ECHURCH-USA Archives

The Electronic Church

ECHURCH-USA@LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG

Options: Use Forum View

Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
VIRGIE UNDERWOOD <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
The Electronic Church <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 20 Nov 2006 23:02:52 -0500
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (118 lines)
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "rcuster" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>; <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, November 20, 2006 8:44 PM
Subject: the big wheel.


The Big Wheel
In September 1960, I woke up one morning with six hungry babies and Just 75 
cents in my pocket. Their father was gone. The boys ranged from three months
to seven years; their sister was two. Their dad had never been much more 
than a presence they feared.
Whenever they heard his tires crunch on the gravel driveway they would 
scramble to hide under their beds.
He did manage to leave $15 a week to buy groceries.
Now that he had decided to leave, there would be no more beatings, but no 
food either.
If there was a welfare system in effect in southern Indiana at that time, I 
certainly knew nothing about it. I scrubbed the kids until they looked brand
new and then put on my best homemade dress, loaded them into the rusty old 
51 Chevy and drove off to find a job.
The seven of us went to every factory, store and restaurant in our small 
town. No luck.
The kids stayed crammed into the car and tried to be quiet while I tried to 
convince whomever would listen that I was willing to learn or do anything.
I
had to have a job.
Still no luck. The last place we went to, just a few miles out of town, was 
an old Root Beer Barrel drive-in that had been converted to a truck stop. It
was called The Big Wheel.
An old lady named Granny owned the place and she peeked out of the window 
from time to time at all those kids. She needed someone on the graveyard 
shift,
11 at night until seven in the morning. She paid 65 cents an hour, and I 
could start that night. I raced home and called the teenager down the street 
that
baby-sat for people. I bargained with her to come and sleep on my sofa for a 
dollar a night. She could arrive with her pajamas on and the kids would 
already
be asleep. This seemed like a good arrangement to her, so we made a deal.
That night when the little ones and I knelt to say our prayers, we all 
thanked God for finding Mommy a job. And so I started at The Big Wheel.
When I got home in the mornings I woke the baby-sitter up and sent her home 
with one dollar of my tip money--fully half of what I averaged every night.
As the weeks went by, heating bills added a strain to my meager wage.
The tires on the old Chevy had the consistency of penny balloons and began 
to leak. I had to fill them with air on the way to work and again every 
morning
before I could go home.
One bleak fall morning, I dragged myself to the car to go home and found 
four tires in the back seat. New tires! There was no note, no nothing, just 
those
beautiful brand new tires. Had angels taken up residence in Indiana I 
wondered.
I made a deal with the local service station. In exchange for his mounting 
the new tires, I would clean up his office. I remember it took me a lot 
longer
to scrub his floor than it did for him to do the tires.
I was now working six nights instead of five and it still wasn't enough. 
Christmas was coming and I knew there would be no money for toys for the 
kids.
I found a can of red paint and started repairing and painting some old toys. 
Then hid them in the basement so there would be something for Santa to 
deliver
on Christmas morning. Clothes were a worry too. I was sewing patches on top 
of patches on the boys pants and soon they would be too far gone to repair.
On Christmas Eve the usual customers were drinking coffee in The Big Wheel. 
These were the truckers, Les, Frank, and Jim, and a state trooper named Joe.
A few musicians were hanging around after a gig at the Legion and were 
dropping nickels in the pinball machine. The regulars all just sat around 
and talked
through the wee hours of the morning and then left to get home before the 
sun came up.
When it was time for me to go home at seven o'clock on Christmas morning, to 
my amazement, my old battered Chevy was filled full to the top with boxes
of
all shapes and sizes. I quickly opened the driver's side door, crawled 
inside and kneeled in the front facing the back seat.
Reaching back, I pulled off the lid of the top box. Inside was whole case of 
little blue jeans, sizes 2-10! I looked inside another box: It was full of
shirts to go with the jeans. Then I peeked inside some of the other boxes. 
There was candy and nuts and bananas and bags of groceries. There was an 
enormous
ham for baking, and canned vegetables and potatoes. There was pudding and 
Jell-O and cookies, pie filling and flour. There was a whole bag of laundry 
supplies
and cleaning items. And there were five toy trucks and one beautiful little 
doll.
As I drove back through empty streets as the sun slowly rose on the most 
amazing Christmas Day of my life, I was sobbing with gratitude. And I will 
never
forget the joy on the faces of my little ones that precious morning.
Yes, there were angels in Indiana that long-ago December. And they all hung 
out at The Big Wheel truck stop....
THE POWER OF PRAYER. I believe that God only gives three answers to prayer:
1. "Yes!"
2. "Not yet."
3. "I have something better in mind."
God still sits on the throne, the devil is a liar. You maybe going through a 
tough time right now but God is getting ready to bless you in a way that you
cannot imagine.
My instructions were to pick four people that I wanted God to bless, and I 
picked you.
Please pass this to at least four people you want to be blessed and a copy 
back to me.
This prayer is powerful, and prayer is one of the best gifts we receive. 
There is no cost but a lot of rewards. Let's continue to pray for one 
another.
Here is the prayer:....
Father, I ask You to bless my friends, relatives and email buddies reading 
this right now. Show them a new revelation of Your love and power. Amen.


__________ NOD32 1871 (20061119) Information __________

This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system.
http://www.eset.com

ATOM RSS1 RSS2