People have been asking how I am doing and what the situation is with regards to our work in Payatas. Let me say a few things.

Certainly my feelings and my energy have gone up and down. In a number of important areas I have not responded to God's grace as I should but God has nevertheless been AMAZINGLY faithful and generous.

One of the ways in which I have failed to adequately respond to God has been not taking enough time, or the right times, for sleep, rest and recreation. Another area has been not spending enough time in prayer.

I am doing better at resting and relaxing but I still need to do better. I think it was about two weeks ago that I was really exhausted but I am much better now. Please pray that I will have the faith, determination and discipline to rest, relax and pray as I should.

It is now 4 months since Community Quarantine was first imposed and the government has just extended the community quarantine until at least July 31. While some people are back at work, many are not and many who had some savings now have none. Many people are desperate!

There are now requests for us to provide relief food to areas of Payatas that we have not covered before. There are many thousands of families in areas which PNA was not covering because they were receiving relief from elsewhere who are now no longer receiving from elsewhere. A main reason for this is donor fatigue. We are intending to try to provide relief food to at least some of these families.

However our funding has been greatly falling as well. The only way we can continue is if God continues to provide, as he has done so far - sometimes at the last moment.

So far we have distributed around 78,000 food packs to around 12,000 families. We will simply continue to give until either we cannot due to lack of donations or until we believe the Lord has said it is time to stop.

I thank God so much for his amazing love, grace and provision. I also thank the wonderful generosity of so many people and the hard work of so many Payatas volunteers.

I have been touched by people's sacrificial generosity. Two days ago one of the people in the areas where we were distributing came up and gave me a small plastic bag containing coins. She said it was a donation for PNA to buy rice!!! The other day someone who had lost his job due to the quarantine gave his second donation for food distribution!!

Please pray and ask others to pray. As well as asking you to pray for the general situation, I am also asking you to pray for one specific situation. On Tuesday it was the burial of of a woman whose husband had been buried fairly recently. I performed blessings before the burial of both of them. The husband was shot dead and the wife died of cancer. They leave behind four orphaned children. Please pray for these children in their great need, in poverty and without parents to care and provide for them. I intend to have PNA provide a scholarship for at least one or two of them.

God bless and be with you all,
Thank you

Fr Paul