Behind the scenes of Miracles Day

Stories | October 4, 2021

Liana Pantalone, CBM Communications Officer, shares what happens behind the scenes on Miracles Day both in the field and the CBM Offices.

It’s true… Miracles Day is only weeks away, and yet it still feels like just yesterday when I travelled with the team to a remote part of the Philippines and witnessed a life changed forever, right before my eyes.

 

She was an elderly woman, and although the surgery took less than 12 minutes, I remember the sound of more youthful days restored to her as she exclaimed from under the hospital sheet, ‘I can see!’

Holding my phone about a metre away from the doctor to capture it all on video, he looked up at me smiling.

A doctor who truly cares

Dr Reden Rabino
Photo: Dr Reden Rabino

Seeing the joy on his face, for me was just as powerful as that of the community of people who were walking away with their sight restored.

You see, for Dr Reden Rabino, this was his day job.

This was his every day.

He has been the hands at work restoring sight to thousands of people over the years.

But there in that tiny makeshift surgery clinic, tucked away in the hills, he was smiling for that one elderly woman in that very moment… knowing what this meant for her future.

The feeling of Miracles being made

This year I am just as excited to be back on the phones in the CBM office.

Every year, it’s the one day that the whole office stops to join together and answer calls from generous Australians who wish to make a miracle happen for someone living in poverty with disability.

The buzz in the room is electric, and not just from the copious amounts of sugar or red balloons that denote “celebration” at its best.

It’s from the heart of every staff member, each one reunited with the reason they chose to work for such a life-changing organisation.

It’s in the conversations that float through our phones, where people express their heart for others in need and often share their own testimonies of life-transformation.

This is the reason I can’t wait to send through tally updates on our social media and keep you all posted on where we are tracking for 35,000 Miracles.

Sure, it’s a big target, but our hearts are bigger.

CBM staff on Miracles Day
Photo: CBM staff on Miracles Day 2017

Join us on Thursday 16 August for Miracles Day! Visit cbm.org.au/miraclesday

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