Time flies, and the year is coming to an end. On November 13, 2022, volunteers prepared materials for the year-end distribution in Ipswich City, in the southeast of Queensland, Australia.
As Usual
It was early summer in Australia, and, at 5.30 a.m., the sky was bright. The bus driver arrived early at the Gold Coast Jing Si Hall; the volunteers arrived one after another. They worked together to load the supplies onto the bus; after praying together, as usual, they set off for the distribution.
They arrived at the distribution site at 7:15. Because it was the end of the year, the number of care recipients who came to receive food had increased significantly. The parking lot was almost full of vehicles, and the recipients were waiting in a long line under the sun. The volunteers quickly set up the distribution site, and also provided drinking water to the recipients one by one.
For more than ten years in Ipswich, almost everyone has developed the habit of bringing change to the donation box, or bringing coin banks back to Tzu Chi. This year two little boys and a girl of newly certified Tzu Chi Youth volunteer Lin Yu-tong (林昱彤) held a fundraising box to aid a project of the Foundation in Lumbini, Nepal. They devoutly raised their arms in a gesture of love and bowed down again and again to give thanks; this brought kind responses from many people. This was a warm and loving scene that set the tone for the day.
We are blessed
But the day also saw a heart-wrenching scene. Looking through the lens of her camera, documentary volunteer Peng Yun-hua (彭雲華) saw what seemed to be a big black hole on the left side of the nose of a care recipient. She was shocked and thought she had misunderstood it; so she looked again, "Really. It’s a big black hole.” She did not dare to ask more questions, and followed the person gently to the parking lot. Seeing this, Tzu Chi volunteer Wu Zhao-feng (吳照峰) went to comfort her and told her to ask her family members to come and diagnose her condition later.
Suddenly, the woman – who suffers from nasal cancer -- had a sudden attack. Seeing her in extreme pain, people around her frantically comforted her or looked for water and food. Wu Zhao-feng quickly brought her fruit jelly to eat. Fortunately, she returned to normal after being slowly fed and went back home with the blessings of the volunteers.
It was a heart-wrenching and shocking lesson that made people think deeply about life. Seeing the woman suffer, volunteer Peng Yun-hua realized her own blessings.
Master Cheng Yen, founder of Tzu Chi, has always said: “Aging, sickness, and death are irreversible. We should cherish and grasp our limited life to benefit all living beings.” So Tzu Chi volunteers cherish every second and seize every opportunity to reach out a helping hand.
This time, 42 volunteers worked together successfully and distributed goods to 120 households. They also raised AUD$125.00 (USD$83.91). The donation is limited, but the love is immeasurable. This is the echo of love, and this echo will be long and eternal.
Join Tzu Chi. Let us pool our love together to warm every soul of the world.
Article: Peng Yunhua, Australia Report 2022/11/13)
