Last night someone special asked me about MHI. She was not very old. In fact I was surprised when I tried explaining about MHI, she understood the analogy clearly.
She was asking me when she will be coming to visit MHI again because she really had a great time this holidays.
Suddenly as I was trying to explain MHI to her, I thought of a perfect yet simple way of clarifying what MHI is.
MHI is not a bus stop. It is the bus itself. I was quite surprised I used this example out of the blue, but as I talked and she understood me perfectly well. Many of us feel and will always wonder if MHI is a bus stop. Why a bus stop? I guess it is a common sight in Singapore
. We use the buses to get from one place to another. Our bus stops are clean, friendly. Some are even eco friendly, meaning we use solar energy to power the advertisements, sign boards there. Surely MHI is a bus stop? Since, YWCA is where our Drop In Center (DIC) is with the friendly faces of our full time staff, Anthony Phua and Pauline Ong. Always to welcome anybody who drops in with a smile, with advice, a listening ear, always a shoulder for others to cry on.
Yet, I would say, it is not exactly the best way of describing MHI as the bus stop itself, but rather the Bus! The experience when one comes to MHI is not the building itself. But the people. Just like a school bus or any public transport. It is the bus itself and the people on the bus that makes our experience fulfilling. The bus that brings us where we want to go. The mobile shelter when outside is hot burning sun or raining cats and dogs. We ride the bus with our best friends, with our other friends, with our family members and even sometimes we have to take the same bus as our enemies.
I would suggest, our experience with MHI is really the ride itself rather than the bus. Sometime ago, somebody complains to me. Why do HI people have no loyalty? Is it because of the past experience? Does it come with the disability being unable to hear? Actually again I can use the example of the bus stop and the bus. I feel that perhaps some HI people do not understand the experience of the bus ride. Instead, they prefer the comfort of the bus stop. For them, their life is series of getting onto and getting off different buses. Moving from school to school, moving from organization to organization, moving from church to church. Nothing makes them remain loyal. To them, their comfort is remaining at the same bus stop.
When HI decide they don’t want to remain in the bus stop and when they have decided, “Yes I want to get on bus number 174 and I want to follow this bus until I reach my destiny.” Then the commitment and dedication to stay focused makes the trip a pleasant journey.
My next question is are all trips pleasant? What makes a bus ride enjoyable? Is it the aircon? The mobile TV? The clean bus, the driver, the conductor? Or is it the people onboard the bus who is with you? I feel that it is all the above. How do we apply this idea to MHI?
Passengers. That makes the majority of the people sitting on the bus. Are they good or bad? I saw a boy give up his seat for the elderly or the disabled one day. Though he is not their son, yet he believes in giving and sharing his seat. I also saw a thief onboard the bus and he was trying to snatch a student’s handphone. They look like you and me. Our trip is made different by the passengers we have on board.
Sometimes our trip is not so much of what others do for us, but what we do for others. Rather than wait for others to stand and give up their seat for us, let us be the one that will give up the seat to the elderly and the disabled. Rather than standing around the entrance or the exit, let us be the ones who will move backwards so that others can get onboard the bus. Rather than putting our earphones to listen to the IPOD and shutting ourselves from the world, let us be the first to smile at others. Let us look around to those who are feeling sad, feeling lonely.
Before we go about thinking that all trips are safe, we need to ask God for wisdom. Wisdom to know the difference. Bus rides that are not safe includes those whom I mentioned as "passengers". They are those who "get on and then get off". They have no feelings for the people who are onboard. They are those who will talk loudly on their handphone, play their radio loudly, spit and litter. They are the people who feel that the whole world owes them a living and their existence deserves a certain honour as if they are a king or a queen. Our experience on board the bus is definitely not going to be a pleasant one. These are the relationships that we need to watch out for.
As I say farewell to 2007 and hello to 2008, I want to encourage my fellow passengers. Their age range from primary school all the way to the adults who are single and those who are married and some already with children. I want to encourage them to keep their faith and not give up the good fight. The MHI Bus is a family. Unlike other volunteers who give instructions from the Bus stop. I want to say to them I am on the same bus as they are. Though people may say I have "Been there. Done that." I still continue to grow with them. I always say, whatever happens to you also happens to me. Therefore I will not do anything that will jeopardize the trip. I want more people to climb onboard this Bus as we enter the new 2008.
