BRINGING LOVE AND JOY TO OTHERS DURING ADVENT

Prepared by,

Susanna & Dalius LL

Sandakan: Advent is a season where everyone is busy preparing for Christmas, and caroling but some groups took the opportunity to share the joy by reaching out to the under privileged Christians. On the 4th of December, members of the Star of Yahweh Covenant Community (SYCC) and their youth reached out to those unfortunate Catholics who belong to the marginalized community.

It all started when a member who is working in the hospital informed the community: a boy patient who was terminally ill returned home due to  parents who could not afford his further treatment in Kota Kinabalu. The family lives in a squatter of Indonesian community in Sibuga road, Sandakan. The boy has 9 siblings and the parents, vegetable farmers, informed the visiting members that they have left their son’s fate in the hands of God. Saddened by the hardship of the boy’s family, the youth took the opportunity to organize Christmas joy to cheer up the family and the surrounding children living in the squatters. They pooled their resources together and the elders chipped-in contributing 60 packets of food, goodies and gifts to 14 families living in that area.

Indeed, it was a surprise visit as they did not expect that the youth would come with Christmas carols in front of their houses. It was a touching moment for the boy’s family as they have never experienced a caroling performed before them. The boy’s grandmother shared that these gestures shown to them have made her family felt the openness of  the church despite their absence in Sunday masses due to poverty

As for the members, nothing is more satisfying than to bring the love and joy of Christ to them. Although the door of mercy had just concluded, the works of mercy will always be a way of life for Christ’s followers as stated in Matthew 25:40 "I say to you, in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me."