English 
Everyone can make a difference in another person’s life. All we need is a compassionate heart, willing hands and feet that are quick to respond.
BY CHIN MUI YOON
star2@thestar.com.my
When Priya’s husband died of a heart attack, she was left to fend for her five young children. To add to her misery, her husband’s relatives came along and carted off all their meagre belongings. The children ended up going from house to house, begging.
Martha was the result of an unwanted teen pregnancy. When Martha was born, her mother was only 14. The baby was placed in the care of her grandmother who had to go out and work, and subsequently, Martha was abused by a care-provider.
The children from both families have found a home in Rumah Kids, an orphanage in Klang, Selangor. The home was started in 1991 under Grace Community Services (GCS), one of the country’s largest charitable organizations which provide community care and food shelter for the homeless, destitute, abused and abandoned, regardless of race or religion.
GCS recently emerged as The Star Bid & Win Charity Series winner, after thousands of supporters and strangers alike chipped in their unused Star Point tokens to enable the organization to win a brand new Peugeot 207.
“We are entirely dependent, on the support of donors and we are touched that so many people have heard of our work and called us to get our postal address to mail us their coupons,” says GCS chairman and founder Dr. Hendry Pillai, 65, during an interview to kickstart The Star’s “Do Good. Volunteer.” campaign.
GCS serves 1,600 meals a day through its network of four orphanages, a street feeding programme, and homes for unwed mothers, destitute women, and recovering drug addicts. Food is also delivered through GCS’s Food Bank for the Poor, the first of its kind in the country.
GCS’s reach has been widespread but it is difficult to determine just how many people have benefited as the 20 full-time staff can hardly cope with the ever-increasing need for aid, counselling and support.
It all began with a simple step of faith to go where the need is.
Pillai started off as a young pastor at 26, and today he continues to play a central role as a visionary leader. Faith is reflected in good works, Pillai believes. “I have been blessed so I want to bless others. It can be as simple as giving a bag of rice or tinned food to someone out there who is hungry. Every time we give, we are answering another person’s prayer.”
Pillai grew up in Penang where he was born. His childhood remains a painful memory.
“My mother’s story is similar to that of a real-life Cinderella,” he says with a rueful smile, recalling how she was treated like a servant by her stepmother. “She had a terrible life until Prince Charming came along one day and rescued her.”
But the fairy tale ended there. The young Pillai was bounced from one family to another with his little bad of belongings.
“I was fed with leftovers from the dining table. I was never good enough to be treated like the other children. And I never had a toy in my life,” Pillai recalls, his voice cracking.
“I grew up in constant fear of adults who held complete power over my life. I was considered bad luck. Today when I see an orphaned child with fear in his eyes, I know exactly how he feels. i had no security at all and it came to a point where i stopped shedding tears; I had no more emotions. It wasn’t until I had accepted Christ that the healing began.”
Turning point
That happened when he was 17. An American student Warren Burns came with a church group, Youth For Christ, to his school. The young Pillai heard the gospel message and made a decision which transformed his life: he became a Christian.
After secondary school, Pillai worked as a storekeeper for the Marine Department, and often delivered food to various outposts and lighthouses. On hindsight, the work seemed like preparation for what was to become GCS. After five years, Pillai went into full-time Christian ministry.
In 1970, Pillai enrolled in the Bible College of Malaysia in Selangor. Wghen word went round that a small church, Grace Chapel in Klang, badly needed a pastor, Pillai decided to serve there. The church was later renamed Grace Assembly of God.
During the early years, Pillai went to minister to the poor and needy in the slums of Port Klang.
“We saw how poor the people were; their clothes were torn and they had no food; the children had no shoes or books and couldn’t afford to go to school. We started Maths and English tuition classes in hopes of helping the children,” says Pillai.
People heard what the young pastor was doing and started donating good, clothes and storybooks.
“I remember visiting a family living in a shack with a dirt floor, along the Batu Tiga, Shah Alam, railway tracks. It was raining and I had an umbrella over my head the whole time. The roof was leaking so badly, yet the family lived there.”
One day, an elderly man turned up at his doorstep and begged Pillai to give him a proper burial. Pillai took the man into his rented room, cleaned him up and fed him before sending him to the Klang General Hospital where the man wa treated for cataracts. He did not die after all, but he needed a home, so Pillai rented a house for RM200 and took in homeless men he rescued from the street.
Then Pillai came across a group of destitute elderly women. There were brought into Malaysia at a very young age to work as nannies and housekeepers for wealthy families. Their employers had passed away, and the women were left without families of their own to care for them in their old age.
Pillai rented a terrace house for the women at RM200 a month. This marked the beginning of Grace Home for Destitute Women in Klang.
The need soon arose for abandoned children, and Pillai rented yet another house which was to become Rumah Kids.
A surging tide of mounting needs came along with social ills such as urban poverty.
