Hello and good morning to you all from Manchester in England
I got this in my email this morning
It is a lovely story,
of, empathy, compassion and seasonal goodwill
The message asks, that I send it to four-people
but, I know, that, by bringing it here
many many more than that will SEE it
> On Christmas Eve
> > 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, 0
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
who ever 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 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.
> > There 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 themorning 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.
> > I know I picked more than four,
so can you
________________
Well, I did pick more than four-people
By, bringing it here!
I did return it [ALSO] to the one that sent it to me
and just so many
will read it as they pass
Merry Christmas everybody
dave
God Bless!
