Hi,
You are welcome!
Yours in Christ,
Virgie and Hoshi
----- Original Message -----
From: "Malcolm" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, November 21, 2006 9:51 AM
Subject: Re: the big wheel.
> Thank you Virgie for this email.
>
> Love,
> Malcolm.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "VIRGIE UNDERWOOD" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Tuesday, November 21, 2006 4:02 AM
> Subject: Fw: the big wheel.
>
>
>> ----- 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
>>
>>
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