| Billy's MOM!!!
Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Southern Indiana
Posts: 302
My Mood:  Points: 3,053.25 Bank: 4,973.22 Total Points: 8,026.47 |  Get out you kleenex....
"The Big Wheel"
Read this all the way. It will give you goose bumps. If you've never seen
this, it will thrill your heart; if you have seen it click it off, if you
can, I couldn't. It's beautiful and the prayer at the end is something we
all need to do to God for the benefit of each other
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. I 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 owner of 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 I 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 I
hurried to the car. I was hoping the kids wouldn't wake up before I managed
to get home and get the presents from the basement and place them under the
tree. We had cut down a small cedar tree by the side of the road down by the
dump. It was still dark and I couldn't see much, but there appeared to be
some dark shadows in the car-or was that just a trick of the night?
Something certainly looked different, but it was hard to tell what. When I
reached the car I peered warily into one of the side windows.
Then my jaw dropped in 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, scrambled 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
When you receive this, say a prayer. This prayer will do.
That's all you have to do. There is nothing attached. This is powerful.
Just send this to four people and do not break this, please. Prayer is one
of the best free gifts we receive. There is no cost but a lot of rewards.
Let's continue praying for one another.
Father,
I ask you to bless my friends reading this right now.
Lord, show them a new revelation of Your love and power.
Holy Spirit, I ask You to minister to their spirit at this very moment.
Where there is pain give them Your peace & mercy.
Where there is self doubting, release a renewed confidence in Your ability
to work through them.
Where there is tiredness, or exhaustion, I ask You to give them
understanding, patience, &
strength as they learn submission to Your leading.
Where there is spiritual stagnation, I ask You to renew them by revealing
Your nearness, and by drawing them into greater intimacy with You.
Where there is fear, reveal Your love, and release to them Your courage.
Where there is a sin blocking them, reveal it, and there would be some thing
to break its hold over my friend's life.
Bless their finances, give them greater vision, and raise up leaders, and
friends to support, and encourage them.
Give each of them discernment to recognize the demonic forces around them,
and reveal to them the power they have in You to defeat it.
I ask You to do these things in Jesus' name
Amen
__________________________________________________ __ |
Kathryn
Wow 
