Sharing The Gift Of Easter With love

By Romeo Barintang

Sandakan: Members of the BEC of St Teresa of Calcutta Indah Jaya and The Star of Yahweh Covenant Community (SYCC) reached out to 19 families living in the periphery to share with them the joy of Easter on 7th April 2018.

This mission team was led by Susanna Cordova and Phillip Mosinoh from SYCC while John Tan and Leonnie Degullacion from the BEC. Together with their members, they handed baskets of love to each family consisting of daily necessity, such as cooking oil, rice, salt, sugar, biscuits, noodles and etc.  The children were given each a gift as an Easter present.

Prior to the outreach mission, a discussion on preparatory work was held at the residence of Susanna Cordova on 12th March 2018. Accordingly, this community consists of 19 families who were evicted from their houses cum workplace because the owner had sold the land. They have moved to a new location, a little further and more secluded.

These families rebuild their houses, mostly of a one-room space, cramped with ten or twelve members per family. It’s heart-breaking to learn of their miserable living condition, thus the idea of visiting these families was mooted. In less than a month, both communities solicited enough provisions for the affected families

The outreach mission project was quite challenging and to reach the community you need to walk through difficult terrain. The project has cemented strong relationship bond among members from the BEC of St Teresa of Calcutta Indah Jaya and The Star of Yahweh Covenant Community (SYCC). Such cooperation is also a way forward in realizing our vision as a “Christ-centred community, serving one another with love”.

The Easter season is a call for charity that the poor shall always be in our hearts and there is no service to God without service to humanity. Psalm 9:18 “For the needy shall not always be forgotten; the expectation of the poor shall not perish forever.”