Have you ever felt like you needed to be somewhere at a specific moment and later on you end up being in the right place at the right time?
On the 9th of December 2017, my family and I attended our parish recollection.
(YES, I KNOW THIS BLOG IS LONG OVERDUE.)
We would sit in church with the rest of the parishioners and listen to a speaker highlight points regarding our faith and share inspiring words that may help prepare us for the Advent season. It was something we attended annually, so you might be wondering why I’m writing about this mundane event in my life, AND you’re probably also thinking, “Okay? So what does pizza have anything to do with your church activity?”
The thing that made this year’s recollection stand out from all the other ones I’ve attended before is my sister & I saw something that caught our attention on the speaker’s PowerPoint presentation–you guessed it, pizza. We both looked at each other and giggled. We joked that it was a sign from God for us to eat pizza afterwards. Little did I know, this joke we made would lead to something that would forever pierce my heart.
When the recollection ended, my sister & I formulated a plan (which we rehearsed, BTW) to casually talk about wanting to get pizza so that our parents would overhear us and take us to a pizza parlor. LOL That’s always been our sneaky way of asking for things, but technically not asking for things. *wink*
Anyway, our plan worked and we ended up at Shakey’s I.T. Park–with triumphant grins on our faces, might I add. While we were enjoying our food, a man with ragged clothes and an unkept appearance loitered around the area and eventually approached our table to beg for food. We were the easiest customers to approach as we dined alfresco (sa Bisaya pa, sa gawas). The manager noticed and was about to shoo him away, but we offered him food and a drink before he was able to do so. My father invited him to sit with us at the table, and the man was genuinely surprised, even more surprised than the manager! He hesitated and seemed rather shy about it, but we insisted. It became apparent that this was the first time he was invited to sit and dine with a stranger’s family at a restaurant. It was at this point that I realized that the “sign” (pizza) my sister and I just took as a joke was truly a sign from God. He put as at the right place at the right time.
We had a conversation with the young man and we found out that he was homeless. My heart shattered when I looked at him seated across me. I could barely keep my tears from falling. I did not understand what I was feeling. I was unable to keep up much with the conversations , because I was trying hard not to cry in front of everyone. As we continued, I noticed that he ate a little and kept setting aside a lot of food. He tried to wrap the food he set aside with whatever he could find on the table–paper, napkins. We told him not to be shy and to eat more, but he explained that he wanted to bring some home to his grandmother. (JSYK, we asked the manager if he could give the man a brown bag to bring home and he happily obliged. Okay moving on…)
He had nothing, but was still generous enough to share.
This really got me. I truly believe everything happens for a reason. If we hadn’t gone to that recollection that night, we would not have seen the PPT slide with a pizza on it. If we hadn’t paid attention, we would not have seen that slide. If we did not see that slide that night, we would not have sneakily asked our parents to bring us to a pizza place. If we did not go to that pizza place, we would not have met the man. If we did not meet the man, he may have been already shooed away by the establishments in the area. If he’d been shooed away, he and his grandmother might not have been able to eat that night.
It may sound O.A. or whatever to some people, but I really cried about this. I could not understand why, but my heart just felt the need, okay? I just needed to share this experience.
I know it is difficult, but let us all remember to be kind and compassionate. Let us all remember to be human.
xo,
Janine
The Ninja Odyssey 