A huge tragedy back home
This past week has been extremely heartbreaking for so many of our kababayans. Typhoon Rolly, a super typhoon, ravaged the Philippines amidst the pandemic and caused mass flooding and destruction in many areas. Seeing posts of people suffering leads to to a fervent prayer of, “Lord, what can we do? How can we help? “We cannot even begin to imagine how much our people have suffered. Viewing posts about it is not enough for us to truly understand the situation. We feel so helpless, but we want our children to know that even in small ways, we can choose to help. We can choose to spend our time and energy on something that is meaningful to us; something that can make a difference, however small it may seem.
An Idea for a fund-raising activity was born
With the pandemic and now this calamity, Christmas 2020 is probably going to be the most difficult Christmas season for many, many people back in the Philippines. We thought of raising funds through selling puto bumbong to give to the typhoon victims. For us here abroad who have not been able to go home due to the pandemic, puto-bumbong is a way to connect to our roots. Each bite of this steamed purple rice cake brings us just a little bit more closer to home; it brings back childhood memories for us parents while allowing us to build new memories with our own children, even in the midst of all this chaos in the world.
A family effort
So here we are, working together to make a traditional Christmas treat for Filipinos. Our big sister Allyra made the posters using Canva to promote our cause. Mommy and the kids had their own tasks in preparing the puto bumbong. Our Daddy was in charge of delivering the goods to our generous customers.
How to make puto bumbong
We also made a video to show how our puto bumbong was made. The kids were able to practice teamwork, and because we also discussed the cost of the ingredients and how much we actually earned, they also learned the value of perseverance and of not being wasteful because it takes a lot of work to earn good money.
Proceeds sent to those in need
We’ve been able to give all the proceeds of this weekend’s sale to our pastor, to be given to whomever the Lord leads the church to help. We are grateful to all who supported our mini fund-raising. We’ll do this again next weekend. There are just too many people in need; too many places where we can send help. We pray that the Lord guides us to reach out where He leads. We cannot help everyone, but we can share to whom God has called us to share with. May this post encourage us to continue to seek the Lord; to find his will and purpose in these trying times. We may feel helpless, but we have a God who is ever faithful. We pray that whether we eat, drink, or whatever it is that we do, may we do it for the glory of God.
May the Lord God bless us all!
