but we refused to give. After seeing him or her leave, we found out that we have one loaf of bread left. We decided to give it when he or she returns. But he/she did not. And the green light flashed.

After that incident, my heart was 3 or broken. I felt guilty for complaining for not getting the smallest things I WANT or for overbuying things I do NOT NEED and seeing these children begging for food to survive the day. T.T I remembered those children and elderly people near our university asking for alms and many students either walk in a fast pace, say no, or ignore them. Sadly, I was one of them.

Ang kabataan ang pag-asa ng bayan (the youth is the hope of the future). How can the youth be the hope of the future if in the first place, most of us do not have hope? How can hungry children have hope if they treat each day as all or nothing, to survive or not? How can we place our trust on the youth if we cannot contribute in supplying their basic needs like food? How can the youth function well if their stomachs are empty?

We treat street children as nuisance to our society. However, digging deeper, we ourselves are the nuisance. Most of us have our basic needs and even our wants. What is a single coin or paper bill to us that we use for buying luxuries, yet we cannot give them to the needy street children? We complain that there is inequality in our country, but we do not help those people below the poverty line. It hurts, but we are closer to be called hypocrites.

What will be the solution to this? Blame the government? Tell the politicians to pioneer projects addressing this issue? Ignore the situation and continue living our happy lives? Come on! Open our eyes! We have everything we need. The Lord provided us things more than enough so that we will be the channels of blessings to those less fortunate people. In our little ways, we can help them by giving food, groceries and words of encouragement, not only during outreaches, but in our daily encounters. This may be insignificant for us, but this will be significant for them.

What if these people are part of schemes? When someone asks for alms, it is better to give food rather than money. This will prove that they are really hungry and not outsmarting people who give. Also, if we have the courage, ask where they live, where their parents are, etc. We will have the idea what their needs are or we can determine if they are not telling the truth.

Nevertheless, they are still in need. In giving what we have, we must also plan on how we can help them fight poverty. We must inspire them to get out of their hopeless situations. We must show them there is hope. Indeed, there really is hope. And I believe that there is One ultimate Hope. Rich or poor, young or old, we still need hope. The difference is that we know who is our Hope. By sharing others our Hope, it must be shown in deeds. Remember, Jesus showed us that there is hope when He demonstrated it through the cross. He is our Hope. In human context, we can demonstrate this hope by sacrificing a little part of ourselves for others (but Jesus gave His all for us!), through giving.