Before Thanksgiving Day 2002, a group of initiates visited the local public television station that airs Supreme Master Ching Hai's lectures each week. During the visit, the initiates served the station's staff members several delicious vegetarian treats. The station staff were joyfully surprised with these tasty treats, and we were pleased to learn that the CEO of the station is a vegetarian. We graciously thanked the crew for handling Master's weekly TV lectures, which connect Her to viewers throughout the island of Hawaii.
The Hawaii Center donated 382 pounds of food as a Thanksgiving contribution to the Hawaii Food Bank, which distributes provisions to nearly 300 qualified non-profit agencies throughout the island. The Bank thus provides assistance to the working poor, the homeless, the elderly, abused children and families, and others in need.
Hawaii initiates also visited a local homeless shelter and brought gifts to the resident women and children before Christmas. Excitement was stirred among the residents when some of the women recognized our group and realized we had treats for them again. As the gifts were distributed, one young woman gave her backpack to another lady who seemed to need it more than she did. We had no more new backpacks on hand, so one of our brothers gave the young lady his own personal backpack instead, and the woman was very touched by his loving gesture.
On another occasion, a group of initiates noticed some homeless people at a local beach park. The homeless were cold and hungry, and so the initiates planned to return to the park once a week to provide them with food.
On a subsequent evening, hot soup, fried rice, egg-free pastries, juice, bananas and persimmons were served to three different groups of homeless. Some homeless veterans that had fought in the Vietnam War were very happy to see Aulacese initiates serving them food and one commented, "There is good here; we must remember God."
An initiate's 88-year-old mother felt blessed as she helped serve the food, and we all experienced awesome waves of love flowing through us as we joyfully put Master's teachings into practice!
Roundup Report from Hawaii, USA
