early risers get free congee

Yesterday, some friends and I went downtown to do our first attempt at feeding the homeless. I brought a big pot of congee or "lugaw" and another friend brought the cups and spoons. Two in the group acted as documenters with a videocam and a still camera.

We started outside the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral and walked around 3 blocks back to the same church, feeding all the street people we could. The congee was of course, not enough...but the experience was something to learn from. As Reggie said, we need a bigger pot. Probably, he's gonna buy something to fit a whole calf in..that would be great. I told him though that for now, and always, we shouldn't be after the numbers, but the quality of our actions. Are we not just feeding hungry stomachs, but also hungry hearts? That's the question worth answering.

A problem worth addressing is LONELINESS, not just poverty, disease, or addiction... Everything that afflicts mankind stems from this. Rampant sexually deviant acts, drug and alcohol addiction, crime, theft, hunger, prostitution...all these stems from the fact that we are all trying to fill up something that's empty in us.

And this can only be filled by one thing - LOVE. Compassion.Charity. All that our Lord sought to teach us and imbibe in us. And this for me is the ultimate goal for this project.

I didn't start this, God did. He kept pestering me to do something concrete to show him how much I love him. And this is it. I am loving him, we are loving him, in our neighbor - the poorest of the poor. And we've only just begun.