.
Birthday
Charity
For a few years I spent
my Birthday at Mother Teresa’s 1st Home for the sick and
Dying in Kalighat, Calcutta.
You clean, wash and
feed the sick and elderly. It is such intense work. They die right in your
arms, you pray over them and then wrap them up in white cloth.
I believe a Birthday is one of the most beautiful days, it is the day we
received LIFE
We should celebrate
And
Let ourselves express humanity, love, compassion, Charity
And
Let our new year be even better than the last
And
Let our kindness shine more than ever so that we can become a better person.
Earlier this year the SC SK FT (Serving Charity Soup Kitchen Friday Team) all
came together and
Celebrated everyone’s birthday in April. It was a very good turn- out with a
couple hundred people. It was amazing to see
how people came out to
give and support each other for the Crying Nobodies children in Haiti.
THEN
I called my Brother in Charity, Aman, and said ‘why don’t you also celebrate
your Birthday for the Crying Nobodies Children of Calcutta’ because I will be
going there soon. And, as the gentleman that he is, he said ‘you got it’. Then
after hearing the idea two other lovely SC SK FT Girls Ahkinder and Aanchal decided to
celebrate their birthdays along with Aman for the Crying Nobodies Children of
Calcutta
Here in our home
Toronto.
The 1st day when I got to Calcutta, I met with all my beautiful Poorest of the
poor friends on the sidewalk.
They were waiting for
me with SO MUCH LOVE.
Calcutta is the city
where everywhere
you go
you see
you hear
There is a desperate NEED for Charity.
When you are alone you
reflect on it.
True Charity is so very
much ALIVE in Calcutta.
On the 1st
day the
Serving Charity Calcutta boys and I
were walking very fast
between hundreds of people and something caught my attention. I went back and
looked closely between the people and traffic. There was a dying man lying down
on the sidewalk. I ran to him, the smell was so bad, I thought he was dead but
then he moved.
My heart dropped.
He looked at me with
praying hands begging for mercy.
I lifted him up and
helped him to sit-up
I yelled at the SC boys
to get me some water, they ran and got the man water. He could not speak.
I sent the SC boys to
get him food.
He was in so much pain
that he couldn’t even swallow, he kept throwing up.
I eventually had to leave the man to visit a few other sick people and also to arrange a ride to take him to Mother Teresa’s
home in the morning,
but I came back to see him at night.
He wanted to stand up
so we lifted him but he was too weak to stand on his feet.
I kept praying ‘oh dear
Mary have Mercy’
One of the SC boys took
me to meet another boy. He said that this was the dying man’s Son.
The boy, standing on my
right, was looking at his dad with such sorrow.
I was so shocked. He
was such a beautiful boy but every time I asked questions
about his dad he would put his head down. His face looked so vulnerable,
emotionally wounded and hopeless.
I could feel his suffering in my chest.
And there it was on my
1st day in Calcutta, the 1st Crying Nobodies Child of Calcutta in
need beside his dying father on the sidewalk.
This was the purpose that Aman, Ahkinder, and Aanchal were celebrating their
birthdays for the next day at home in Toronto.
I gave the Boy some funds, told him to stay with his father and that we would
come back the next day to take him to Mother Teresa’s Home for the sick and
Dying.
Then we went to feed
the children
And our lovely Ladies
The whole night I kept
thinking about the people we helped during the day, especially the boy.
I prayed and prayed. I
promised myself that I am going to make him smile and ease his suffering just a
little.
In the Morning I
divided up the SC boys into a few teams to get the
supplies for the Orphanages and other SC food programs for the sick and dying.
It was raining. I sent Israel, the Serving Charity Operations Manager in
Calcutta, with a few other
SC boys to lift up the dying man and put him in a rickshaw on the main road.
In the meantime, the
other boys and I loaded up a truck with goods to deliver to people in need.
The sick man’s son stood
by him while the SC boys tried to get a Taxi but Nobody wanted to stop and take
the man because he was in such bad shape.
Every taxi they asked they
were refused. The look on his son’s face was torturing me.
I got so angry that I
went to a few taxis and yelled at them ‘name your price, how much?’
This is their struggle
every day.
Finally I bought a
lungi to put around him, put him in a taxi and off we went to Kalighat.
Kalighat was full of sick and dying people, they had no room.
When we arrived
They were all praying
I asked for my
beautiful Mother Teresa Sister, the superior sister.
We have known each
other for a few years.
She came and gave me
such an amazing welcome and then took the dying man in and spoke to his Son.
When we were leaving
Kalighat we all sat at the back of the truck, we were all so happy.
Everyone felt so
relieved and peaceful that the boy’s dying father who was lying on the sidewalk
now had a bed and people to care for him.
I said a little prayer and thanked my GOD for his blessings
And thought about SC SK
FT
Ahkvinder, Aman, Aanchal
and how they are having
their Birthday for the Boy, it was such joy.
Then I asked the boy
‘when is your birthday?’
He replied
‘TODAY’
And this is how GOD works.
I took him with me and gave him SO MANY HUGS, and SO MUCH LOVE
We made him Smile
He had broken sandals
that kept coming out from under his feet so we took him shopping and got him
Shoes
We made sure he had a
great time.
He was the only boy out of all of the SC boys
that could not speak English. I made him a new member of the Calcutta
Serving Charity Staff.
Then we all went to
Pray for his dad at Mother Teresa’s Tomb
While Mother Teresa is
taking care of him
The SC boys went to
bring Mercy to other dying families.
The next day our new SC
Calcutta boy helped to bring thousands of cookies to feed Children in the
orphanages.
While it was pouring
rain in Calcutta
And we were carrying
the sick man and delivering goods
In Toronto it was also
pouring rain
The leftover birthday
cake was wrapped up by my charity sister that I picked up in -30 degrees
sleeping in a bus shelter
only with sandals in
Toronto last winter.
We brought her in and
she is now Serving Charity staff and has a home.
This very special
birthday cake was passed on at our 2:00am Serving Charity feeding the homeless
program
by my brother policeman
in charity, Marc,
and my brother Victor
our Serving Charity Operation Staff
to our poorest of the
poor sleeping on the sidewalk in Toronto.
This is how we can
serve the Crying Nobodies Children of Calcutta
and turn things around not only for ourselves but for the poorest of the poor
and to experience
GOD’s Birthday Charity
blessing
LOVE ABBAS
In GOD We Trust