Almost there -- 442 bears to make a Thousand Bears for Bicol :)

It's ten days before Christmas eve and four days until we complete the first leg of our Thousand Bears for Bicol (TBB) project. The photo above is how my a portion of my living room looked like on Tuesday evening (December 14) at 536 bears to go :) That day was very eventful for our TBB campaign - God's blessings just flowed from above! Around 5 PM, Mike Aperin from the Operation Compassion ministry of our church, Greenhills Christian Fellowship, called to ask if I had anything to send with the first PAF plane that was departing at 3 A.M. on December 15 because he had a hundred pounds of space left. Stuck in the horrendous C-5 traffic (this was the day when Dudut Jaworski's car blew up...)I was trying to figure out what I could send over in such a short notice. A few minutes later, P, my daughter calls with fantastic news - "Ma, guess what?! KFC donated 500 care bear pillows and 15 sacks of small cereal packs (100 pcs per sack) just now!" - God is simply amazing and HIS timing EVER perfect. After two hours I finally reached home and was so blessed to find these in my living room --



In addition to these snacks, there were 500 pieces of pastel-colored Care Bear pillows! Immediately I though to myself - 500 little heads will have something soft to lie on once they get these. We loaded everything in my car and brought the goodies to GCF. As of this writing, they are being distributed to the many children in Daraga and Guinobatan evacuation centers during the Operation Compassion's medical mission this week. Thank you very much to KFC for their generosity!

Today, we are 442 bears away from our target! We have five days to complete the targeted 1000 bears. Please help us complete this mission so to speak and help bring joy to 1000 children on Christmas day. We will be taking in bears (and other friendly looking stuffed toys) until Monday, December 18. Please refer to my entry here to find out how you can donate. We have also received reports from the field that the children are in dire need of clothes, so we are now including this as well, if you have any to spare. Below in an excerpt from my friend Andrea who arrived from Legazpi yesterday. Andrea is a long-time news journalist and a colleague of mine from the Inquirer. --

"I have not seen this kind of devastation ever in my life. There are thousands of children in the evacuation centers and they continue to be in a daze. The mothers tell me that whenever it starts to rain, the children begin to panic and ask "Tatakbo na naman ba tayo?" (Are we going to run again?)

I guess the first 1000 shipment will only hit a fraction of those affected by the typhoon. We are hoping and praying to do a second round for Valentine. Rehabilitation will be a continuing effort. The road to recovery will be a long and hard one. The situation in Legazpi is really very sad. The holiday season can really be a most stressful and tiring time for everybody and admittedly I am beginning to feel the tiredness and stress slowly creep in. Undeniably though, this looks like one of my most memorable Christmases. I constantly see Christ in the hearts of those who have unselfishly shared of their time and gifts to help this project succeed. Every bear that arrives matters because it counts towards making one more child happy. To share and to give is the true essence of the season. I pray that you help us make the thousand bears a reality. God bless!