Kuala Lumpur July 2026 "A Miracle Day"
05/07/26 22:36
This story has a couple of 'miracles', one less surprising than the other but both linked in some way. I'll spend more time explaining the situation than what happened but without the background you may not appreciate why this is so unusual so let's start with my family. My eldest son and his wife have been trying to have a baby for three years without success. They had gone through all the usual checks and treatments but it hadn't worked out for them until now. Her current pregnancy had run its full term and the baby was due in the next day or two. We have an Australia visit planned in a few months time so we can see our first grandchild however, whilst the fight tickets are booked, we have no money to spend whilst we are there. No savings, those went on the fights and we hope 'something' will happen in the next month or two. Anyway our minds and prayers our first focussed on our son and daughter in law rather than this future difficulty.
Meanwhile back in the present, once a year our church has an event called the "Miracle Day Offering". It's an extra donation the church asks us to make that they will use to fund charities in the local area and the key message here is to give 'sacrificially'. Now I'm not about to get into a debate whether this is a good thing or not but I have to admit I don't like it! I don't have much money left at the end of the month and I have no savings so it is difficult to give 'sacrificially' when you have little to give. The best you can do is to give away all that you have and this year that is exactly what I resolved to do, albeit it isn't quite as dramatic as it sounds. This year's "Miracle Day Offering" takes place three days before I get paid so my wife and I only have to 'survive' that long after I have given away my money. Well that isn't quite what I had resolved to do, I was keeping back just sufficient to buy meals until I was paid again but the rest would be my donation. I'm not going to say how much that is, that's not the point. I'm sure if I had a million pounds in savings then I certainly wouldn't be giving it all away. I also remind myself of what happened to Ananias and Sapphira in the Bible when they claimed they had donated ALL the money from the sale of property but withheld some for themselves, they were struck dead.
So leading up to Sunday's "Miracle Day Offering" I was careful not to spend on things that were not necessary, that would be cheating, but by the weekend I hadn't very much surplus money left. It didn't feel right so I decided to give what I could on the Sunday and then the following Wednesday, once I had money, I would send some of it to the UK's Miracle Day account. A few days late maybe but as I would now be giving much more it felt like a better idea. Come the Sunday I sat and listened to our Pastor explaining what giving sacrificially actually means, ie voluntarily surrendering your time, money or resources in a way that creates a genuine, personal cost or discomfort. I started to feel bad that I had retained sufficient for our food so before placing my envelope in the donation box I added to it the lunch money I had retained and then mentally doubled the donation I would be making the following Wednesday. I immediately felt a lot better inside. Subsequently my wife and I survived the next three days by eating the food we had in the fridge so we didn't go without. On the Wednesday, as soon as money had arrived in my account, I sent my "Miracle Day Offering" to the UK church and breathed a sigh of relief that it was over for another year. Now according to scripture the Lord honours and blesses sacrificial giving. It's not the amount, God values the attitude of the heart and a generous spirit. Each year we hear of what others have experienced after the "Miracle Day Offering" now with the scene set read on and decide for yourself whether what happens qualifies as one.
On Wednesday, about six hours after I had donated the money, I got an email from my brother in the UK. He had just received a letter addressed to me and inside was a cheque for SEVEN times the amount I had donated to the "Miracle Day Offering". The letter and money were completely unexpected. It came from the sale of a railway locomotive some years previous that I was a part owner of. Two years ago I had received what I had believed to be my final payment. If you look back at my stories you might find one for it as at that time I considered it something of a miracle to be sent sufficient money to replace the computer which had just broken. This time the money is needed for our visit to Australia later this year to see our future grandchild. I was stunned, I could hardly believe it but there it was, we now had sufficient funds for our visit.
Three hours after my brother's email our granddaughter was born. Both mother and child are doing well.
Meanwhile back in the present, once a year our church has an event called the "Miracle Day Offering". It's an extra donation the church asks us to make that they will use to fund charities in the local area and the key message here is to give 'sacrificially'. Now I'm not about to get into a debate whether this is a good thing or not but I have to admit I don't like it! I don't have much money left at the end of the month and I have no savings so it is difficult to give 'sacrificially' when you have little to give. The best you can do is to give away all that you have and this year that is exactly what I resolved to do, albeit it isn't quite as dramatic as it sounds. This year's "Miracle Day Offering" takes place three days before I get paid so my wife and I only have to 'survive' that long after I have given away my money. Well that isn't quite what I had resolved to do, I was keeping back just sufficient to buy meals until I was paid again but the rest would be my donation. I'm not going to say how much that is, that's not the point. I'm sure if I had a million pounds in savings then I certainly wouldn't be giving it all away. I also remind myself of what happened to Ananias and Sapphira in the Bible when they claimed they had donated ALL the money from the sale of property but withheld some for themselves, they were struck dead.
So leading up to Sunday's "Miracle Day Offering" I was careful not to spend on things that were not necessary, that would be cheating, but by the weekend I hadn't very much surplus money left. It didn't feel right so I decided to give what I could on the Sunday and then the following Wednesday, once I had money, I would send some of it to the UK's Miracle Day account. A few days late maybe but as I would now be giving much more it felt like a better idea. Come the Sunday I sat and listened to our Pastor explaining what giving sacrificially actually means, ie voluntarily surrendering your time, money or resources in a way that creates a genuine, personal cost or discomfort. I started to feel bad that I had retained sufficient for our food so before placing my envelope in the donation box I added to it the lunch money I had retained and then mentally doubled the donation I would be making the following Wednesday. I immediately felt a lot better inside. Subsequently my wife and I survived the next three days by eating the food we had in the fridge so we didn't go without. On the Wednesday, as soon as money had arrived in my account, I sent my "Miracle Day Offering" to the UK church and breathed a sigh of relief that it was over for another year. Now according to scripture the Lord honours and blesses sacrificial giving. It's not the amount, God values the attitude of the heart and a generous spirit. Each year we hear of what others have experienced after the "Miracle Day Offering" now with the scene set read on and decide for yourself whether what happens qualifies as one.
On Wednesday, about six hours after I had donated the money, I got an email from my brother in the UK. He had just received a letter addressed to me and inside was a cheque for SEVEN times the amount I had donated to the "Miracle Day Offering". The letter and money were completely unexpected. It came from the sale of a railway locomotive some years previous that I was a part owner of. Two years ago I had received what I had believed to be my final payment. If you look back at my stories you might find one for it as at that time I considered it something of a miracle to be sent sufficient money to replace the computer which had just broken. This time the money is needed for our visit to Australia later this year to see our future grandchild. I was stunned, I could hardly believe it but there it was, we now had sufficient funds for our visit.
Three hours after my brother's email our granddaughter was born. Both mother and child are doing well.