Tzu Chi center

The Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation started in Taiwan, and nowadays, they have centers in cities around the world. They also have several centers in Malaysia. While I was in Penang, I became a counseling volunteer and didn’t have much time to join in Tzu Chi, even though I knew they had a center in Penang. However, I always praised Tzu Chi’s volunteer group for their mighty spirit in charitable works in disaster relief, helping poor people, medical clinics, education, etc.

Recently, we found a Tzu Chi center in St. Louis. Tzu Chi’s volunteers greeted us the first time we entered the center. And we met one of the persons in charge who is a Chinese-Malaysian; she has already been in the USA for many years. I joined their study group which is on alternating Saturdays. The USA is very big and not every city has a Tzu Chi center, so I appreciate that I met this nice group of people!

By the way, I’ll share a little part of one of the stories shared in the study group. It was about a Tzu Chi group that went to Haiti distributing food. They heard some local people used dirt to make crackers as food, and the dirt was almost gone too. The people were starving mob. When the Tzu Chi group went there, for their own safety, they had to give out the food by throwing it to the local people...

佛教慈济开始是发展于台湾，但现今已扩佈世界各大城市成立会所。在马来西亚也有慈济，我之前在槟城因投入心理辅导义工行列，虽然知晓槟城慈济会所，但从没分身参与慈济的行列。不过，我常常赞叹慈济义工的利行慈善救助贫困灾难者、医疗、教肓等的伟大精神。

最近我们知晓在St. Louis也有慈济会所，我们走进去，慈济义工们即热情的招待，该会所其中一负责人竟是马来西亚华人，她已定居美国多年。我开始参与他们目前进行的两周六一次读书会。美国这么大，不是很多城市都有慈济会所，我很感恩可以接触到这些善知识！

顺便提一提在读书会的其中一个分享，关于慈济团队到海地（Haiti）发放食物，据说当地人民用泥土制成饼充饥，泥土也没了，人饥饿得都失去礼仪。慈济团队到那里，因为了自身安全，都只好用丢食物的方式给当地人民…