Big
Jake Receives An Answer
By
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
By
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.
By
Pamela
Perry Blaine
©
December 2005
(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
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