20140121 悲智願力克萬難 Mitigating Disasters by Inspiring Love in People
I told everyone that we should show our gratitude to Tzu Chi by attending the Year-end Blessings Ceremony. They were happy to be invited. About 700 people in our neighborhood came.
I’ll show the hong-bao to my grandchildren in the future, and tell them about how Tzu Chi had helped us.
Thanks to Tzu Chi, we found hope when we thought we’ve lost hope Tzu Chi has helped us stand up so that we can move on again.
What we saw was our Year-End Blessings Ceremony and Prayer vigil in Tacloban, Philippines. In one day, two ceremonies were held where over 30,000 people attended. Yet. It rained in the afternoon. So, at the ceremony site, the green grass field had turned muddy after being treaded by so many people. Even though it was raining, no one left the ceremony early. They all prayed very sincerely.
When asked why they stayed in the rain instead of taking shelter, they replied, “We want to thank Tzu Chi” This is because for more than two months, Tzu Chi volunteers have been helping them rebuild and prosper their city, which had been ruined by a typhoon. So, they are very grateful. To express their sincere gratitude, they stayed through the whole ceremony.
when I learned of this, I was very grateful and very moved. This is possible only when we make altruistic vows and live them out with compassion and wisdom. To serve as living bodhisattvas, we need to reach out to the suffering, be they in disaster areas or dangerous places, because we can’t bear to see people suffer. Over two months ago, when Tzu Chi volunteers first went to the disaster areas, there was a stench of dead bodies everywhere.
But, our volunteers quickly launched a cash-for-work program to clean up the disaster areas and held distributions one after another to give out material and monetary aid. For the disaster in the Philippines this time, Tzu Chi volunteers in over 40 countries and regions have together raised about US$26million. The money will all be used for rebuilding the disaster areas. See how the disaster areas have recovered now.
Businesses have resumed and disaster survivors have used the money we gave them to buy construction materials to rebuild their houses. So, people’s lives have gradually returned to normal. Yesterday, our volunteers gave out aid again I kept asking them if it was raining. Thankfully, it wasn’t and the distributions went smoothly.
We’re blessed to have been given this opportunity to purr ourselves together and get over this difficult time Tzu Chi volunteers and many people around the world have given us their love.
Inspired by our volunteers’ love, many locals began to volunteer with Tzu Chi I hope that in the near future when our mid-and long-germ relief there begins, with the support of our Tzu Chi volunteers in the Philippines. That way, we don’t need to mobilize volunteers from Taiwan or other countries to go to the Philippines.
Seeing more and more locals serving as our volunteers, I’m very comforted. Eventually, the Philippines will enjoy peace.
Today, our volunteers will give out aid to staff at the Tacloban City Government and the Provincial Government of Leyte who are also disaster victims. After that, our emergency relief effort there will come to an end, And then we’ll start planning for our mid-and long-term relief there. Seeing how the disaster areas are bustling with life again and businesses have resumed, I’m truly very happy.
We also see Indonesia. A few days ago, the mayor of a city in North Sulawesi contacted Tzu Chi volunteers in Jakarta for help after torrential rains caused severe flooding there. So, at 4 a.m. on Jan. 18, our volunteers took a military aircraft to deliver material and medical supplies to the disaster area. Our medical volunteers also went to help those affected.
Over the last few days, our volunteers have held free clinics and gave out supplies to the locals. Yesterday, our volunteers also invited the locals to help clean up the streets. The floodwater has begun to subside, but we see that the disaster area is strewn with garbage and debris. So, our volunteers enlisted the locals’ help to clean up their community. This is in Indonesia.
In Australia and the U.S., wildfires are still raging. Yesterday, New Zealand was affected by a 6.3-magnitutde quake. In this world, every part of the Earth is connected, and so is the sky. Living on the same land under the same sky, we should look after one another.
Yesterday, on the news, I saw our volunteers in Mozambique giving out rice to the needy. In China, for our winter aid distributions this time, our volunteers have given out aid to 130,000 people in over 73,000 families in 19 provinces. In many provinces, we’ve seen locals serving as our Tzu Chi volunteers.
They gave of themselves with love to care for their fellow countrymen, embracing them and bringing them comfort. See how respectful they were to the elderly and how much they cared about the education of children the education of children. Although many places are experiencing a harsh winter, our volunteers’ love has brought people warmth like the winter sun.
See how the elderly beamed with smiles. There is no other reward better than this. In many prvinces, we’ve seen such images of people full of joy after receiving love from our volunteers. But winter is still hard for the suffering. When Tzu Chi volunteers visit the elderly, they can only stay a short while. So, I hope they can visit the elderly more often.
What people really need is love and warmth, not just material supplies, such as winter clothing, comforters, etc. So, we should visit them often and inspire love in them at the same time. This is very important. As disasters are occurring more and more frequently around the world, we need to work harder to inspire more people to give of their love.
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