By Dr Edward Tamale-Sali
Have you ever been in a situation where all your expected resources run out before the job is done and you are left wondering what the consequences could be?
Examples
1- Let us assume you budgeted $100,000 to buy a house, and within days, due to circumstances like market pressure, you find the house is now $150,000. Yet this is the house you have been praying for, what do you do?
2-Or, let us take a scenario where you invited 100 people to your wedding and you find 200 people have turned out. Yet there is no way you can send them back or turn them away. How do you serve the overwhelming numbers with limited resources?
3-Imagine you are sick and you expected the surgical operation to be straightforward at a cost of USD500, but due to unexpected complications, you get a bill of USD5,000, and you are in a foreign country. What would you do?
Some of us can only imagine these situations, while to others, these are realities of life.
For instance, we see this exact situation presenting itself at the wedding at Cana, as mentioned in the Bible.
The host had run out of wine. But, lucky as he was, Jesus Christ was one of the invited guests at this wedding.
It did not take long before the organisers realised the scarcity of wine. This could have been a great embarrassment if a solution had not been found.
The pressure was mounting on the hosts because the guests were asking for more to drink.
Probably, the host had known who Jesus was and His potential in relation to solving this conundrum.
Having been a contemporary of Jesus on the same village, the host might have believed Jesus to either be a prophet or someone with an anointing of God.
So, he immediately approached Jesus’ mother and narrated the problem.
Mary knew her son could help save the day. However, she was adamant about it and all she said was: “Do whatever He tells you to do.”
The first miracle
Jesus turns water into wine. The chemical structure of water is H2O. He added a carbon atom to make non-alcoholic wine (H2C5OH).
What do you have in the house? Jesus must have asked this question, just like in the Old Testament when God asked Moses: “What do you have in your hand” (Exodus 4:2).
When Jesus asked the same, they showed Him pots of water, which He turned into wine for the ceremony.
Lesson
The same could happen to each of us in times of great need. We are advised to remember that there is only one solution: Jesus Christ. Therefore, whenever you are in need:
1- Go to Jesus, He can turn your mourning into dancing (Psalm 30:11-12).
2-Ask Him. If Jesus’ Mum had not asked Him, the guests would not have received more wine. “Ask and you shall receive”(Matthew 7:7).
3-God will use something familiar to you to meet your needs. With Him, nothing is impossible (Luke 1:37).
4-Jesus can transform your life beyond your imagination. He is a transforming God.
My personal miracle
In 2001 when I was working in the Middle East, I found I was going to lose my job because of stiff competition with my medical colleagues.
Even when I was the pioneer of the IVF clinic in that hospital, I did not stand a chance. God had to intervene for my survival. Otherwise, it was over for me.
I decided to dedicate an hour daily from 3-to-4 pm, to pray.
One day, as I prayed, God showed me very clearly it was time to return to Uganda.
But I did not have a house in Uganda. The one I had started constructing had collapsed because the builders stole the construction materials and raised for me a substandard structure that crumbled.
I told God I do not want to go back to the U.K either. I needed USD150,000 to start an IVF centre in Uganda.
But no house, and practically no money to purchase the equipment needed to start a clinic or hospital.
I wrote to all pharmaceutical companies that I knew to help me, but all turned me down.
Only one company referred me to someone in Denmark that I could talk to.
Journey to Denmark
As I was looking for money to buy a ticket, I received a call from a friend from our Church family, telling me she had seen my name on a list of winners in the nearby supermarket.
I rushed to this supermarket which was 2km from our house. I found they had entered my name in their monthly draw and I had scored second place for that particular price.
It was explained to me that since I was in the second place, I could only get that money if the person in the first place never showed up.
It was USD5,000. I had to wait for 39 days until the Supermarket confirmed that the first winner was not going to turn up.
After 30 days- I went back and found the 1st placed winner did not turn up and the money was given to me.
God miraculously met my needs and I was able to pay for my air ticket to Denmark. It is through the person in Denmark that I got all the equipment to start IVF in Uganda.
This is an amazing miracle story which I will continue next time in this paper. Besides, the full detail will be in my autobiography book.
This is the God we serve!
