Kuala Lumpur January 2019 “One dollar”
01/12/19 04:20
We don't have many local events to go but tonight was one of them. Hosted by the local Residents Association my wife was keen to make a good impression so we dressed up in our best and spent a pleasant evening listening to music, eating great food and having pleasant conversation with people who I had never met before (and may never see again). I am sure the idea behind this evening was not a “meet and greet” but rather a hard sell for the luxury apartments in the building where the meeting was taking place but no matter, we had a great time.
Eventually it was time for us to leave and head home. We had driven 2km to get here and our car was waiting in the underground car park for us to return and pay the fee to release it. I realised I had left all my money in my other jacket so I turned to my wife and asked if she had brought her money. Ah, it was not her usual handbag and there was no money in it. Now this might prove to be a problem.
We have a few coins stored inside the car for roadside parking so we gathered them together and added them up. It came to 55 sen in total, half of one Malaysian Ringget (or dollar as the locals call it) and in UK terms that is 10 pence! I looked in horror at the small handful of coins, gathered them up and headed over to the parking fee machine. Based on what I had seen at other locations the evening rate would be something like 2 Ringget and I hadn't enough. From the car park I could see where our house was and estimated that would be a 25 minute fast walk, each way. So if we didn't have enough for the parking fee then I would be walking and my wife waiting by the car for an hour. Our lovely evening out would be taking a turn for the worse.
Sure enough the parking fee was more than our handful of coins but it was remarkably low, as far as I was concerned, just one dollar. I returned to the car contemplating the imminent walk home however as I got there my wife said “I have found some more coins!” She handed over another small handful of 5 and 10 sen coins and I slowly added them up. Whilst it looked like a lot of coins they were mostly of the 5 sen variety but as I got close to our target amount I realised I was holding exactly 100 sen which was the one dollar we needed. I walked over to pay the parking fee wondering where those coins had come from because they weren't there when we had searched the first time. Clutching the now paid for parking ticket as if it were made from gold I got into our car and asked where she had found them. They had been in one of the places we had been looking but obviously “not very well”. You can't imagine how happy we both were to get home without further delay and I thanked our Lord for those extra coins. We had looked really hard to find the original handful of coins and to suddenly discover another clutch that gave us exactly $1 was both quite surprising and welcome.
A year later I was recounting this tale to friends in the UK as one of the ways God works in my life. One of my friends scoffed at that, “Do you really think God can be bothered providing you with one dollar? He works with much bigger numbers.” I smiled and thought God cares just as much about the small things we need in our lives as those we consider to be big. That evening all we really needed was one dollar.
Eventually it was time for us to leave and head home. We had driven 2km to get here and our car was waiting in the underground car park for us to return and pay the fee to release it. I realised I had left all my money in my other jacket so I turned to my wife and asked if she had brought her money. Ah, it was not her usual handbag and there was no money in it. Now this might prove to be a problem.
We have a few coins stored inside the car for roadside parking so we gathered them together and added them up. It came to 55 sen in total, half of one Malaysian Ringget (or dollar as the locals call it) and in UK terms that is 10 pence! I looked in horror at the small handful of coins, gathered them up and headed over to the parking fee machine. Based on what I had seen at other locations the evening rate would be something like 2 Ringget and I hadn't enough. From the car park I could see where our house was and estimated that would be a 25 minute fast walk, each way. So if we didn't have enough for the parking fee then I would be walking and my wife waiting by the car for an hour. Our lovely evening out would be taking a turn for the worse.
Sure enough the parking fee was more than our handful of coins but it was remarkably low, as far as I was concerned, just one dollar. I returned to the car contemplating the imminent walk home however as I got there my wife said “I have found some more coins!” She handed over another small handful of 5 and 10 sen coins and I slowly added them up. Whilst it looked like a lot of coins they were mostly of the 5 sen variety but as I got close to our target amount I realised I was holding exactly 100 sen which was the one dollar we needed. I walked over to pay the parking fee wondering where those coins had come from because they weren't there when we had searched the first time. Clutching the now paid for parking ticket as if it were made from gold I got into our car and asked where she had found them. They had been in one of the places we had been looking but obviously “not very well”. You can't imagine how happy we both were to get home without further delay and I thanked our Lord for those extra coins. We had looked really hard to find the original handful of coins and to suddenly discover another clutch that gave us exactly $1 was both quite surprising and welcome.
A year later I was recounting this tale to friends in the UK as one of the ways God works in my life. One of my friends scoffed at that, “Do you really think God can be bothered providing you with one dollar? He works with much bigger numbers.” I smiled and thought God cares just as much about the small things we need in our lives as those we consider to be big. That evening all we really needed was one dollar.