Chapter 18: ALL THINGS WORK FOR GOOD

Vengeance is Mine, I will repay!

When I moved to Georgia back in 1969, I started out working at the Electrolux Treasury office in Atlanta Georgia. After working there for a couple of years I heard about a job in a one-girl office for CP&W  Printing Co.  It was more pay and also I would get paid once a week instead of bimonthly, which sometimes was a struggle financially.  CP&W Co. printed cartons, packaging and labels for companies such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi etc. I had to self- train, as the girl that previously held the position left for her new job and could not stay to train me. I used to go through the files to research how things were handled previously to learn how to do them.

It was a small branch of the company that had about 10 to 12 employees who were all men, so I was the only female in office. This was often difficult because these men would be very flirty and quite forward towards me, especially while the bosses were gone.  Also the bosses themselves, which consisted of Don Holland, an assistant who was the salesman, use to be flirty also.  They use to try and get me to be the date of one of their potential clients, but I always refused.  I was a Christian with very strong morals and had not dated much really, as I was waiting for my “Mr. Right” who I had been praying for since I was five years old.  (See chapter 7: “Sharron’s Mr. Right”.)  

The branch manager, Mr. Holland, decided I needed someone to protect me, so he decided he was going to be my “godfather” from here on out.  I did not mind as my father was a long distance independent truck driver who lived in Tampa, Florida so I never saw him.  It was nice having someone looking out for me.

One of the main employees: “Richard” (who was married) was their technical man, and this company depended upon his color match skills - he was their main asset.  But, he also thought he was Elvis or God’s gift to women!  He would strut himself around me as if I was suppose to melt at his feet and do his bidding.  I was not the least bit impressed by him so I usually ignored him.  He was their ink expert, so without his expertise, they would all be out of a job.  He use to match the ink on packages and make it for less to get the job of printing their materials.  He was the company’s bread and butter so they all treated him like royalty. 

One day while preparing our weekly petty cash disbursements for our home office, I decided to be very bold and placed a little Bible tract in the envelope which was one of those tracts that looked like a small comic book entitled: “This Was Your Life”.  I knew there could be repercussions over sending it but decided to take a step of faith and do it anyway.   It was about two weeks later that the three owners whose initials were: “CP&W”, in our company name, came to visit us.  I was sitting at my desk when the president came and sat on the corner of my desk and began to question me.  He asked me if I was a person of faith and began “interrogating” me at first but then began to laugh and told me he was just messing with me but could not keep it up, but that I made his day when that tract was shown to him!  He said his office manager opened the petty cash request envelope and the tract fell out and she brought it to him and said: “this will make your day!”. It seems he was a strong believer and had been praying for Don Holland and the others for years and felt God sent me as a witness.

 

I worked at this job for about six months and one day my manager called me in his office and told me he really liked the way I self trained and learned everything on my own and that he was very pleased with me, so to keep up the good work.  Well, everything seemed to be going great and I loved my new job, until one day when the two bosses were gone, I had an unpleasant encounter with our tech (Richard, aka Elvis).  I stepped into the lab to give him an ink formula I had just finished working up when he grabbed me in front of one of the plant machine operators and tried to kiss me!  I shoved him off and told him to stop and ran from his lab very upset.  He was laughing at me to the other guy, and said, “Awe, you need to let go and relax as you might really enjoy it! “.

A week passed and things seemed back to normal, when Richard asked Don, the manager, upon his return from his trip, if he could talk with him about something.  They closed the door and I thought very little about it until later on, Don asked me if I could hang around a few minutes after work as he wanted to talk with me.   We sat in his car and he told me he was going to have to let me go, that there was some problems with my work and they were going to hire someone from another company in my place.  I cried and so did he!  He told me this was the hardest thing he has ever had to do as he felt I was like a daughter to him.   The next day he asked me if I would be willing to stay two weeks longer to train the new girl!  Normally most people would say “NO, that’s your problem!” but I was held to a higher standard.  The Lord spoke and very gently reminded me: “Do good to those that despitefully use you, love your enemies.” (Matthew 5:44); Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself (Matthew 22:39). 

I discovered later, while training my replacement, what really happened.  It seemed Richard did not like being rejected by me and gave Don an ultimatum:. "It’s her or me.". She said she knew him (Richard), as they use to work for the same company before coming to work for “CP&W”.  She asked me why I stayed the two weeks to train her after getting fired, as she would have told them where to go, and could not have done it.  I was able to share with her how I could do it and the principles I lived by and about the Lord I loved more.  Also that I knew he would lead me to another, better job so I was not the least bit worried.

I worked out my two weeks with no job leads, and was about to go apply for unemployment the next week, but decided to attend the evening service at “Welcome All Baptist Church” on a Sunday evening in which we had testimony time.  I felt inspired to share my ordeal with this body of believers and after the service one of our youth group friends came up to me and said he would talk to his employment manager, Laverne Mashburne, to find out whether there were any openings or not. The next day I received a call; it seemed they were hiring and as the Lord would have it, I got the job!  I had a week break then got hired by Cotton States Insurance Co. main office and never missed a pay check!  Also, this job lead me to my husband, Jack Wright which is in chapter 7: “Sharron’s Mr. Right” should you wish to read this incredible answer to prayer with such detail only our Heavenly Father could work out!

Just a bit of additional information, a year after I left the “CP&W Printing Co.” it burned to the ground and everyone lost their jobs!  It truly is "a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God' (Hebrews 10:31) and also “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is Mine; I will repay saith the Lord' (Romans 12:19), and “But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons'. (Colossians 3:25)   Also, “All things work together for good to those that love the Lord and are called according to His purpose.'  (Romans 8:28)

What an awesome God we serve!  He is: El-Elyon, the Most High God, Who is the first cause of everything, the Possessor of the heavens and Earth. He is the Everlasting God, the Great God, the Living God, the merciful God, the faithful God, the Mighty God. He is Truth, Justice, Righteousness, and Perfection.  He is El- Elyon --- the Highest Sovereign of the heavens and the Earth.
ADONAI, my Lord and my Master. 

He is Jehovah --- the completely Self-Existing One, always present, revealed and Jesus, Who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
JEHOVAH JIREH:  The one who meets all our needs and provides for them.
JEHOVAH SHAMMAH: the One who will never leave or forsakes me.  You are always there.  I take comfort and am encouraged and confidently and boldly say, The Lord is my Helper; I will not be seized with alarm --- I will not fear or dread or be terrified.  What can man do to me?

Chapter 4: 4th Encounter: Stop That Plane!

A PLANE TRIP TO BE REMEMBERED!
Background information:  I was one of eleven children, six sisters and five brothers, of which I happened to be second in the family lineup.  I moved away when I turned twenty-one, to Marietta, Georgia where I currently reside.  My parents were married for twenty-five years and sometime around age twenty-five, my mother filed for a divorce.  I seemed to be the only one in the family at that time that was a believer, so my mother sent for me to come down to be with her during that difficult time. The following account is my fourth and final angelic encounter (I think!).

Years ago, during a major family crisis, my mother phoned and asked me to fly down to Tampa-she needed my consoling. She had arranged a flight for me to Tampa on a short notice, and I was to pick up the ticket at the old Atlanta airport that night before my flight. My flight was scheduled to leave at 10:35 PM and since my church was having revival, I decided to attend the service that night to request prayer from my pastor and church, for wisdom to handle the needs of my family. At the end of the service, I went down and made my request to our pastor.  He then asked the church to remember Sharron in prayer this week regarding her family, and to please come forward to let her know by shaking her hand that you will be covering her in prayer. After practically everyone in the church came up in support, I left to catch my plane. It was now after 9 PM and I still had to go home first, to pick up my suitcase, then make it to the airport by the 10:35 PM departure, which included getting my ticket. 

 My roommates were going to drive me there –it was about 10 PM when we actually got underway.  All the way to the airport I prayed-pleaded, in the backseat telling the Lord, "You’re the Lord God Almighty, and you made the heavens and the earth – it's all under your control. Lord, you can put me on that plane!  Please Lord, hinder it from leaving.”  I reminded the Lord that I believed His Word, "And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son (John 14:13 KJV)" and “Therefore I say unto you, what things so ever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them” (Mark 11:24 KJV).  Also, I reminded the Lord that I was not late for a selfish reason – but because I had asked for prayer support for my family's needs, so somehow please hold up that plane for me.

It was 10:25 PM when we arrived at the Atlanta airport and my friends dropped me off in front of the airport terminal. I hurriedly made my way up to the Delta ticket agent (remember, I still had to pick up my ticket) and asked about the flight to Tampa. Up on the board I saw my Tampa flight flashing, "Departing". The ticket agent said, "I'll call them and see if I can get them to hold the flight till you get there - here is your ticket.” She couldn't get through to them on the phone for some reason, but she told me where to go and to run as fast as I could, and she would keep trying to call the agent and ask them to hold the flight – if she got through to them.

As it would happen, my plane was departing at the far end of the airport, so with suitcase in hand, I ran all the way there! Out of breath I almost collapsed at the ticket agent's desk, just as they were pulling down the name, “Tampa”. I asked one of the two agents "Is that plane still boarding?" He said, "No miss, that plane left ten minutes ago. I'm sorry; you'll have to catch another one". I dropped my suitcase in utter disappointment, and in total dismay, told the Lord, "I believed you and you let me down"! You said that whatever we asked for, if we believed and didn't doubt that we would have what we asked for. Well I believed you would put me on that plane – I didn't doubt, and you let me down! Just about this moment, I spotted a man in a brown suit just standing there with hands clasped, smiling at me – watching, and he approached me saying, "Miss, do you want on that plane?" I answered "yes!" He then said, "Well I'm going to put you on it!" I quickly looked behind him – he was standing in between me and the two ticket agents. I wanted to know what they thought about this man, saying he would put me on that plane, when they had just told me it was too late, the plane had already departed. But it seemed as if they could not even see me – they ignored us both! He reached down and took my suitcase and walked us out a side door in the terminal, which led out to the runway where my plane was departing. I recall thinking that this man must be a VIP for Delta airlines; I quickly followed him out the door, as he carried my suitcase for me. He asked me to stand there and wait, while he walked up to and spoke with one of the Delta employees with the headphones – one of the technicians. I was not aware of what was being said but I remember seeing the plane a good ways off, leaving of its own accord and suddenly stopping. Then I saw the plane entrance ramp descend, and the door opened.

The man in the brown suit guided me out to where the plane had stopped, took my suitcase and threw it up somewhere under the pilot’s cockpit, and guided me up the ramp to the plane. At the top of the stairs – in the doorway of the plane, where two stewardesses standing, watching and waiting for me to ascend the stairs to check my ticket, and I overheard one of them ask, "Who is she?" The other stewardess answered, "I don't know, I’ve never seen her before!" At this time a third stewardess appeared and stated, "Well don't look at me, neither have I".

As I began to climb the steps to the plane, I wanted to answer them, "I am a child of the King! My father put me on this plane!" As I walked down the aisle of the plane to my seat, I was aware of every eye upon me – wondering how I came to be on that plane! Well, it was an hour flight to Tampa and I was so elated with this experience – I had to tell someone, so I told the couple seated next to me about how I came to be on that flight – how God had intervened and answered my prayer. It wasn't until several weeks later that the Lord revealed to me who it was that had put me on that plane. All along I had believed it to be a Delta VIP, which had authority to put me on the plane – and that he just happened to be in the right place, at the right time, when I needed him most.

A few weeks later I was asked to share this experience with a large metro bible study group – approximately 400 people. I had never spoken before a group, especially one as large as this, so I began to pray that the Lord would take that experience and give me the words to say and the ability to say it exactly the way it happened – that He would speak through me. When I got to the part in my story regarding the man who I thought was a Delta VIP – the man in the brown suit, I heard myself saying, "I believe it was an angel", and then the Lord opened my eyes! As I said these words, I realized that that was the reason why the two ticket agents acted as though they didn't see us or care that we were walking out the door to board the plane. This was why the man had such authority and also why the plane technician submitted to his authority without question. That was also why a plane was stopped that by Delta Airline regulations was not supposed to be stopped and boarded, according to the ticket I had been holding.

I had stood upon God's promises "believe only and ye shall receive"! He came through for me – just like He promised in His Word and made the impossible possible.

Prayer of Faith, according to God's Word:

“Heavenly Father, you stated in your word: “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son (John 14:13 KJV)" and “Therefore I say unto you, what things so ever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them”(Mark 11:24 KJV). And again, it is written in Matthew 21:22 “And all things what so ever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." So Heavenly Father, today I remind you of your Word, which I know that you watch over to perform, that based upon your written Word, and my confession of faith in Jesus Christ, my savior and Lord, Alpha and Omega, the “I Am”, the first and the last, the Beginning and the End, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, I confess that you are the Lord, the God of all Flesh, and therefore nothing is impossible for you!  Make a way where there seems to be no way and intervene on my behalf in this, my petition, in Jesus name, Amen