Meals On Wheels

Last night, I started writing an entry about yesterday's lunch encounter with the Lord, but a nocturnal friend called me out at 11 p.m. and put a halt to my journalling. That set off a chain reaction of events (late to bed, late to rise!) that effectively frustrated my plans to go to Quiapo this morning or even to attend noontime Mass in UP. After kicking myself several times for being such a flake, I eventually ended up having a very nice lunch today at the Center with the women of the He Cares family. But I'm getting too far ahead of myself.

Yesterday I thought I was going to have an uneventful "lunch" because I felt that the Spirit wasn't really leading me to anyone in particular. I had a quick meal at the UP Coop after Mass, and I didn't really feel like going into the Shopping Center but somehow found myself propelled in that direction. No Mang Lito, J-O-Y, Grace, or Renato around. I'd made it halfway through the SC when I felt like turning on my heel and going back the other way, when I saw the reason why I was brought into the SC in the first place: a law school classmate, all decked out in barong and looking very professional. We exchanged the usual small talk and updates, and when he started asking about my practice, I told him a very abbreviated version of the work I do nowadays and advised him to just buy last month's Marie Claire for more details. Anyway, it was funny to see him again - an old sorority ball date I liked to annoy by smoking too much and insisting that he learn to dance - and I thought that encountering him would be the highlight of my lunch hour.

So I headed back out to my car, and as I was walking towards it, someone sitting on one of the outside benches flashed me a toothless grin. "Kain tayo, Ate?" The magic words. It was the boy who'd "watched" my car earlier at the Chapel. And of course I gladly obliged - I was going to have "lunch with the Lord" after all - and ended up sharing a table with 15-year old Mark ("pero may kasama po ako...") and his 12-year old friend MacMac. Mark turned out to be the younger brother of my regular car-watcher Marvin, who was recently clubbed over the head with a lead pipe and had to get stitches. Marvin lives in a tricycle (go figure)in Balara but Mark sleeps in their little shanty - their mother lives all the way in Pasay. MacMac, who, for a very small boy had the BO of a 6 foot 250-pound man, is the eldest of three boys - they recently lost their mother. His dad used to work as a golf caddy but is now unemployed - but he promised to send his son back to school as soon as he finds a job. MacMac was barefoot...he lost his slippers outside his house; I taught him an old streetkid's trick of using your slippers as a pillow so you don't lose them, and then went out to buy him a new pair (my extra pair of slippers I always carry in the car were much big for him, so you can imagine what a small 12-year old he is!).

Today, I'd planned to do the supermarket donation rounds with Kuya Joe Dean, but, as I found out over lunch, Judith needed me to accompany her to look for and invite several streetkids to a special event this Sunday. We took along several Christmas cookies, which the little ones enjoyed very much, and, at one of our stops, met a man living in his pushcart. His family was homeless because their house was burned down, but apparently he managed to send three of his kids to school nonetheless! Later this evening, loaded with several donated cakes, we continued our street ministry - first along NIA road where we chanced upon more homeless people eating a late dinner on the sidewalk (literally) and dropped off their dessert; next on Timog where a whole troupe of streetkids of various shapes and sizes shared two more cakes and promised to attend the Saturday feeding; and finally back to Quezon Avenue to deliver the last cake to the "pushcart family." They were all smiles, genuinely happy in the moment even under such sordid circumstances, and still a family struggling and doing their best to stay together and better their children despite adversity. I'm certain we'll be sharing more meals with this little family - whom God so very gently holds in the palm of His hand - in the days to come.

I'm tired tonight after such a long day (a long couple of days!). But, as Judith and I agreed on our way home at almost 11 p.m., we don't really mind (sometimes we don't even notice!) when we have to "work overtime." In fact, even after office hours, we still keep looking for "work"! Then again, this kind of work isn't really work after all. Plus, our Boss gives the best bonuses and a retirement plan that's out of this world. :-)