GIANT FEAST - More than 2,800 kids enjoyed Pastor Apollo’s
birthday treat in
Brgy. Sto. Niño, Tugbok Dist. in Toril, Davao City.
Thousands of children all over the Philippines celebrated
their
“adopted birthday” last April 25.
Pastor Apollo C. Quiboloy treats more than a thousand kids
to free food and gifts in Calinan, Davao City.
|
Rap-rap is already 10 but he has never celebrated his birthday. His father, a tricycle driver in Bgy. Sto. Niño, Tugbok District, Davao City, can barely afford to provide for their meals; his mother, a labandera, earns only as much as she can manage. Today is different. Pastor Apollo is treating about four thousand children in the covered court of Bgy. Sto Niño, Tugbok, and at the Plaza Park in Calinan, Davao City to their fi rst birthday party. There’s free food, party treats and presents at the Tugbok District barangay hall and covered court. It is the best day of Raprap’s life.
Twenty minutes away, Grace, 5, and Roselyn, 6, are waiting in line for a birthday present at the barangay hall in Los Amigos, Davao City. The line seems endless; more than one thousand two hundred kids are queuing, but they are willing to wait. They will be getting the fi rst birthday present they have ever received in their lives.
On yet another hot and humid summer morning, 9-year-old Nura and her siblings, ages 2 to 7, wake up with grumbling stomachs. But this day has something ‘special’ in store that the eldest child among the brood of 8 is overwhelmed with excitement rather than hunger.
Nura rushes to check if there is enough water in the barrel. She has to bathe and dress up her siblings for it is their communal birthday! April 25, she learned, is a day given as the adopted birthdays of children in her village, and they will all be joining a giant birthday party at the Tamayong Barangay center.
Festooned with buntings and colorful balloons, the entire village has turned into a giant county fair. Nura is quite surprised to see more than a dozen ice cream carts lined up in front of the elementary school, with men giving away unlimited ice cream all for free! To her younger siblings’ delight, there is a ferris wheel too! |
Nura gets to ride it for the fi rst time, together with her grandparents. In front of the school are booths with several goodies given to all the indigent children (50% of which are Muslims) and their families. There are candies, breads and pastries, vitamins, packs of milks, chocolate drinks and cotton candy.
At the stage fronting the Barangay Hall is a convergence of all the village folks, both young and old, enjoying parlor games with great prizes of course! Nura leads her brothers and sisters to what seems to be an endless party table arrayed with delightsome meals. The ‘NCD feast,’ as everyone calls it, begins at exactly 12:00 noon. Nura can never be happier as she looks at her siblings enjoying the birthday party meals.
On April 25, 2006 the whole Philippines was surprised to see on TV enormous birthday celebrations throughout the country, with the main event being held in Davao City. Pastor Apollo C. Quiboloy called this event the “National Children’s Day,” as it has become the adopted birthday of poor and destitute children in the country. Even from its birth, the National Children’s Day was already massive.
Pastor Apollo wants every destitute child to know what real joy, love and hope means. At least, even for a single day in a year, they would
look forward to a very special day that has become their adopted birthday. The event is replicated in 22 other cities in the country. Nura and her siblings go home before dusk with gifts tucked in their arms. It is after all, their communal birthday.
The celebration is extended until the months of May and June, as Pastor Quiboloy and his group of volunteers continue to conduct massive feeding programs and tree planting activities in the city, also in celebration of the Sonshine Philippines Movement’s 6th Anniversary on June 18. Pastor Apollo’s SPM volunteers (coming from the different sectors of society) already have a list of activities line up in the coming days.
Last April 30, the villages of Mintal, Calinan and Los Amigos were surprised with giant feasts, as Pastor Apollo’s SPM Volunteers held feeding programs there. With the atmosphere of joy these great acts of goodness bring, one can only feel the spirit of Christmas in these hot summer months. Seeing the children’s innocent smiles makes one feel that it’s Christmas once again. |
