Later, the rainbow-coloured image recovered from an attack by vandals. In June 1997 someone threw an unknown liquid on the shape, staining it. But following two days of heavy thunderstorms, the blemishes disappeared, and the image looked again as it did in December.

2. Light emanates from Japanese Bodhisattva image
On 4 July 1987, an image of the Bodhisattva, emanating rainbow-coloured light, was discovered on the bathroom window in the house of Mr and Mrs Yajima in Nagano City, Japan. Rainbow colours emanate from the head and body of the 48-cm-high figure on the glass. The image has a patterned, silver-coloured crown on its head. On its neck, there are two strings of prayer beads. The image is standing on a lotus, and is holding a small round-faced girl.

About the same time as the window image was discovered, an image appeared on the wall below the bathroom window. In the beginning, this image looked as if it were just a stain, but as time went by, it became clearer, and the outline darker. The image is approx. 40 cm high, and wears a pointed hat with a rounded middle. It holds a water pot in its hand, and sits on a lotus. The eyes are now clearly visible on the wall.

About a year after the image appeared on the bathroom window, the family demolished their bathroom. In its place, they built a small temple to enshrine the glass of the Bodhisattva. During the construction process, when workers were digging in the ground below where the image appeared, they discovered a ball about 35 cm in diameter. No one could figure out whether the ball was made of wood, stone or iron. The ball emanates a very strong energy. When people place their fingers close to the white walls of the shrine, a rainbow-coloured light appears between the wall and their fingers. This phenomenon can be seen only at the wall, and happens to everyone who tries it. The rainbow colour is most clearly seen when the wall is in the shade.

3. Worldwide Hindu milk miracle
On Thursday 21 September 1995 the news swept around the world of the extraordinary miracles of milk-drinking Hindu statues. Never before in history has a simultaneous miracle occurred on such a global scale. Television, radio and newspapers eagerly covered this unique phenomenon, and even sceptical journalists held their milk-filled spoons to the gods ― and watched, humbled, as the milk disappeared. The media coverage was extensive, and although scientists and 'experts' created theories of "capillary absorption" and "mass hysteria," the overwhelming evidence and conclusion was that an unexplainable miracle had occurred.

It all began at dawn in a temple on the outskirts of Delhi, India, when milk offered to a statue of Ganesh just disappeared into thin air. Word spread so quickly throughout India that soon thousands were offering milk to the gods and watching in amazement as it disappeared. Life in India was brought to a virtual standstill as people rushed to temples to see for themselves the drinking gods. Others claimed that small statues in millions of homes around the country were also drinking the offerings of milk.

Traffic in Delhi was halted as police struggled to control crowds who gathered outside hundreds of temples with jugs and saucepans of milk for the marble statues of Ganesh, the Hindu God of wisdom and learning, and Shiva, his father.

Even the cynical professed amazement. "It's unbelievable. My friends told me about it and I just thought it was rubbish," said a Delhi business woman, Mabati Kasori. "But then I did it myself. I swear that the spoon was drained." Parmeesh Soti, a company executive, was convinced it was a miracle. "It cannot be a hoax. Where would all that milk go to? It just disappeared in front of my eyes." Suzanne Goldenberg, a Delhi-based journalist, reported that: "Inside the darkened shrine, people held stainless steel cups and clay pots to the central figure of the five-headed Shiva, the destroyer of evil, and his snake companion, and watched the milk levels ebb. Although some devotees force-fed the idol enthusiastically, the floor was fairly dry."

India was in pandemonium. The Government shut down for several hours, and trading ground to a halt on stock markets in Bombay and New Delhi as millions in homes and temples around the country offered milk to the gods. Very soon the news spread to Hindu communities in Singapore, Hong Kong, Nepal, Thailand, Dubai, the United Kingdom, the USA, and Canada. Reports were flooding in from all over the world. In the United Kingdom, Hindus reported miracles taking place in temples and homes around the country. At the Vishwa Temple in Southall, London, 10,000 people in 24 hours witnessed the 40 cm high statue of the bull Nandi and a bronze statue of the cobra Shash Naag drinking milk from cups and spoons.

Many journalists actively participated in these miraculous events. Rebecca Mae, a Daily Express journalist, wrote: "I had a good view from the side and all I can say is that the statue appeared to suck in half a spoonful while it was held level by the worshipper. The rest was sipped reverently by the devotee. A photographer from a national tabloid newspaper was right in front of the statue. And he was convinced it was drinking the milk. He said he could see no mechanism to explain the phenomenon, after scrutinizing it at length." Rikee Verma, a journalist from The Times newspaper, wrote: "Being a religious person, I first went to the upstairs bedroom... and placed a spoonful of milk against a photograph of Ganesh and was astonished to find within seconds that the spoon was half empty. I checked to make sure that the glass frame of the photograph was not wet. It was dry. I could not believe what I was seeing. This was clearly a message from the gods saying: 'We are here, here's the proof.'" At the Southall temple in London the chairman Mr Bharbari offered his explanation. "All I know is that our Holy Book says that wherever evil prevails on earth then some great Soul will descend to remove the bondage of evil so that right shall reign. We believe this miracle, and those happening at other Hindu temples, may be a sign that a great Soul has descended, like Lord Krishna or Jesus Christ." 
(Sources: The Guardian; The Independent; The Times; The Telegraph; The Daily Express; The Daily Mail; UK)

4. Muslim miracles

• On 20 January 1996, just before the Feast of Ramadan, a farmer in Taiba-Ndiassana, Senegal, discovered a watermelon on which the name of Allah had appeared. The year before similar signs appeared on the scales of a fish caught near Popenguine, home to the largest Catholic community in Senegal.

• Mrs Ruksana Patel, in Bolton, England, bought an aubergine from a local shop. On slicing the vegetable in half, she saw that the seeds were formed in the Muslim symbol 'Ya-Allah,' meaning 'Allah exists.'

• A Turkish grocer from the Regent Quarter of The Hague, Holland, bought some eggs fresh from the farm and had them on sale in his shop. But two of the eggs seemed slightly strange. "I noticed that the shells were a little misshapen," he said. "Very odd, just like Arab letters. And then suddenly I saw it: ‘Allah.’" He had also bought about five kilos of beans, about 500 grams of which bear the name ‘Allah.’ Out of respect he did not feel he could sell the remaining beans: he decided to give them to the mosque. "About 40 people enjoyed a complete meal from these beans and there was still food left over."
  

5. White image on picture
In 1989, a German woman took a series of photographs in the German city of Essen. Her objective was to depict "the hopelessness and emptiness of a big city." After she developed the photos, something unexpected appeared on one of them. Although she believed that she was alone when she had taken the picture of an empty escalator, a figure in bright white appeared.

6. The mysterious hitchhiker

• Throughout the world stories kept appearing about a mysterious hitchhiker, reported by those who have given him a lift. He tells them that the return of Christ is imminent and then disappears ― from the moving car. The hitchhiker, according to all the stories, is always dressed in white.

• In one month in 1990, a New Zealand newspaper, The Christian Challenge Weekly, received a dozen reports of "angels" taking lifts with Christians and informing them about the imminent return of Christ before mysteriously disappearing from the car. "The bloke they’ve picked up will say something like, ‘did you know the Lord is coming back?’ and that’s the only thing the fellow says," wrote journalist Brian Finn. "Then he vanishes from the speeding car." Two articles in New Truth, a New Zealand newspaper, discussed the hitchhiker among a number of other possible ‘miracles’ signifying the presence of Christ in the world.

• The phenomenon has not been limited to New Zealand. In 1991, while driving in Dallas, USA, two women picked up a hitchhiker who told them that the Christ is in the world. He then disappeared from the back of the car. Seven other similar cases were phoned in to a local radio talk show. Dutch, South African and Australian newspapers published similar reports.

• Swiss newspaper Le Matin, Sunday 18 April 1993. Reporter Philippe Dubath tells of hitchhikers who suddenly disappear: "... In front sit two boys, behind, two girls. At the exit of Palavas the young people notice a lady hitchhiker. She seems about 50 years old, wears a white raincoat and a white scarf around her hair. The driver stops, the woman gets into the car without saying a word, but smiling, and settles down on the back seat between the two girls. A little later, at the beginning of a quite dangerous curve, the hitchhiker shouts: ‘Watch out! The bend!’ The driver slows down and the cry from the two girls on the back seat causes him to turn round, as does the passenger in the front. The woman hitchhiker isn’t there any more."
  

7. Lebanese girl: crystal tears
A Lebanese girl has baffled doctors by producing tiny crystals from her eyes. For several months in 1996, 12-year-old Hasnah Mohamed Meselmani produced tiny crystals. Although the crystals were as sharp as cut glass, Hasnah said she feels no pain.

Share International's correspondent in Lebanon contacted the Meselmani family to find out more about the amazing phenomenon. It all began in March 1996, Hasnah told him. She was at school when she felt something strange in her left eye ― her first piece of crystal. Back home, she told her family what had happened and, while she was doing so, a second piece of crystal appeared in her eye.

"A few days later," she says, "I heard someone tapping at the window. I walked to the window and there I saw a man dressed in white. He was sitting on a white horse, he smiled at me and called me by name. He asked me if I would go outside to talk to him." Hasnah went out through the front door. There stood the "white knight," as she calls him. He was dressed from head to foot in a white tunic, which also covered his head and face. The "white knight" said she needn’t be afraid and he introduced himself to Hasnah as a "messenger from God."

8. Christ’s face on rock
In December 1995, Julian Webb, an Australian wheat-farmer, witnessed the miraculous materialization of Christ’s face on a hard slab of granite rock. The miracle took place at night when Mr Webb was walking on his farm near Beverly, 120 miles east of Perth. He saw a shaft of light illuminate the rock, and watched amazed as the face of Christ slowly appeared from nowhere.

9. Sacred images on rose petals
Since 1991, a young Philippino man, Carmelo Cortez, has had numerous experiences of the Madonna and is able to manifest detailed images of the Christ, Mary, and others onto rose petals.

In June 1991, Cortez, age 21, was living in a squatters’ area in San Francisco Del Monte in Quezon City. He was given a picture of the Madonna, which he placed on an altar. The following night he heard a soft voice and the sound of beautiful music. Cortez followed the voice and found it was emanating from the picture. The Madonna was shedding tears of blood and the baby Jesus in the altar appeared to be catching the tears with one hand. The picture was later placed on a church altar, and a relative of Cortez was healed of a fever.

Two days later, Cortez said he was again awakened by beautiful music, and the Madonna began giving him messages. Since that time, Cortez has seen and talked to the Madonna more than 100 times.

Other miracles have accompanied these manifestations. Columnist Christine Dayrit reported on one particular miracle ― sacred images appearing on rose petals.

"He [Cortez] took a flower from a vase of fresh white roses which we had brought. He then took the petals from the stalk by removing the sepal. One by one, Carmelo placed a petal on our shoulders as we said our prayers ... After a few moments, we were asked to take a look at the petals. To our astonishment, what were originally plain white rose petals had now on them the image of the crucified Christ."

Others present "cried in exultation" as images of the Madonna, the Sacred Heart, Mother and Child, St Joseph and Child, St Francis of Assisi, and many others, appeared on their petals.

10. Weeping Madonna in Toronto
Since early September 1996, an icon of the Virgin Mary has been weeping in a small Greek Orthodox church in Toronto, Canada. This occurrence attracted crowds of people who, drawn by the press coverage, formed long line-ups in the streets.

11. Lebanese statue of Mary sweats oil
Hundreds of Lebanese people have been visiting the Christian cemetery of Tyre, to pray before the statue of the Virgin Mary which, according to many eye-witnesses, is sweating oil. Many reporters and photographers, from Lebanon and abroad, are visiting Tyre to investigate the phenomenon, while the believers collect the blessed oil covering the major part of the statue’s marble surface. 
(Source: l’Orient-Le Jour, Lebanon)

12. Statue in Trinidad weeps tears of blood
A statue of Our Lady of Lourdes in a Carmelite sisters’ convent in Diego Martin, west Trinidad, is weeping tears of blood. According to the local press, the tears first appeared on 15 February 1996. Professor Courtenay Bartholomew, a local medical consultant who has written a book on Marian apparitions, is said to have tested the blood and found it to be human.

13. White buffalo calf ― a good omen
In 1993, a white buffalo calf was born in Colorado, and in 1994 another one, named Miracle, was born in Janesville, Wisconsin, on the ranch of Dave and Valerie Heider. Thousands of people of many different faiths have visited Miracle, testifying that her birth is a call for all races to come together to heal the earth and solve our mutual problems.

On 9 May of this year, a silvery-white buffalo calf named Medicine Wheel was born at the ranch of Joe Merrival on the Pine Ridge reservation of South Dakota. Another white calf, Rainbow, had been born in the same herd some two weeks earlier, on 27 April. It died 25 hours later of scours, a diarrhea-type condition. The odds of the birth of a white buffalo are estimated as 6-10 million to one.

The birth of a white buffalo calf is seen by the Native Americans as the most significant of prophetic signs, equivalent to the weeping statues, bleeding icons, and crosses of light that are becoming prevalent within the Christian churches. Just as the Christian faithful who attend these signs see them as a renewal of God's ongoing relationship with humanity, so do the Native Americans see the white buffalo calf as a sign to begin to mend life's sacred hoop.

Floyd Hand Looks For Buffalo, an Oglala medicine man, has commented: "… These are omens, and they are happening in the most unexpected place among the poorest people in the country. They are good omens, if we pay attention to them. For us, this would be something like coming to see Jesus lying in the manger."

14. Israel ― red heifer seen as sign (1997)
The birth of a rust-coloured calf in Israel is being hailed as a miraculous sign of the coming of the Messiah. The red heifer, of a variety believed extinct for centuries, was born to a black and white mother and a tan-coloured bull on a northern Israeli farm run by a religious high school for troubled and orphaned students. In ancient times the ashes of a red heifer, butchered in her third year, were mixed with water and used to purify Jews before they could approach Jerusalem's Holy Temple on Temple Mount. Not since the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in AD 70 has a red heifer been born in Israel, scholars say.

"Traditionally, there have been only nine such red cows in our history. The first was prepared under the direction of Moses and Aaron in the desert. The second was officiated over by Ezra upon the Jews' return from the Babylonian exile. Seven more were prepared during the period of the Second Temple. According to the 12th century Jewish philosopher Maimonides, the 10th and final red heifer will be prepared by the Messiah."

A dozen rabbis have examined the calf and said she is the long-awaited ritual heifer, meeting, so far, all the criteria described by the ancients. If the calf lives unblemished for another 18 months, she can theoretically be put to use. "It is written that it is the 10th heifer that the Messiah will discover and here we have the 10th heifer. This is a clear sign that the Messiah is near," said Rabbi Ido Weber Erlich of Jerusalem in an interview on Israel Radio. 
(Sources: Boston Globe; Newsweek Magazine; Washington Jewish Week; USA)

For further articles about miracles, please see the "Signs of the Time" section of Shareintl News, both the current issue and previous issues.