As Pastor Tim had announced over the weekend, we have collected about RM107k! Yeah! and Yeah to all the volunteers that made it all happened! Without your resources and time, it would not happened. A Big Thank You to all of you! (please reply me evaluation email so that we can improve for next year)
After purchasing, we would sort it according to profile numbers and then a group of volunteers will come to help wrap them up and then pack it into homes by homes. Although sounded simple but it took a lot of sorting and going through and trying to minimise mistakes so that the children will get the best heavenly gifts.
One of the pillar of this event is Agape Yeo. We lean on each other's strength and encouragement during this whole week of buying and sorting and buying and sorting and more buying and sorting.
Anyone can come and wrap. In fact, I encourage the community to come and help to wrap too. Charleen rallied her classmates to come and do community services by wrapping gifts and I left to their capable hands to wrap the packs!
For me, this was one of the most touching family scene. It was Christmas eve and the Yeo sisters were here to support each other and help to finish up. Me and Agape were slowly sorting out the shoes that came last minute and then Renee and Ken brought the baby and maid along to help and were energised to speed up the process. Then Bee Sean and the third sister came along with dinner and fed us and then helped out together. I couldn't resist the photo-moment!
Knowing that they are all taking care of the shoes, I left to IOI mall to shut down the booth. It is the last night of The Heavenly Gift booth at IOI Mall. We were tired after almost 20 days of volunteering at the mall but we were not too tired to excitedly tear down and pack up everything! Last photo before going home to wrap our own Christmas gifts!!
Just want to thank all the volunteers again for your time and hardwork in making the event a blessing to our community! I was really encouraged each time I visit the booth and see the volunteers relentlessly talking to the shoppers even after multiple rejection, they can all still laugh about it and move on to approach another shopper!
For the month of December, my phone rang the most times and the more frequently asked question I have to answer is "I'm on duty at Old Wing or New Wing ah?"... hahaha... Finally my pathetic, taped up schedule can rest in peace! After enduring days of scratched off names, refilled names and folding and unfolding.
After the closing of the booth comes the next exciting chapter of THG - the DISTRIBUTION! I think 26th was the most exciting day as I see volunteers coming to get the gift packs to head over to the various homes and run a small Christmas party for the children.
The volunteers prepared games and food and carols to have a fun time with the children. It's good to see everyone willingly step into the homes and join the children in laughter and a little childishness.
The joy and the laughter you can see from the faces of the children were priceless. I believe it's worth all the sleeplessness and the stress and the rejections from some of the shoppers. We made a positive change to our community, we brought "Heavenliness" to our community and we brought back compassion to the volunteers!
Each zone kind of helped to organise the Christmas party for one of the homes we championed but as for me, I championed the poor family food distribution on the 26th. Early in the morning we were gathered at Tesco to count the stocks and pile the goods into the van and cars to drive over to the Enggang Apartment community hall. Honestly, I was gladly surprised to see more than 80 volunteers turned up to help out at the distribution. Many hands make light work. They started taping up the boxes and aligning them and packing food into the boxes per family.
Joseph Gan and Pastor Timothy Loh, the two founders of Community At Heart, were there to help out as well. They were both sweating yet still laughing and enjoying themselves as their pack food and toiletries into their boxes!
There were volunteers from all walks of life. The married couples, the working adults, the teens, and the children can help out.
After the food were packed, it's now time to register the families and let them in. Our guy volunteers were inside queuing up inside to help carry the heavy food packs for the families. They each walked a few rounds just to help to carry - without complains! I absolutely salute them for their dedication and willingness just to serve.
After the food distribution, we also co-organise a children Christmas party with Malaysian Care and some of our volunteers stayed on to for their second round of the day. They started at 10am and end maybe at 10pm..? I was almost ready to crash to a knocked out sleep but they were still serving as I head home to shower and change before heading to a family Christmas party for the rest of the night.
The chapter has closed for The Heavenly Gift for now but soon, it will be the next chapter opening when we gather all the shoppers who volunteered to a round of meeting up and briefing on how they can make a positive change to the community.
If you've had any part in making THG happened, here's a BIG THANK YOU TO YOU! =)
After purchasing, we would sort it according to profile numbers and then a group of volunteers will come to help wrap them up and then pack it into homes by homes. Although sounded simple but it took a lot of sorting and going through and trying to minimise mistakes so that the children will get the best heavenly gifts.
One of the pillar of this event is Agape Yeo. We lean on each other's strength and encouragement during this whole week of buying and sorting and buying and sorting and more buying and sorting.
Anyone can come and wrap. In fact, I encourage the community to come and help to wrap too. Charleen rallied her classmates to come and do community services by wrapping gifts and I left to their capable hands to wrap the packs!
For me, this was one of the most touching family scene. It was Christmas eve and the Yeo sisters were here to support each other and help to finish up. Me and Agape were slowly sorting out the shoes that came last minute and then Renee and Ken brought the baby and maid along to help and were energised to speed up the process. Then Bee Sean and the third sister came along with dinner and fed us and then helped out together. I couldn't resist the photo-moment! 
Knowing that they are all taking care of the shoes, I left to IOI mall to shut down the booth. It is the last night of The Heavenly Gift booth at IOI Mall. We were tired after almost 20 days of volunteering at the mall but we were not too tired to excitedly tear down and pack up everything! Last photo before going home to wrap our own Christmas gifts!!
Just want to thank all the volunteers again for your time and hardwork in making the event a blessing to our community! I was really encouraged each time I visit the booth and see the volunteers relentlessly talking to the shoppers even after multiple rejection, they can all still laugh about it and move on to approach another shopper!
For the month of December, my phone rang the most times and the more frequently asked question I have to answer is "I'm on duty at Old Wing or New Wing ah?"... hahaha... Finally my pathetic, taped up schedule can rest in peace! After enduring days of scratched off names, refilled names and folding and unfolding.
After the closing of the booth comes the next exciting chapter of THG - the DISTRIBUTION! I think 26th was the most exciting day as I see volunteers coming to get the gift packs to head over to the various homes and run a small Christmas party for the children.
The volunteers prepared games and food and carols to have a fun time with the children. It's good to see everyone willingly step into the homes and join the children in laughter and a little childishness.
The joy and the laughter you can see from the faces of the children were priceless. I believe it's worth all the sleeplessness and the stress and the rejections from some of the shoppers. We made a positive change to our community, we brought "Heavenliness" to our community and we brought back compassion to the volunteers!
Each zone kind of helped to organise the Christmas party for one of the homes we championed but as for me, I championed the poor family food distribution on the 26th. Early in the morning we were gathered at Tesco to count the stocks and pile the goods into the van and cars to drive over to the Enggang Apartment community hall. Honestly, I was gladly surprised to see more than 80 volunteers turned up to help out at the distribution. Many hands make light work. They started taping up the boxes and aligning them and packing food into the boxes per family.
Joseph Gan and Pastor Timothy Loh, the two founders of Community At Heart, were there to help out as well. They were both sweating yet still laughing and enjoying themselves as their pack food and toiletries into their boxes!
There were volunteers from all walks of life. The married couples, the working adults, the teens, and the children can help out.
After the food were packed, it's now time to register the families and let them in. Our guy volunteers were inside queuing up inside to help carry the heavy food packs for the families. They each walked a few rounds just to help to carry - without complains! I absolutely salute them for their dedication and willingness just to serve. 
After the food distribution, we also co-organise a children Christmas party with Malaysian Care and some of our volunteers stayed on to for their second round of the day. They started at 10am and end maybe at 10pm..? I was almost ready to crash to a knocked out sleep but they were still serving as I head home to shower and change before heading to a family Christmas party for the rest of the night.The chapter has closed for The Heavenly Gift for now but soon, it will be the next chapter opening when we gather all the shoppers who volunteered to a round of meeting up and briefing on how they can make a positive change to the community.
If you've had any part in making THG happened, here's a BIG THANK YOU TO YOU! =)
Photos in New Wing..Old Wing no photo taking, so sad :( hahaha..anyway, it's been AWESOME..
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