The Blessings of Giving

When I was in the Primary School, I was often sent by my family to run to the grocery store to pick up groceries. As we were quite poor, we only bought the daily necessities. In those days, rice was sold by the gantangs. One gantang was about the size of one milo tin. As I love my father very much, I would not allow anyone to cheat him.... no... not even of one grain of rice! I would tell the shopkeeper, "Please shake. Press. Shake again." Sometimes I would help to shake the tin much to the anoyance of the shopkepers. Each time they saw me approaching the shop, they would say, "Oh! Here comes the shaker!"

Imagine my surprise, when I came across this verse in the book of Luke. "Give and it will be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over will be poured into your lap. With the same measure that you give unto others, it will be given back unto you. This truth is embraced by everyone, regardless of race or religion. In Hokkien, they say, "Oo leong, oo hock. In Malay, they say, "Sesiapa yang berkasi, sesiapa yang menerima." In English, it affirms "It is more blessed to give than to recieve".

All these years, I have won a total of about 167 lucky prizes from different organisations. I hope to convince you by my sharing that it is indeed more blessed to give than to receive.


It first started when I was shopping at the NTUC. I bought two packets of M & M chocolates. The cashier gave me a lucky draw form to fill in. I looked at the form sceptically and filled it in anyway. After two months I was surprised when I received a letter informing me that I had won a carton of M & M chocolates. As I had just arrived in Singapore I was not too familiar with the roads. Anyway, from my size, you can see I don't need to eat a whole carton of chocolates. Hence I decided to give the chocolates to my host family in my cell group. Joseph Krishnan had 5 children. The children later nicknamed me "Chocolate Aunty."

Soon after I received many prizes. Each time I gave away one prize, I received another. Once I wanted to go to England to visit my classmate. My ACS boys told me to buy a windbreaker. As I found it cost quite a lot of money, and I might just use it one time, I decided not to buy it. My flatmate's mother came to visit us in Singpore and I took her to Chinatown to do some shopping. I bought some digestive biscuits and was surprised when I was given a coupon to scratch. Guess what? I won a windbreaker! Just the very thing I needed!

When I went to China for a tour, I decided to give away my windbreaker to our excellent tourguide. After my trip from China I found I won a few more prizes.
I wanted to go to Nepal for a short term mission trip. Knowing how poor the Nepalis were, I bought tons of tooth brushes, food stuff and clothes. I bought some medicine as well for our missionaries. When I came back from Nepal, I was surprised that I had won an air ticket to Bangkok with complimentary 4 days 5 nights stay at the Bangkok Palace Hotel. I felt as if God was saying, "Since you have roughed it out on the mountains in Nepal and inhaled all the cowdung smell in the country, you can now live like a princess for a few days at Bangkok Palace Hotel. !

One day, my good friend, Carrie phoned me when I was about to go to work. She asked me which countries would come out tops in the Asean Games. I was not someone who enjoyed sports and I did not bother to read the sports column. I blurted out to her, "First China. Second Japan. Third Russia." Later she called me to say that her friends were laughing at her. These countries were not even participating. Realising my mistake, I told her to put first, Indonesia since she is famous for her bandminton players. Second, Phillipines. Third Thailand... I guess Thais must be better sports people since they are darker than Singapaoreans. I was surprised to find that I had won a gold plated watch. The lady from the SPH told me that there were 1.8 million entries for the contest. I was just so lucky. Only a few days ago, my friend complained her watch had spoilt as she often took the disabled childen for swimming. Hence I bought her a water proof watch.

One day while shopping at Marina Square, Carrie persuaded me to buy a Carven watch. She nagged at me for being frugal as my most expensive watch cost me $30. To make her happy, I bought a watch and was given a lucky draw form. I was surprised to find that a month later, I won a pair of air tickets to Rome.

Since I had already been to Rome, I decided to sell the tickets and used the money to help pay for my brother's hotel stay at Copthorne King's for his two weeks of art exhibition. I bought him some fruit drinks and put them in the fridge for him. I later found that I had won a mountain bike from the fruit drinks company. I had just given my old bicyle to our HDB block cleaner as I saw that his own bike was falling apart.

Once a good friend wanted to borrow $500/- from me which she wanted to give to her nephew in China to buy a motor bike. This elderly lady friend worked very hard as a maid and I was not happy that her relatives were kind of sponging on her to buy them luxury goods. But to make her happy, I told her I would not lend the $500/- to her, but would give it to her as a prsent. Was surprised to receive a registered mail and I thought it must be from the income tax department. To my surprise, I won the second prize in the Daisy Slim milk contest. My student had brought a form for me to participate. It was a bubble speech contest where someone had fallen into a pothole and her little pomeranian was jumping up and down. I was supposed to write what the dog was saying and what the lady was screaming about! I remember scribbling something and filling in the form. Was surprised with wining a second prize of $500/- and a hamper of Daisay Milk products which I shared with my students.

There are many more hilarious incidents on lucky prizes but if I were to share them all with you, I will disqualify myself with time, and all of us will not be able to go back till 12 midnight.!

Hence I will conclude by saying that it is indeed true that it is more blessed to give than to receive. From my sharing I hope you will be encouraged that it is indeed a joy and a pleasure to give in terms of our gifts, time, talents, etc. By giving, we actually become more blessed and enriched.