For as far as I could remember, spending Christmas away from home had been at that for a couple of years now. The memorable ones were the ones spent in Penang and Haadyai as we celebrated them with family and friends. I guess, I have always "missed" the feeling of serving the community which my family and friends had done during TOP (Tabernacle of Praise) Church - "Christmas with the Community" project a couple of years ago. After all, Christmas is not about Santa Claus, presents and all the commercial stuff one has to accept. Christmas, to me , is about meeting the needs of the needy ones, the hungry , the less fortunate, the drunkards, the lost and even the sinners. That is the spirit of Christmas.
I am so glad that City Community Church of Melaka are doing their part and meeting that need every year in providing for the needy and the less fortunate. I guess, when I was asked by my son, Joa Wee if the family would like to help out during City Light Church (CLC), Penang - Christmas On The Street program, we readily accept. Even my sister, Lee Lee who is a non-Christian, was willing to help out in whatever way she could. That was heartening indeed, for me.
I have come to realise that CLC is a young and vibrant church. I must say that the youngish looking pastor, Pst. Daniel is truly passionate about moulding young lives. I soon realised too that SLing and I are truly the older guests of the church and it was common to hear the younger people addressing us as uncle and auntie. Never mind about the older folks tag line but what is important is that how are lives transformed and what is the heartbeat of the church.
As we are just guests of the event, we (SLing, Lee Lee, SYuen and myself ) wanted to do our part to help in whatever way we could. So, we decided to wait for Joa Wee to assign us the works. It was bright and early morning that we started out that Christmas Day morning with a bang - Rawa thosai & tea at Top One Restaurant first! Hahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa............then , it is a walk to the church before we helped out in the clothing distribution section.
We were greeted warmly by Pastor Daniel and we immediately did our part to help in the Clothing Distribution Section. The Food Section was in full swing with satay sticks on the grille while the cooks were preparing the spaghetti with sausages meal in packed container. Cordial drinks were made and and the stage was set up nicely indeed under the nice canopy. Potato bread and souvenir pack with several daily essentials were packed in the souvenir bag. Boy, it was blistering hot that morning. There were already people at the canopy by 9.00am that Christmas morning when the event was scheduled to start at 10.00am.
Sensing the needs of the people that morning, Pastor Daniel had asked the team to start serving the people at about 9.30am. The team were in full swing of action. It was heartening to see young people taking up the challenge for this event and what is more touching is the fact that the young people go out of their way to bring in the needy and the less fortunate. To top it all up, free hair cut were given to the people by four professional hair stylists who were there on their own accord to provide that service to the community. It was really good to see the young people doing all that.
For me, I just did what little I could in ushering the people to the canopy, wishing people " Merry Christmas" and speaking to whoever who stopped by to ask what was the event all about. I really do get excited every time tourists or just curious bystanders asking about the event. It was my opportunity to share what I know about this event to them and then send these people to the CLC PR team or Pastor Daniel to speak about this event. I had the privilege to speak to a British national named Kate who works with underprivileged people in Cambodia and she seemed very happy about the entire event. I introduced her to Pastor Daniel thereafter and a couple of other visitors whom I had the opportunity to speak to like a young friend in Jay and his friend, Siau Chen. It made me happy being able to speak to people and ushered them to a great event of giving back to the community.
It gives me great joy in my heart to acknowledge that the young people of CLC are truly walking the walk and do the work. So often, we hear of great events which fizzled out after some time. Hopefully, with the right vision and knowing the heartbeat of God in caring for the needy would be met by these young people of CLC.
The amount of satay was never ending while the loaves of potato bread to be given out were in abundance. I was told that these are sponsored by kind souls in terms of cash and kind ; being out in good use. Bravo and well done, indeed, people of CLC!
What tugged my heart that day was the scene of a young CLC member on motorcycle ferrying an old lady to the event. That old lady was obviously having difficulty in walking. This young man actually took the trouble to ferry her to the event and with the event pamphlet taped at the four corners with masking tape on his t-shirt! Talk about passion! Talk about commitment! Talk about serving! That is a sight I treasured the most.
The other memory in my heart was the hair cut given to this old lady by one of the female hairstylist! What a great great job she did! You could see the old lady smiling from ear to ear looking so much younger and alive......Yunno, the hairstylist could have just given this lady a simple hair cut and be gone with it but the fact that it was done well really made an impact to me that day. The best part was that everyone who had their hair cut that day - male or female looked absolutely clean and fresh! What a great job by all four hairstylists!
What about the young people directing the traffic! It was a pretty hot morning and these young people really do the best they could and it was heartening indeed to see them directing the traffic. As the chairs were filled with people from all walk of lives, they get served by this group of young people. It was heartening and humbling to see that!
I believe there is hope in these young people. I believe in what I saw that morning. Five hundred and seventy people were fed that day and it was a mammoth task for such a young church led by a young pastor in Pastor Daniel. But you know what...they did it. They did it with flying colours and with great strength & passion...together. That is the real strength of CLC.
I can only thanked GOD that day for being present to witness such a glorious event carried out by young people! It is hard nowadays to see the young people doing things like this. I must say that Christmas Day that morning made my heart warm all over again. These young people gave me hope that there is still people out there who cares for the needy and the less fortunate - not just throwing a fistful of dollars and heaping loads of wishes through lip service.......
Yes, we will always have the poor amongst us, but we can always do something about it, right? So, to Pastor Daniel and City Light Church community - THANK YOU for the opportunity to be part of this event and sharing your lives with the community!
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