Monday, February 19, 2007

Concern begets initiative

I USED to see him walk some mornings towards the school where we both work, he as a foreign IT consultant and I as chaplain. I always felt obliged to give him a ride, because the approach to the school is a 200-meter steep and, to me, hard climb.

It took me some time to realize that he did not need a lift. An inveterate athlete, he wants to walk, climb and do many physical things, if not always, then often. His body just craves for these exertions.

The other day I was told that he biked from Cebu up to Bogo then down to Balamban at the other side and crossed the island back to Cebu through the transcentral. That’s easily about 180 kilometers of rough terrain, treacherous climbs, and he did it all in one day!

Of course, biking is his main sport. And he has been to many places in the country biking, accumulating enough knowledge of the places to produce an excellent guidebook for bikers in the different parts of the archipelago.

A few months ago, he with a friend also made a more-than-a-thousand-kilometer biking expedition from Pakistan to China. And he continues to make plans of ambitious biking excursions like this. He might manage to make a world guidebook for bikers too.

His name is Jens (pronounced Yens) Funk, fortyish, blond, pale blue eyes, and German all over, with no hint of fat in his bodily frame. But you’d be amazed at how well he blends with the local folks, and with everyone in the school.

The rural setting and rural living are no problem to him. His capacity to adapt is tremendous. In fact, given the economic level of most of our students, I’ve never seen him in formal or semi-formal attire. He dresses and behaves almost like any of them. No first-world airs about him.

The students and staff, of course, love him, and I could see that the distance of deference students normally give to teachers, let alone, a foreigner, is practically non-existent. Respect accorded him is done in true friendship, indeed a beautiful sight to see!

This set-up has produced something wonderful. The other day, I was asked to bless more than 100 bikes together with their new owners, the smiling, obviously happy students.

It turned out that Jens, by his own initiative, arranged for these bikes—slightly used—to be shipped to Cebu from Germany.

As I tried to piece things together, Jens had been concerned with many of the students’ conditions. That concern made him see opportunities, crackled him to action, assumed some responsibilities, etc. He believes a bike is a right, not just a privilege.

He asked some people in Germany to donate bikes. He organized some foundation, established a network of contacts, raised some money just to make these bikes arrive here.

These bikes mean a lot to the students. These save them a lot of fare money. And of course, these enable them to be more mobile, a necessity these days. And there are many other advantages too subtle to enumerate and describe here.

Somehow, I feel in a very special way the great impact this gesture of generosity has made on the students. As chaplain, I am acquainted with the living conditions of the students.

My conversations with them often end up with tears in my eyes. Because of
poverty, ordinary problems become crises of epic proportions to many of them. It has become very challenging for me to give them reasons to hope, to be patient, to persevere in their studies.

This is not to mention the other aspects of formation that they also have to tackle. They may be good in one aspect, but terrible in another, and so any help to relieve some of their difficulties is always welcome.

If only we make personal initiatives, no matter how little, I’m sure we can make a difference, if not big then at least something, if not now then later. Nothing is wasted in personal initiatives.

Let’s thank God for kind hearts like Jens!

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