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 a
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 may be going
through a tough time right now but God is
getting ready to bless you
in a way that you cannot imagine.

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.


Merry Christmas everyone

A poorly dressed lady with a look of defeat on her face,
walked into a grocery store.
She approached the owner of the store
in a most humble manner and asked if he would
let her charge a few groceries.
She softly explained that her
husband was very ill
and unable to work,
they had seven children and they needed food.

John Longhouse, the grocer,
scoffed at her and requested that
she leave his store at once.
Visualizing the family needs, she said:
"Please, sir,
I'll bring you the money just as soon as I can."

John told her he could not give her
credit,
since she did not have a charge account at his store.

Standing beside the counter was a customer
who overheard the conversation between the two.
The customer walked forward and told the
grocer that he would stand good for whatever she
needed for her family.

The grocer said in a very reluctant voice,
"Do you have a grocery list?"

Louise replied, "Yes sir."
"Okay" he said,
"put your grocery list on the scales
and whatever your grocery list weighs,
I will give you that amount in groceries."

Louise hesitated a moment with a bowed head,
then she reached into her
purse and took out a piece of paper
and scribbled something on it.

She then laid the piece of paper on the scale
carefully with her head still bowed.
The eyes of the grocer and the customer
showed amazement when the scales
went down and stayed down.
The grocer, staring at the scales,
turned slowly to the customer and said begrudgingly,
"I can't believe it."
The customer smiled

and the grocer started putting the groceries
on the other side of the scales.
The scale did not balance
so he continued to put more and more groceries on them
until the scales would hold no more.
The grocer stood there in utter disgust.

Finally,
he grabbed the piece of paper from the scales
and looked at it with greater amazement.

It was not a grocery list,
it was a prayer, which said:
"Dear Lord,
you know my needs and I am leaving this in your hands."

The grocer gave her the groceries
that he had gathered and stood in stunned silence.
Louise thanked him and left the store.
The other customer handed a fifty-dollar bill
to the grocer and said;

"It was worth every penny of it.
Only God knows how much a prayer weighs."

THE POWER OF PRAYER:
When you receive this, say a prayer.
That's all you have to do.
Just stop right now,
and say a prayer of thanks for your own good fortune.
Then please send this to all your friends and relatives.
I believe if you will send this testimony out

with prayer in faith,
you will receive what you need God to do
in your and your families' life.
So dear heart,
trust God to heal the sick,
provide food for the hungry,
clothes and shelter for those that don't have as we do.
Amen.

Prayer is one of the best
free gifts we receive.
There is no cost but a lot of rewards.
May you always walk with Angels.

Those are beautiful stories!