SIC forms Street Shepherd Outreach team

Jul 14, 2017

PETALING JAYA: The parish of St Ignatius Church (SIC) has embarked on a new journey. On June 10, the Street Shepherd Outreach (SSO), under the guidance of the SSO team from Good Shephard Church in Setapak, Kuala Lumpur was officially formed. Many SIC parishioners from all walks of life volunteered their time to this special cause. The SSO consists of three segments which are Street Feeding, Carl’s Kitchen and Rehabilitation center.

On July 1, the Street Feeding team set off to reach out to the homeless, the abandoned, the poor and whoever the Lord wanted us to meet by bringing them food and water. This was our first street feeding outreach with 67 volunteers, including three children aged 10 and above. Parish priest, Fr Andrew Wong, CDD, assistant parish priest Fr Lawrence Ng, CDD and Brother Joseph Lim, CDD also joined in the outreach.

Fr Wong joined a group of 20 parishioners who headed to the streets of Jalan Pasar in Pudu while Fr Ng was with a group of 47 parishioners and headed towards Central Market. During the outreach, we discovered a significant number of homeless and underprivileged people who call the streets of Kuala Lumpur their “home.” It was a truly moving and overwhelming experience to see how they live. To most of them, their mattress was just made up of thin layers of cardboard boxes, with some lucky enough to have blankets to cover themselves.

It made us question if we are truly grateful for the blessings that Our Lord Jesus has given to us. It also made us realise how blessed we are and how we should be thankful for the things in life we take for granted. At the end of the day, we came together as one to help these unfortunate people, with the presence of the Lord being felt among us as we made our way through the streets of Kuala Lumpur.

Bringing them water and food is the first step in our journey as SIC SSO. Do they really need just an occasional packet of food to satisfy their hunger? Or do they have other needs that we are yet to discover? This will be our journey — to walk as one and to reach out to these forgotten people within our midst. As we collect our thoughts and meet again to plan our next street feeding, let us come together as a SSO SIC family with our helping hands reach out to the hungry and suffering.