A Car Robbery, God’s Grace, and a Motor Accident

This week, we witnessed the work of God's grace sandwiched between two ill-timed disasters involving our beloved family car.

This story begins when our very busy Wednesday was marred by the discovery that someone had smashed the driver's side window of our Chery QQ.  Apparently a botched robbery attempt, the only thing missing from the vehicle was Cecilia's sunglasses (they could have easily taken away the whole car!). The perpetrator tried to winch his way in first through the rubber lining of the window then for some reason shattered the glass totally. Poor Cecilia spent the rest of the day incredibly harassed, filing police and insurance reports.

Despite the harassment for the day, the show must go on! So that evening, with the hot wind blowing through the empty car door window and the school yaya in tow (to stand guard over our poor car at the parking lot), we made our weary way to the Kinilian class. What happened that night was phenomenal and we were truly blessed because we came.

When we arrived, we were very happy to see quite a number of new volunteers were there already helping set up the Parish Deck. Many of the kids were also already there and they continued to pour in. Eventually we had around 120 to 130 kids (we lost count!) that night, plus around ten or so moms and some of the Teens. Despite the exceptionally big crowd, the activities turned out to be quite organized as the kids were on their best behavior and not their typical rowdy selves. Praise God!

We were blessed to have Val and JL from the David Ministry for live worship! The program had a rough start with the Deck sound system not cooperating as usual and JL's guitar song sheets written in the wrong key. Nonetheless, Val was a real trooper and proceeded to belt out I Will Worship You Forever a cappella! Val could give Charice Pempengco a run for her money. The kids were equally enthusiastic and wowed us with their own dance moves to our next song One Way Jesus. We were at awe seeing and hearing more than a hundred kids jumping up and down, pointing to Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life!

More about God's grace after the jump...

Our story for that evening was impromptu. We had been praying for the last couple of days for a good story we could use to ready the kids for Pentecost Sunday. Come Wednesday morning though, we were still unprepared.  Somehow, the car robbery attempt jogged my memory and I felt God wanted the kids to hear Jojo's story (thanks to Jench who gamely illustrated our story on the blackboard).

Jojo was about 12 years-old when we first met him about 8 or so years ago. The Outreach ministry of Living Hope was in its fledgling years and we were visiting one of the projects of the missionary community of Cecilia's brother.  They  hold what they call Kids Church every Sunday morning, gathering street children who eked out their living on the avenues and back alleys of Cubao and the main thoroughfares leading to it, as far as Katipunan Avenue. Kids Church in due course became the prototype for our very own Kinilian Project.
 

When we met Jojo he already had been with the community for a couple of years. He now lived in a half-way house for children rescued from living off the streets. His story from being an abandoned street urchin to seasoned street thug to being found and rescued by Jesus was an inspiration. He was an emerging leader among the youth  and would lead worship and facilitate activities at Kids' Church.

Jojo's story does not have a happy ending though.  Some time after we first met him, we received sad news that Jojo had decided to go back to the streets. Yes he left the comfort and security of a real home. Like many other kids taken off the streets before him, he could not resist the lure of a more familiar yet dangerous life. Of course, when we heard of this we were very discouraged. What had become of the zeal and powerful witness that we had seen in Jojo? Was following Jesus too difficult compared to his old life of street-living, stealing and sniffing rugby?

Our kids at Kinilian were quite troubled after hearing Jojo's story. Their faces were bewildered, their smiles erased. We then talked about the Holy Spirit who comes to help us.  Truly, without the Spirit of Jesus, we cannot do anything. No amount of human zeal or enthusiasm will be able to carry us forward to complete the race. We prayed for the Holy Spirit to kindle our hearts, to be our Fire and our Light as we continue to follow Jesus.

The kids then took their pencils and crayons and were tasked to draw a Fire to symbolize the Holy Spirit, listing or drawing their old bad habits on one side and the new good ones that they wanted on the other. Our prayer was for the Spirit to change our hearts and enable us to make lasting true change in our lives today. Our volunteers for the night were gamely on hand to process the activity with the kids. Praise God, we had enough manpower that night to have one or two Ates or Kuyas per table of kids.

One of the volunteers Oli, recounted that some of the kids on his table were very conscious of his presence, trying to hide their artwork and glancing frequently his way. But after chatting a bit and talking about the activity, the boys were already smiling and gleefully showing off their creativity. Across the room, Oli's wife Pinky was kept busy hovering over a boisterous group of little girls. Over at Kirby and Kath's table, some of the little girls had declared they couldn't do the activity (this is a common tactic among the new kids attending). Wielding a pencil herself, Kath proceeded to draw a masterpiece and was able to eventually have the kids color it beautifully and put in their own ideas and thoughts.

The kids and volunteers thoroughly enjoyed simply being together that night. There were so many kids we soon ran out of juice and cups (thank you to Joey's trusty driver who we sent off to the super to buy us more!), but many of them were still able to have seconds on the yummy soup. Avic (Mel's friend from Globe) wondered where the food came from. We told her God not just multiplies the food, He upgrades the food too (we used to bring just tiny air-filled pastries... not satisfying at all for our growing kids!). Everybody went home that night filled... filled with the grace that only the Spirit can bring to our hearts.

And I almost forgot! What happened next was perhaps a fitting end to a very harassing day.  A drunken driver rammed his motorcycle into the back of our car which was parked in front of the Parish.   Thankfully, yaya had decided not to stay standing behind our car.  And thankfully, the man appeared unhurt and bystanders said he just got up, got back on his bike and zoomed off (nobody was able to see his plate number though). Our already-damaged car suffered a huge dent on the backside and some major scratches. Boo hoo. At least it will mean just one trip to the car repair shop!

I realized that maybe we are really doing some good with the kids because Satan is really up to something. Two weeks ago, we were not able to make it to Kinilian because of a series of unfortunate and unusual events. And this week an extravaganza of hits on our car in one day! With all the harassment of the smashed window, we all but dragged ourselves to Kinilian class that night. I remember last year, just a little rain would already discourage us from holding the class and it was so easy to just cancel class for the week. But somehow, we made it this week and again we were blessed because we came. Blessed by God's grace, to see His Hand moving through the volunteers, to see His Spirit lighting up the faces of the kids, to realize that no matter what dirty tricks Satan pulls, the show will go on! Amen.

P.S. We would like to extend our profuse thanks to Oli, Pinky, Kirby, Kath, Avic, Val, JL, Christine, Jench and Mandy. You guys have blessed the kids and our hearts. Thanks also to the James Ministry who came in full force: Ces, Mel, and Lynette. And of course, thank you to Joey who brought what seemed to be bottomless pots of yummy sopas. Also present was Tita Anne Pau who ministered to the Kinilian mommies... But that's another graced-filled story.