sowing the seeds of love...
En route to work I pass by the slums, a shortcut from my place to get to Makati, the place I work in about 45 minutes, it was the shortest way. I guess most of you have heard about "Smokey Mountain", piles piles of garbage so tall it looks like a mountain. They call is smokey because of the fires that locals use to burn some of the garbage. A few years back that place looked real bad - an understatement really. Here are the before picture of the place.
It does not look that way today. Now that place looks like a real mountain, well more like a hill since a portion of it has been cut and cleaned. Everyday as I pass by my heart seems to capture the pitiful faces of poverty. The children are running in the streets without proper clothes on, barefoot. The place where they sleep is even smaller than the small bathroom I have in my bedroom. The babies looked dirty and unkempt. Haunting images, haunting faces...
As I pass by everyday, I am made aware of the things I have...in abundance, compared to what they own. I have been given a lot, compared to the piece of bread i saw 4 kids were sharing. my nice clothes could have bought a small family a month's worth of meal. my new bag could have helped the young mother pay for the hospital bill.
So you see, everyday the Lord shows me how blessed I am. And somehow the material things that I long to have and had seemed very shallow to the challenges they have everyday. I liked the recent post of my dad in his blog Life is too short, it said:
Those who love are truly rich for they can give their whole self for the sake of another... Received a blessing lately? Pay it forward, be the source of blessing for others. God bless =)
P.S. photos are courtesy of Janssen & De Kievith Fotografie / Philippines Photography
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