Recorded by the San Jose News Group,
California, USA

Each year on October 25, fellow initiates and their families from the San Jose Center gather to celebrate Supreme Master Ching Hai Day. While we enjoyed the special day this year, one of our members, brother Edgar, gave us an account of a series of miracles that he experienced before and after attending the Ching Hai Day declaration ceremony and international retreat in Hawaii in 1993.

All the fellow initiates who participated in these events will surely never forget that the location of the retreat was a serene botanical park surrounded by green hills and woods, and the floating clouds and misty haze that we experienced made us feel like we were in Heaven.

During the entire retreat, an unusually heavy rain fell, thoroughly cleansing the earth, as the participants were steeped in Master's abundant blessing energy and felt their souls purified and elevated. At the end of the retreat, everyone was overjoyed when we were instructed to dress up for Master's declaration ceremony. Pressed for time, fellow initiates hastily put on their formal attire before having a chance to wash off their mud-soiled shoes (casualties of the heavy rain). In the twinkling of an eye, everyone turned into a gentleman or lady, just like Cinderella transforming into a princess.

However, brother Edgar and his group were not in the mood to attend the feast, for they were anxious to find the car they had rented before the retreat. On the first day, they had lent the car to the work team for their use. But when the work team returned the car after the retreat, brother Edgar realized that it was not the original one they had rented. Just as they were searching high and low in the park for their rental car, they met a Quan Yin messenger who told them not to worry and invited them to go to the dinner party with her by using her car. So they got into the car and went to a house to change into their tuxedoes, and then moved on to the hotel where the party was being held.

After all this delay, when they arrived at the banquet hall, they found that all the initiates and guests had already been seated, and to maintain order in the venue, the guard refused to let them enter so they had to wait at the door. Happily, however, they were soon told that there were some vacant seats for them, and they felt very lucky to be able to participate in the grand event. By this time, for some reason, only sister Teresa was left without a seat. While she was pacing back and forth outside the door, suddenly, a sister who was going up to perform on stage walked over to sister Teresa and begged to exchange shoes with her. It turned out that this sister's new white shoes were too small, and were hurting her feet very much. Worried that her pain would affect her performance, she had been praying to Master for help. Then by chance she saw sister Teresa wearing a pair of white shoes. After exchanging shoes, they both found that their new ones fit perfectly. Of course, sister Teresa was also able to enter the hall later. Thus transpired that it had been Master's arrangement to keep sister Teresa behind so that she could help the other sister.

When the party was over, brother Edgar could not find the Quan Yin messenger who had bought him to the hotel. So he and his group resumed their car-searching mission. They hoped the work team would know where their car was, but no one had a clue. It was past midnight at that time, most fellow initiates had left the banquet hall, and brother Edgar's group had no idea how to get back. Then they accidentally came upon their car. It was parked right by the gate of the hotel. They waited by the car for a long time, but no one showed up. So they tried to open the door. Luckily, it was not locked. What's more, they found a spare key inside the car! At this moment, they were filled with gratitude, knowing that Master's blessings and protection had been with them the whole time.

Although they finally found their car, they dared not drive it away for fear that whoever was using the car would worry when he found it missing. So one of them stayed in the car while the others went around to look for that driver. They searched all over the hotel and only saw a few sisters packing up. No one knew anything about their car. Finally, they decided to leave the hotel with the car. And then brother Edgar was faced with a new problem: None of the initiates knew the address or phone number of the house where they had changed clothes since they had been delivered there by the Quan Yin messenger. So they could only look for it by memory.

After driving for a while, brother Edgar suddenly realized that a car far ahead of them seemed to be making the same turns that he was. He then had an inkling that the driver might be a fellow initiate. So he decided to follow the other car. But after a while, brother Edgar's car was almost out of gas, so he had to stop at a gas station, and to his surprise, the car he was following also stopped for gas! He walked over and asked, and sure enough, the riders were fellow initiates and the driver was a local person! More incredibly, they were also going to the same house! Our truly omniscient Master had ingeniously arranged a group of fellow initiates to lead the way for them! Consequently, they got back to the little house smoothly. After changing clothes, they followed the fellow initiates' car back to the retreat campsite in the park.

However, when they arrived at the park, they found that the gate was locked. So they drove around to find another entrance. At that moment, they saw a car not far ahead of them, which also stopped at the locked gate and turned around like they did. As it was turning, it got stuck in a ditch. Quickly, Edgar and his group got out of their two cars to help and found that that car also belonged to fellow initiates. Working together, they pushed the car up out of the ditch. It turned out that the driver of the third car knew the way to the only gate to the park that was open at night. So without further delay, the three cars drove together back to the campsite. That night, within a few hours' time, many miracles had occurred one after another, and brother Edgar and the other initiates once again realized that our omnipresent Master had been by their side all the while, protecting and guiding them.