A Weekend Visit to Joylin . . .

Since the Spirit Questors adopted Joylin, she is not seen begging at the MRT Cubao stairs with her mother Rodita anymore. Some of her needs are provided by the Spirit Questors. Last Saturday, November 22, the Spirit Questors went to visit Joylin in her shanty, where her mother, Aling Dita, her brother, Bernard, Bernard's wife, Rosalie, and Bernard and Rosalie's three little boys live.



The Spirit Questors on the way to Joylin's house . . .














The gateway to the Abendans' shanty. They're ready for Christmas!











The Spirit Questors inside the small house. The group is trying to look for ways to help the family improve their living conditions, noting the roof and walls that badly need repair.








Inside the small house with Aling Dita and Tony Perez.










A heartwarming sight of Joylin attempting to speak . . . .


. . . and laugh!!!! A true personification of joy!








And in the garden surrounding that small house, something wonderful is growing, much like the faith that Aling Rodita is nurturing in her heart. This beautiful flower is nurtured by Joylin's brother Bernard in a small garden outside their house!




Bernard, a Machine Shop vocational graduate at Don Bosco Tondo, has a green thumb and would make a great landscaper's assistant!






Bernard also arranged stone figures and ornaments to decorate their small garden.







Art, even at its most trying time, can indeed nurture the creative spirit. In this creative display of beautifying their surroundings, Bernard and his family have shown us that faith and hope live in their hearts even as they try to barely survive their day-to-day existence.


Some day, when we return to visit again, their world will be brighter and their hopes will always assure them that it was worth, after all, to have faith.



Their faith nurtures us as well . . .


. . . as we trek back to the city, and its noisy lights and sounds . . .




The photographs on this page were taken by Gerard Paul Elvina.