PROVIDENCE
Pearl Harbor changed everything and was a harbinger of things to come. WWII brought about many changes in people lives. GayNell and her family lived down on the border of Mexico in Harlingen, Texas. They pastored the First Assembly of God Church. There was a military base in the county and the church served Harlingen Army Air Field where many service men and women attended the church.
Can you imagine America during war years? There were many societal changes which took place: Mass mobilization, rationing of goods, and the end of the Great Depression because of the boom of the war economy.
We had a Japanese neighbor in the 1960’s that was taken to a war camp with his family as a child because of the deep-seated racism and fear of the Japanese. Many women entered the work force, including my mother who was sent to Fordyce, Arkansas where she worked at the Shumaker Ammunition Depot. I was left with family in Texas as an infant.
Times were tough and Pastor’s learned to live by faith and not by sight. It was a Saturday afternoon and GayNell’s mother had just finished cooking their evening meal when there was a knock at the kitchen door. The parsonage was located right next to the railroad and Travelers (or Hobo’s as they were called in that day) had come to beg for money. Here is how the story went:
Fast forward to the early 1970’s. We are working with him in the East end of Houston and at this time we had opened the “Salt Inn” coffee house to work with youth. It was in a house that had been given to us by a woman that Brother Weathers knew when he was a child in his hometown of Waco, Texas. We actually had hundreds of young people we were working with at that time and the property was well known to the youth of that neighborhood.
The story goes like this: an addicted young man decided he was going to break in to the house and steal what ever he could, so that he could buy dope. When he approached the back door of the Salt Inn, suddenly a huge angel appeared to him blocking his way into the house. He of course fled from there as fast as he could and told the story to all the head bangers in the region. Needless to say, we had a Heavenly Security System from that day forward. I will call it, “The All Seeing Eye, Security System,” which serves you 24/7, Day and Night.
These stories are true and providentially shared with you at this time. God is with you now, and he never slumbers are sleeps.
Remember, Angels really are on assignment. Providentially yours,
Pastor Cleddie Keith
Pearl Harbor changed everything and was a harbinger of things to come. WWII brought about many changes in people lives. GayNell and her family lived down on the border of Mexico in Harlingen, Texas. They pastored the First Assembly of God Church. There was a military base in the county and the church served Harlingen Army Air Field where many service men and women attended the church.
Can you imagine America during war years? There were many societal changes which took place: Mass mobilization, rationing of goods, and the end of the Great Depression because of the boom of the war economy.
We had a Japanese neighbor in the 1960’s that was taken to a war camp with his family as a child because of the deep-seated racism and fear of the Japanese. Many women entered the work force, including my mother who was sent to Fordyce, Arkansas where she worked at the Shumaker Ammunition Depot. I was left with family in Texas as an infant.
Times were tough and Pastor’s learned to live by faith and not by sight. It was a Saturday afternoon and GayNell’s mother had just finished cooking their evening meal when there was a knock at the kitchen door. The parsonage was located right next to the railroad and Travelers (or Hobo’s as they were called in that day) had come to beg for money. Here is how the story went:
GayNell’s dad had told the traveler he did not have any money but he was welcome to come in and eat a home cooked meal, and as they say in Texas, he was obliged to do just that. I love hearing GayNell tell this story because I can see the food on the table and when she talks about it, I can even smell it. Bother Weathers asked the traveling man if he was a Christian and the supper guest said, “Yes he was,” so at that point my father in law asked him to pray. GayNell was four and a half years old at this time. They bowed their heads and as GayNell tells it, she and her father and mother were slain in the Spirit and fell to the floor. As she recalls sometime later in the afternoon, they stirred and came back awake. The traveler’s plate was empty and he was gone. Their food was still on their plates and the food was cold. There was (of course) some discussion after my mother in law heated the food back up for them to finish the meal, but wait, that is not all the story.
The following Wednesday, four days later, GayNell’s dad had to go downtown. As he was standing on Main Street Harlingen, a man walked up to him and said, “Are you Pastor Weathers?” He acknowledged he was “one in the same.” It was not someone he knew of that well. The man pulled some money out of his pocket and gave him 10 one hundred dollar bills. He told me one day, “Cleddie, from that day to this I never had another financial need that God did not meet”. He told me this story some 26 or 27 years later and remembered that it was in the middle of WWII.
Fast forward to the early 1970’s. We are working with him in the East end of Houston and at this time we had opened the “Salt Inn” coffee house to work with youth. It was in a house that had been given to us by a woman that Brother Weathers knew when he was a child in his hometown of Waco, Texas. We actually had hundreds of young people we were working with at that time and the property was well known to the youth of that neighborhood.
The story goes like this: an addicted young man decided he was going to break in to the house and steal what ever he could, so that he could buy dope. When he approached the back door of the Salt Inn, suddenly a huge angel appeared to him blocking his way into the house. He of course fled from there as fast as he could and told the story to all the head bangers in the region. Needless to say, we had a Heavenly Security System from that day forward. I will call it, “The All Seeing Eye, Security System,” which serves you 24/7, Day and Night.
These stories are true and providentially shared with you at this time. God is with you now, and he never slumbers are sleeps.
Remember, Angels really are on assignment. Providentially yours,
Pastor Cleddie Keith
Posted in Providence