{"id":11058,"date":"2014-12-11T08:49:52","date_gmt":"2014-12-11T00:49:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifestinymiracles.com\/?p=11058"},"modified":"2014-12-11T08:50:23","modified_gmt":"2014-12-11T00:50:23","slug":"bb-share-a-gift-donation-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifestinymiracles.com\/2014\/12\/bb-share-a-gift-donation-drive\/","title":{"rendered":"Doing our part for the BB-Share-a-Gift Donation Drive"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve never felt so helpless in quite awhile.<\/p>\n

Her front gate\u00a0was unlocked and she beckoned me to come in. I thought it strange not to lock one\u2019s front door but after\u00a0I entered, what greeted me caught me by surprise. \u00a0The old lady who\u00a0warmly\u00a0welcomed me in earlier was\u00a0sitting on her hospital bed\u00a0with\u00a0both her legs amputated. Placed at a corner of her bed is her prosthetic leg. Her husband soon\u00a0appeared from the next room in a wheelchair, himself with one leg amputated and the other badly gangrenous. Both aged occupants in\u00a0that cramped flat are hardly mobile. Yet, they live alone.<\/p>\n

We placed our bag of essentials from the BB Share-a-Gift Donation Drive<\/a> on the sofa. I stood there, surveyed the cramped and messy\u00a0flat and wondered\u00a0what else I can do. My daughter stood quietly next to me (she seldom is). I wondered what was\u00a0going through her mind. I knew sadly that at that moment we couldn\u2019t do much except to say \u2018God Bless you\u2019, hoping that our words will bring God’s\u00a0blessings onto this couple this yuletide season. We then conversed briefly in a smattering of Malay\u00a0where they\u00a0explained their \u2018legless\u2019 condition as well as the state of the flat to us.<\/p>\n

After this, we proceeded on to another home with an elderly\u00a0Malay lady inside who refused us entry at first. We had to convince\u00a0her countless times that we are here to give her the\u00a0food items\u00a0for free. Initially she\u00a0refused to open the door but finally she caught sight of Dana\u00a0and reckoned\u00a0that these folks meant no harm especially since they came\u00a0with\u00a0a little girl. Perhaps it took her so long to believe us because it is uncommon\u00a0for strangers to\u00a0come up and bless her.<\/p>\n

The festive season is a season of abundance and merry-making for most of us but it saddened me to know that there are these less-fortunate,\u00a0destitute people living among us who are filled with doubt and skepticism because they have subscribed to the belief\u00a0that\u00a0goodness and kindness in this world have been removed from their lives. This, despite staying in one of the richest countries in the world.<\/p>\n

The next hour or so, we went on to deliver these heavy bags of BB-Share-a-Gift<\/a> food hampers to another few more homes and continued to witness the poor\u00a0state of existence some of these needy folks\u00a0live\u00a0in. I\u2019m not new to community service, even to impoverished places like Cambodia. \u00a0But to be reminded again of the dire needs of our own countrymen\u00a0here in affluent Singapore and their mindset filled with a sense of hopelessness, bitterness and overall pessimism just gets to me. \u00a0It reminded Angie and I\u00a0once again that we can all do more.<\/p>\n

\"BBshareagift2014<\/p>\n

There is hope: while struggling to carry the heavy Share-a-Gift<\/a> food hampers from the carpark to the void decks with our umbrellas (it was raining heavily), we walked past\u00a0a young delivery man who was on his way to the van. On normal days we would have just walked past each other but today, he came forward and asked if we needed any help. After explaining to him our mission, he volunteered to help us wheel the items to all the homes we were going to despite his delivery schedule! \u00a0Yes, if we step forth, there are those out there who are willing to step forth together with us. \u00a0It only takes a spark to get a fire going…<\/p>\n

Like most families here in Singapore, we are constantly looking out for things to occupy our children\u00a0this December holidays. In the midst of all the busy Christmas shopping, feasting and\u00a0\u00a0holidaying, let us not\u00a0forget the essence of this season \u2013 sacrificial love. And may we all take some time to demonstrate that to our kids by supporting\u00a0the BB-Share-a-Gift<\/a>.<\/p>\n

How You Can Play a Part (from now till 17 December 2014):<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Donate Groceries<\/a> at these Collection Centres and NTUC Outlets<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"BBShareAGift-Groceries<\/p>\n

2. Donate\u00a0a Food Hamper Online<\/a> (S$30 or S$50)<\/strong><\/p>\n

3. Volunteer to Deliver Food Hampers<\/a>\u00a0(like we did!)<\/strong><\/p>\n

For more information, please visit Boys’ Brigade Share-a-Gift Facebook Page<\/a> or Website<\/a>. \u00a0Have a blessed December.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve never felt so helpless in quite awhile. Her front gate\u00a0was unlocked and she beckoned me to come in. I thought it strange not to lock one\u2019s front door but after\u00a0I entered, what greeted me caught me by surprise. \u00a0The old lady who\u00a0warmly\u00a0welcomed me in earlier was\u00a0sitting on her hospital bed\u00a0with\u00a0both her legs amputated. Placed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":11066,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,17],"tags":[259,260],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lifestinymiracles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/BBshareagift2014-Collage.jpg?fit=2400%2C1200&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p59hHF-2Sm","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifestinymiracles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11058"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifestinymiracles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifestinymiracles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifestinymiracles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifestinymiracles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11058"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifestinymiracles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11072,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifestinymiracles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11058\/revisions\/11072"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifestinymiracles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifestinymiracles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifestinymiracles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifestinymiracles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}