Big Jake Receives An Answer

Pamela Perry Blaine

© December 2005

Sarah couldn’t believe it! It was just two more days until Christmas break

and here she was stranded out on the side of the highway. She knew the

old car was on it’s last leg but she was hoping it would last until

Christmas break when she and her husband could think of some way

to get it fixed. The old car had over 300,000 miles on it and it was about

to bite the dust but there was just no money to fix the car or to get another one.

Sarah and Joe were a young couple with two small children. They

struggled just to pay the bills. Sarah had started back to college and

she was on her way to class. She was going to drop Mark off at

kindergarten first but the old Chevy had sputtered to a halt. It refused

to budge another inch. Sarah had just barely managed to coast

it off to the side of the road.

“If I could only just make it to the next exit,” she said to Mark, her

five-year-old son, as she tried to start the car again.

Sarah had no idea what to do, she had no cell phone and she couldn’t

leave Mark. It was too far for him to walk in these frigid temperatures.

Sarah kept trying to start the car as if somehow more attempts would

get action. She began mumbling encouragement to the car with tears in

her eyes. “Come on car. . . just a little further. . . please start!” she pleaded.

“Will it be okay, Mommy?” little Mark asked.

Suddenly Sarah felt terrible to think that maybe she was scaring her son.

“Yes, we are fine, Marky,” Sarah said with more assurance than she felt.

“Maybe we should ask Jesus to help,” Mark suggested.

“Yes, you are right, honey, let’s pray,” Sarah said as she reached back and

took Mark’s hand. They prayed and asked God to send them help.

There was nothing to do but wait. It was getting colder in the car and Sarah

and Mark bundled up as best as they could with their coats, hats, and gloves.

“Look Mommy!” Mark was pointing at a car coming up behind them.

It was a police car.

“Thank you Lord,” Sarah whispered as she saw the officer get out of his car.

“Got trouble, Ma’am?” the young officer said as Sarah rolled down her window.

“Yes, I’m afraid so,” she sighed.

The officer took a look under the hood and then recommended a call to a

nearby towing service. Sarah explained to him that she had no money for that.

“Well, Ma’am, is there someone I can call for you?”

Sarah was frantically trying to think of what to do because her husband

wasn’t home when Mark said, “Mommy, call Big Jake, he will come”.

As much as Sarah hated to bother Jake she was thankful that Mark had

thought of him. Big Jake was their pastor and the kids all loved him. He

treated them all like they were his own grandchildren. How he got to

be Big Jake Sarah wasn’t sure but the name stuck and the title, “Big Jake”,

was spoken with as much honor and respect as any clerical title.

“What a good idea, Marky,” Sarah said as she told the officer the number to call.

It wasn’t long before Big Jake pulled up in his old jeep and the officer

went on his way, leaving the situation in Big Jake’s hands.

“Thanks for coming, Jake, I don’t know what we would have done

without you,” Sarah said.

“Glad to,” Big Jake smiled as he handed Mark the Ziploc bag of cookies

that his wife had sent along. “Miss Cathy sent you those Mark, she

thought you might need a little something to tide you over until time for school.”

“Thank you!” little Mark squealed as he settled down in the back seat

of the car with his cookies.

“I gave Bob at the station a call before I left and he’ll take his wrecker

out to pick up your car for you. He said it was going to cost

you though,” Big Jake smiled knowingly.

“How much?” Sarah looked more than a little concerned.

“He said it would cost you one pumpkin pie like you fixed for the

church fellowship on Saturday night. I sure wish you’d give me

that recipe, Sarah, I might be needing some new tires

before long,” Big Jake shook his head and laughed.

Big Jake dropped Mark off at school and then drove on as he asked

Sarah if she still had time to make her class.

“Oh, it’s at 10:30, I’m afraid it’s probably too late,” Sarah moaned, “And I

can’t make my afternoon class either without a car. Maybe I ought to give up

going back to college. It doesn’t look like I’m going to have

a way to get there anyway.”

“Oh, don’t give up yet”, Big Jake said confidently. “Let’s just see what God

has in mind first,” he said as he pulled into his own driveway,

“let’s keep praying. . .God always has a plan.”

Big Jake came to a stop and stepped down from his jeep, leaving the jeep running.

“There you go, Sarah,” Jake said as he patted the driver’s seat for her

to scoot over. “I think you have just enough time to make that class.”

“But I can’t take your car, you’ll need it!” Sarah exclaimed.

“Naw, I don’t need it. I can drive Miss Cathy’s car. Now, you go on

before you miss your class,” and with that Big Jake walked off toward his house.

Big Jake watched through the window as Sarah drove off. He thought

it sure was a good feeling to be able to help those kids but he knew

they needed a lot more help than he could give them.

“Father, help me know what to do,” Big Jake breathed a short prayer.

Big Jake Receives An Answer

Part II

Pamela Perry Blaine

The next day Big Jake was sitting across from Cathy at the kitchen table.

They had spent a good part of the morning praying and trying to think of

some way to help Sarah & Joe with some kind of vehicle. Jake had

checked with the station this morning and their old car just wasn’t worth

fixing. There was no way Sarah and Joe would have the money to buy a car.

Jake knew they had a lot of expenses when Joe had been out of work and

now he had just started a new job that didn’t pay very well. Little Mark

had been very sick for a while too and the medical bills had piled up.

Jake had gotten the idea to talk to his old friend, Jim, who had just the

perfect car for Sarah and Joe but Jim needed at least four thousand for it.

That car was in great shape and Jim was willing to let it go for less

than it was worth just to help out Sarah and Joe.

“Say,” Cathy broke the silence, “You know we can come up with half of it.

The money in our special account! You know this time of year

we always use it for someone needing help.”

“Hey, that’s right!” Big Jake agreed, “Awwww . . . but we still need

two thousand more, Jake lamented.”

“I’ll be back before long, “ Jake told Cathy as he threw on his jacket.

Cathy knew where Jake was going. When something was heavy

on his heart, he would usually go for a walk through the woods

where he’d talk to the Lord.

Big Jake walked and prayed and tried hard to listen for any prompting

from the Lord. He thought about asking the church to help but the church

had already used up their benevolence fund. There had been a lot of

needs in their church and community this year. He had already told Sarah

to wait and see what God had in mind. Maybe he shouldn’t have said that,

he thought. I hope I didn’t give her false hope. Still, Big Jake felt like God

really did have a plan, something in mind for Joe and

Sarah, so he prayed once more.

Jake looked at his watch and was surprised that an hour had gone by

so he hastened his steps as he headed back toward the house.

Just as he came up out of the wooded area in back of the house, he noticed

a car had pulled in the driveway. It was Ted Martin, one of his deacons.

Ted was a quiet, soft-spoken man of few words but he was a good

deacon who took his deacon role seriously in helping others.

Ted had spotted Jake coming out of the woods and he

paced back and forth as he waited.

Jake took one look at Ted and wondered what was on his mind.

He sure hoped nothing was wrong.

“Hi Preacher,” Ted said as he walked up to him.

“Hey, good to see you, Ted, what brings you out this way, I hope

you just came for a visit and there’s nothing wrong.”

“No, nothing wrong, I just had something to give you,” Ted answered quietly.

Ted pulled out an envelope, handed it to Big Jake and said, “Here, I

figured you’d know what to do with this. Just do something good with it.”

Before Jake could say or do anything, Ted turned and got into his car and left.

Big Jake was a bit puzzled as he turned the envelope over and opened

the flap. He looked through the contents and with trembling hands and

a broken voice Big Jake whispered, “Thank you, Lord.

Wow! I guess you really did have something in mind.”

God had answered Jake’s prayers. For you see, Big Jake was

holding in his hands a stack of one hundred dollar bills and as he

counted them, they amounted to exactly two thousand dollars.

Pamela Perry Blaine

(A true story as told to me by Big Jake)

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord,

“plans to prosper you and not to harm you,

plans to give you a hope and a future.”

Jeremiah 29:11