I became a Christian in the year 1995.  However, when I first heard about tithing 10% of my income to God, I thought to myself, “what a ridiculous idea!, not only do I have to pay taxes, now I have to give to God thru the church too. Now, what will be left of my meager pay?”

 During this time, I was in college.  Also, during this time, my father went bankrupt.  He lost his workers, lost his shop and eventually lost his warehouses where he keep a lot of his inventory.  It was a very painful ordeal for him.

 My sister and I stepped up and shared more than half the financial burden of the breadwinner. Besides that, we had two younger siblings dependent on us for their education and other needs. 

 I personally found myself struggling hard to juggle my time to make both ends meet.  

 Our home during these hard times was cramped in a unit by a little alley.  There were two small rooms, and seven family members.  We had a small kitchen and dining area downstairs but the ceiling was so low, you have to stoop down to cook.  Worse, when the rain comes, it floods downstairs and the ceiling leaks as well.   There was no water available in the house so we have to pump water to pails for our daily needs.

 When my father became bankrupt, we have to give up the little alley house.  And so, we moved to our next dwelling place which was located in a very poor street, about a few blocks from where the squatters area are.  The rooms were a little bigger than the alley home but like the alley house,  water too was not available.  And hence, each night, me and my siblings take turn to pump water in pail and haul pails after pails of water to the house for the next day’s use.  My mother would do her laundry near the pump and get one of us to help her hang the clothes to dry inside.  In this house, cooking was a challenge; the kitchen light does not work properly and so it was always dim by the kitchen area.  Our stove was neither powered by electricity or natural gas.  My mother have to pour gasoline on this stove’s container and pump it manually and light it with a match to make it work.