The enduring good in people.

There is a lot of good in people. You just have to take the time to read about them, and be inspired.

This morning, the papers celebrate extraordinary common folks. You will read about Abraham Yeo, 38. Amanda Lim, 35, and Chan Guo Xiong, 35. 

For Abraham, he saw a void and filled it. He is the co-founder of Homeless Hearts of Singapore. It was started 2014 to give/offer food, drinks and friendship to the homeless sleeping on the streets, shop fronts and void decks. 

For Amanda, she is part of a group of eight who formed Mother Hen Club with this motto, “No child should be left alone at home.”

Mother Hen Club was set up following “the news of a six-year-old girl who fell to her death in June after she was left alone at home.”

Amanda said: “We wanted to be part of a group that can create a safe place for children who might otherwise be left alone. I am a full-time working mother. So I know how hard it is to find a nanny to care for my kids if I have to go to work at the last minute.” 

You can say that Mother Hen Club saw a child alone, and comforted her. 

Then, you will read about this strange group of four mothers who came together in 2013 to “cook and distribute free meals every week to 100 needy residents living in Chinatown.”

The four mothers, helped by their family members, are Ong Choon Hoy, 66, Lai Huay Lim, 61, Quak Kah Hoe, 57, and Loh Mui Khim, 52. Together, they started Mummy Yummy. 

It reports (by Rahimah Rashith) that: “Today, the food distribution network has grown much bigger, giving out more than 30,000 meals to the needy across Singapore every month. Around 1,000 meals are distributed every day.”

Strange, why? Because, one by one, they sold their homes to fund the operations. Now, the “women and their families...live together in a rented landed property. They also rely on donations to fund the operations.” 

I mean, who does that? Aren’t they like salmons that swim against the grain of what society has taught our children, that is, to secure the 5Cs, to scale up to the top, and to be known, even adored? 

Well, Mummy Yummy is indeed “strange” and you can say that they saw a hungry soul, and fed him. 

I guess pure and undefiled religion is one that cares for the orphans, feeds the hungry, poor and the homeless, and keeps oneself from being polluted by the mindless pursuit and soulless script of this world.

And for the Homeless Hearts of Singapore, Mother Hen Club and Mummy Yummy, they have indeed shown what true and undefiled religion is. It is not found in a building or under a giant tent. Neither is it found in a stadium with floodlights nor where a band plays in perfect sync. 

It is however found when the crowd disperse, when the lights go out and when silence descends. It is found when one heart connects with another, when one soul holds the hand of another, and when brokenness meets brokenness, love meets tears, and hope meets pain. 

I always feel that the greatest failure of humanity is not so much the lack of initiatives, but the lack of imagination. It is the lack of imagining what an enduring difference an anonymous act to step out of our shell and reach out can make to one life we often walk by in our rush to meet deadlines or fulfill targeted quotas. 

It is thus never about “only if” then I will help, but it is about “what if” when I do it regardless of what little I have, and then do it again and again, not for anything else but for the most unembellished of reasons and it is this - that I can imagine a life transformed, a child fed, a mother encouraged, a homeless having good company for just one night, and a community enriched by the seemingly intangible, invisible efforts working together because they - at their different stations in life, regardless of age, language or religion - saw a void and filled it, a child alone and comforted her, and a soul hungry and fed him. 

So don’t just do it for doing sake, but do it with imagination, and we will then be able to see beyond the efforts that often go unappreciated to how the society can be transformed one life at a time for good, for hope and for enduring love.

That is a religion that is pure and undefiled.