ucm interface

OUT OF THE BOX: The Surprising and Unpredictable Ways in Which God Moves
Speaker: Bill Shaw
Oct. 7, 2008

Hello Folks,

I notice that one of the most common topics of the messages in Station One for the past few months is about the poor and the downtrodden of our society, and what the church is to do about it. I like how Bill Shaw began his message with pointing out that following Christ and helping out the poor does not mean reaching a philosophical place in our heads and not doing anything about it anymore. Following Christ begins by doing! Getting off our comfort zones and going out there, getting elbow deep in the muck of the masses.

Bill Shaw and his wife, Deb, saw the poor in the Philippines and couldn’t stand not to do anything about it. They didn’t set up a shelter or a feeding program or a foundation though, instead, they made a magazine. A very well-made magazine, if I say so myself, in the tradition of the street papers from all over the world and called it “Jeepney Magazine.”

A street paper is actually a magazine that communicates the voice of the poor, tells their stories, and is sold by street people. (Street people– the ones who live on the streets, homeless, or make their living from begging.) The people who sell the magazine get 50% and 50% goes to the publication of the magazine. This way, they are given jobs where they can actually earn a lot more than they would by selling cigarettes, newspapers.

While the Jeepney is a great idea to help the poor by giving them a job, and telling their stories at the same time, the idea still has to catch on. The Jeepney is on its third issue, but Bill and Deb are having difficulty distributing it. For one thing, street vendors are actually illegal in Metro Manila. The magazine is only P100, and it’s still kinda expensive for most people. They need a way to make the magazine sustainable. (Speaking as someone from the magazine industry, it is difficult to get people to buy magazines– hard to believe, considering there are LOTS of magazines out there, huh?)

Jeepney Magazine is a good quality magazine. Seriously. There are samples of it on the front table at Station One and browse through it. The pictures are exceptional, the layout is clean and the articles are interesting. The paper is nice! They are stories of people the society tries not to think about because they don’t have money to buy their goods! Hence, there is no advertising in Jeepney, except for a sponsorship ad at the back. It’s not just something put together haphazardly just to make a buck, a lot of thought and heart are put into every issue. We need a magazine like this out there amidst the fashion, beauty, sex, society magazines that people are buying (and i work for those kinds of magazines… *sigh*).

So what can we do to help? That’s the question.

1. Contacts— corporations that we can introduce the Jeepney Magazine to for sponsorship– not for ad placements, but as a corporate social responsibility thingy (heh).
— contacts or connections with the MMDA and the local city government that we can lobby to to make Jeepney Magazine vendors legit
2. Placements — of magazines and vendors (which is closely connected to the above item)
3. Sustainability — sponsorships, Bill and Deb are publishing this magazine out their own pockets! They need a way to have this magazine paying for itself, at least. This is not   even for profit, per se… it takes a lot of money to print a magazine.
4. Buy Jeepney Magazine! — when one of their vendors approach you, it’s better to buy a magazine from them than just giving them money. It’s their job to sell the magazine, let them do it.

And if there’s anything else you can think of, just do it!

I got a story to leave with you guys, I hope you don’t mind. It’s about my friend and her boyfriend,  one afternoon, they were standing on a hill overlooking a residential development surrounded by the shanties of squatters area somewhere in Quezon City. My friend, a professor in UP Diliman, looked at the sight before them and shook her head. She said, “How can anybody live like that?” Her boyfriend, a son of a well-off businessman and a UP graduate student, nodded his head, and replied, “Yeah. Can you imagine living in rooms that small?” He was looking at the residential development with its tiny units, while my friend was looking at the squatters’ area.

Who are the poor that we’re looking at? I’m sorry to point out the obvious, but UCM is a rich church, with rich church members. Not all of them, of course, but most. I’m not from UCM, but I go to Station One, and seriously, UCM has nice stuff. The sanctuary is gorgeous, Basement 2 sactuary is more than a lot of churches hope for. Station One even has people in uniforms to set up the chairs and light the candles every Tuesday night! Sometimes we’re surrounded by all these nice things that the poor that we look at are just the ones who have less than we have, and not the ones who actually have nothing.

We need to cast our sights farther, beyond our “comfort zones” and see the ones who sleep on the benches in our parks, in the doorways office buildings, on the sidewalks, and DO SOMETHING to help.

“With the poor around us, I don’t know how the church can stand it,” Bill said.

Time to get out of the box people.

Sincerely,
Stef

p.s. See you at Station One tonight! It’s every Tuesday, 7:30pm, Basement 2, Union Church Manila, cor. Legazpi and Rada St., Legazpi Village, Makati City