29/12/2020
Today is our 5th month, the year is ending...and it looks like we can manage the coming year. 2021 here we come!
If at all, it is a miracle that we are still in business. When we opened, height of the pandemic, we relied on God's blessings and guidance. Our purpose is to cook and share the food that Mamang and Papang cooked for us. Food that nurtured us with love and faith in God. We have been rewarded with supporters who came to help us build this little store, made sure the hearth is burning warmth, the ingredients fresh and the freezer full to the brim.
Thank you, to the women and men who gifted us with a money scanner, a set of solingen steel cookery, brought us numerous buyers, talked about our food, gave feedback, pushed us beyond our capacities. Friends who come for a visit on a slow day. We are amazed at how strangers would come to buy our food by word of mouth. Amazed that our humble condiments were shared as gifts during the holidays. Cousins, childhood friends and neighbors we grew up with in Basilan and Zamboanga, who came to find us.
We are grateful to our families who support our endeavours, prayed for the store, concerned about our health and the threatening viruses. My supportive sisters and brother, brother-in-laws -- our youngest sister Elisha, who helped start up the store, front ended the rent before Covid reached us, Yasmin who designed the logo and visuals, and nieces and nephews who pointed us to suppliers...endless grace.
And to these special and beautiful people... nothing beats the community of LGBTQIA++ gender equality advocates, women activists, human rights advocates, colleagues in development work, theater, film and visual artists, cultural workers, the who's who... supporting us and our food and artisanal products. Thank you all so much. Whenever a dish is done, we always pray that it will bless and nurture those who will partake it!
Great is Thy faithfulness, oh God our Father.