Homeless Poor

On the night of Feb 27 2012 after bidding farewell to Yong Yi and Sharon who were flying off to Beijing for their new posting by Shell, Sarah, Sam and I walked to the car park machine to pay the coin. I discovered that the coin chip kept falling off from the slot. Both Eu Joe and Beng Kiat had earlier paid their money and used the machine and there was no problem. Beng Kiat told me to press the “Batal” button. I pressed the cancel button sign and suddenly I saw $5 dollars note kept coming out from the machine and dropping into the trough. I took out a stack of $5 notes from the machine and Sam counted that there were altogether $75. I told Sarah and Sam that there were not for us and we need to return to the owner. At that hour, already past 12 o clock midnight, the airline authorities’ personnel was nowhere to be seen. We waited for a while and no one came back to claim the money. The rest of the party who came to say goodbye to Yong YI were slowing moving away to their cars. As we walked to car park, we discovered that we came to the wrong block. Earlier I parked my car at Block “C” and we came to block “A” to pay for the car park. I have been to KLIA countless time, and there is no way I could have make such mistake. Beside Sam was with me and Sam is noted as someone who possesses a better sense of direction than the best of GPS. Sam was also bemused. Beside, Bernard, Olivia Chiam and Julia whom we met earlier at Block “C” when we first arrived at KLIA carpark went back to Block “C” and they saw us moved to Block “B” and none of them said anything or told us that we had gone to the wrong place. I believed there is only one explanation. The Holy Spirit directed us for a purpose. Someone else had been careless and he might be in a hurry to go off, being rich he just could not border about the change and he left the money in the machine slot. This is my speculation. Sarah and Sam and I decided that we will give the money away to someone needy and we were thinking about the homeless people.

The next day when I was in the church office, I received a call from a missionary friend from Finland who said that he is bringing along a friend to come and visit me. In the afternoon at 3pm, "V" came with 2 persons, a man about 50 years old and a woman in her early twenties. When they walked in, there was a strong Talcum powder smell mixed with some odor which I could not quite figure out what it was. "V" introduced his two friends to me and I found out from their stories that they are homeless poor who sleep in the shop walkways in Kota Raya, Kuala Lumpur. I asked how they get money to live. They both answered that they scavenged for tin cans, cardboard and metal things to be sold and each day they can get about RM 20. With that they buy food. I asked where they take their bath. “Satu ringgit bayaran unto mandi di public toilet.” In Kota Raya alone there are 300 homeless poor living there eking out their existence each day with very little.

I told them my story how I got RM 75. I proceeded to give the man RM 40 and the woman RM 35 and told them that its God who gave them the money and not me. They were both very touched. The missionary was also very moved because God has called him to reach out to these homeless poor. He felt its God’s affirmation of his calling. These two homeless poor were in a daze that God could do such a thing like this that he loves them enough to look into their needs for that day.

When they left, I knew I was standing on holy ground in my office. The presence of God was real though the office was filled with a mixed sense of odor very much like the one when the Son of God was born in the manger.