Tap on the Shoulder

I jumped out of the bed this morning looking for my cellphone to check the time.

Am I already late?

It was 6:27 in the morning. I let out a sigh of relief. Having only four to five hours of sleep in the past days, I was worried that I might oversleep and not hear the sound of the alarm. I was fortunate because I was able to wake up 3 minutes before alarm sounds.  We were going to visit the poor children in Delpan, Manila so I didn't want to be late. The outreach is a program of L.I.V.E. (Life Improvements through Volunteer Experience).

As I was sipping my coffee, I wondered.

What will happen today?

Looking back to our past visits to the poor children at Delpan, I remembered the time when I didn't know what to do because one girl was crying. She was punched by one of her classmates. Then the girl wanted revenge so she pulled her classmate's hair. Then they started fighting.

Really, they gave me headaches.

Many times I asked myself. What is the purpose of all of this? Why am I still joining the visits to those children?

There were times when I would get disappointed because even if we have planned the activities "perfectly", at least I thought the plans were perfect, there seemed to be something wrong. We couldn't organize the children!

But I was a little child once too. Like them, I was adventurous. I also asked many questions, sometimes too many questions. I bet, I was annoying as a child. I bet I was a headache to my parents like those children were to me. So I just smiled. I gave up on trying to fix them. It was a moment of surrender to me.

I finished my coffee then prepared myself to go to the outreach.

While travelling to the outreach site, I expected it already. I envisioned the children pulling each other's hair, pushing each other, crying, shouting, and, you know, makulit (What's the English of Makulit?).

When we were at the site, we proceeded with the plan. Our topic was on the "Creation". We taught them how the Almighty created all things, and aside from that, how we can also be co-creators of God by taking care of the environment and all creatures. And so we let them unleash their creativity by doing creative things.

To my surprise, the children were more orderly. They sat down in circles while the volunteers taught them and made friends with them. When it was time to distribute gifts to them, they lined up orderly. When it wasn't their turn yet, they waited patiently. (By the way, the gifts we distributed to them were given by donors, not from the volunteer's pockets.)

I was surprised by the improvement. I was happy for them. I still am.

It proved that if we have perseverance and patience, and if we have charity in our hearts, miracles happen. Change can happen even if some of those children were once rugby boys or girls, even if we might have thought that it is impossible for some of them to learn because they never went school ever since the day they were born.

Just when I surrendered, the thing I so longed for to happen happened.

So today, I want to give myself and the volunteers of the outreach a tap on the shoulder. And I want to give a double tap on the shoulders, left and right, the volunteers of VIDES Philippines because it was them who visited the children every Saturday.