Love makes people do crazy things and a week before Valentine’s Day, love made a group of women do one of the craziest things they ever did: they bought an ambulance not knowing where they would find the means to pay for it.
But love is what has been moving the Servias de Maria (Servants of Mary) nuns to do what they do everyday. They go to houses of the poor and the sick situated in the remote areas of Barangay Handumanan in Bacolod City where they serve, many times on foot and neither heat nor dust can stop them.
They also tend to the sick in their St. Ezekiel Moreno clinic in Handumanan, serving the needs of the poor who cannot afford to go to the city proper for medical help.
The nuns have been quietly serving the community for ten years now, tending to the very sick, many of whom are almost skin and bones. When the COVID-19 pandemic made access to ambulance services more difficult, the nuns intensified their prayers for a miracle ambulance to come their way.
According to Sister Carmen Piña, superior of the Servias de Maria community in Bacolod City, “Handumanan is a very poor barangay. We need the ambulance to bring the bedridden to our clinic or the hospital for treatment. Many of the poor in the remote areas of the barangay have no means of transportation, having an ambulance is a very big help.”
She also said that to get an ambulance from the city proper to transport their patients, they usually would need to make an appointment, but in emergency situations, it was sometimes difficult to get one right away. Mobile phone signals are also a challenge in their area.
The nuns found a partner in Token Lizares, the lady dubbed by many as the Charity Diva because of her selfless support for charity projects by using her singing talent as means to raise funds.
Lizares found a brand new ambulance for sale, managed to wangle a good discount, and helped link the nuns to a Good Samaritan to provide the down payment on a payable-when-able basis. Token signed a promissory note with the ambulance supplier and now, together with the nuns, is praying that the Lord touches hearts to pay for the loan. The nuns have brought home the ambulance, and happily drive it to serve the poor they love.
Lizares has seen the hand of God working through this dream wrought in love as each need is met a step at a time, and she believes, in faith, that the hand of God is writing this yet unfinished story. Those who wish to be a part of God’s writing team may contribute for the ambulance by depositing donations to RCBC Account No. 1421176899 of the Local Superior of Siervas de Maria, or call Sister Carmen at 09154564111, Lizares said.
Quoting from Proverbs 19:17, Lizares said “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.”*