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Belle's Musing - My Mommy Needs a Keeper
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Pocket Full of Quarters Trek 2010
Mommy Needs A Keeper
By Belle Touchton – The Missionary Dog
Mommy - Cheryle M. Touchton - The Pocket Full of Quarters Lady
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Deut 31:6 NIV
Mommy was worried. She kept looking at the gas gauge and using Tom Tom to search for gas stations. When we got near St. Louis, Missouri Mommy pulled off the freeway.
“Thank goodness, Belle. They have a gas station.“
I looked around and didn’t like what I saw. I started barking. Mommy pulled alongside some Government project houses that looked like the ones in Jacksonville Beach that Daddy warns Mommy not to drive by. I didn’t feel safe. Mommy turned into the one tiny gas station. I counted ten cars and 6 pumps. Mommy had to wait behind 2 cars to get gas.
Young men wearing colorful shirts and gold chains around their neck walked everywhere. I ran from one end of Halleluiah to the other trying to make sure everyone knew I was in here protecting Mommy. I looked across the street trying to find our way out and saw three men playing with a basketball on the ramp back onto the freeway. There was no basketball hoop. Why were they playing there? We waited and everyone stared. No one smiled and nobody looked or dressed like my Mommy.
“Hush Belle,” Mommy said. “That’s not nice.”
Yea, right. I thought. Like I’m really going to hush. Doesn’t she know she needs me to protect her?
I couldn’t believe it when finally Mommy pulled up to the gas pump and got out of Halleluiah. She was hemmed in between 2 cars. How were we going to make a quick getaway? The gas station was so small, I wondered how Mommy was going to get Halleluiah turned around to get out. I kept right on running back and forth barking.
I ran to the window where Mommy was pumping gas just in time to hear a man ask, “So, what’s a pocket full of quarters?” This man’s pants were hanging low around his skinny hips and when he opened his mouth to talk, his 1 bottom tooth was sticking straight out. His only 2 top teeth were rotten. I didn’t think Mommy should be talking to him but you know my mommy.
“I’m a Christian missionary and writer,” Mommy told him. “I talk to people about Jesus. Pocket Full of Quarters is the name of my first book. If you have a pocket full of quarters, you are prepared. It represents being prepared for life and eternity. Are you a Christian?”
“I’m working on it,” the man laughed, showing those snaggly teeth again.
“That’s one thing you don’t have to work on,” Mommy said. “You either are or you aren’t. It’s easy to be a Christian. All you have to do is believe in Jesus, confess your mistakes, and ask Him to be your Savior. Do you believe in Jesus?”
“Yes,” Mr. Toothless said.
About that time, a very big man wearing very big gold chains and a long black shirt walked up.
“What are you doing?” he snapped at the man with the missing teeth.
“I… I…I was just asking her about Pocket Full of Quarters,” Mr. Toothless stammered.
The Big Man crossed his arms across his big chest. He glared at Mommy.
Oh no, I thought. He’s trying to intimidate my Mommy. That doesn’t usually work.”
“We are talking about Jesus,” Mommy said to the big man as she stopped pumping gas, stood up straight, and looked him straight in the eye. “He says he is working on being a Christian and I explained that it is easy to be a Christian and that he didn’t need to work on it.”
“Hurry up,” The Big Man said to Mr. Toothless. Mommy and Mr. Toothless went back to pumping gas but kept talking. Mommy finished first and walked to Halleluiah.
Thank goodness. Hurry Mommy, I barked, knowing she understood me. The car in front of us has left. We could get out now. The Big Man is still glaring at you.
Mommy needs a keeper. Instead of driving off, she got one of her tracts, walked back to Mr. Toothless and The Big Man and handed it to Mr. Toothless. She glared right back at The Big Man who had folded his arms across his chest again and then turned to Mr. Toothless. “This will tell you how to become a Christian. You don’t have to work on it. Please read it.”
“Thanks,” Mr. Toothless said as he put it in his pocket.
Mommy got in the car and did a “3 point turn” to get out of the gas station. The Big Man never stopped glaring. As we pulled onto the freeway, the basketball players stopped playing and stared at us. I just kept barking. It was the middle of the day. Didn’t any of these men have jobs?
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Cheryle M. Touchton is the Director of Pocket Full of Change Ministries. For more information or to schedule a speaker for an event, go to www.pocketfullofchange.org or call Cheryle Touchton at 904-614-3585.
This ministry exists because people like you are called to help fund the work of the kingdom. To help keep the Pocket Full of Quarters Lady on the road leading people to Christ, you can donate at |
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