Posted on 03/22/2006 6:33:59 PM PST by mathprof
The billboards out the window in this part of central Missouri advertise rock-bottom prices on adult videos and getaways to the Ozark Mountains. But at the truck stop just off Interstate 70, Chaplain Bob Holt is making another kind of promise to weary truckers: salvation.
For eight years, Holt has led daily services from a converted trailer parked in a truck stop -- a place he sees as filled with temptation. And on Thursday, he and fellow missionaries at nearly 100 travel plaza chapels across the country will hold a morning fellowship meeting to celebrate their calling on the seventh annual National Day of Prayer for Truckers.
''The devil's trying to keep them from coming in here,'' said Holt, standing in his modest trailer.
''Every time the truckers stop, there's ladies that come around and pick on the door,'' the 74-year-old retired commercial driver said. ''But if you just let them talk for a few minutes, you can figure out what their needs are. Then we're able to pray about those needs.''
The romance of the road and chance to make an independent living have helped steer more than 2.5 million truckers into the business, but weeks away from home make for a solitary life aggravated by tight drop-off schedules.
''There isn't a product that you're wearing that hasn't been handled by a trucker,'' said Bob Hataway, a former truck driver who will lead Thursday's prayer at the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Ky. ''We wanted to put on a red letter event to focus on the needs of truckers. They need our prayers.''
Christian truckers say chapels and organizations like Hataway's TransAlive USA, Inc., which helps drivers who have been hospitalized, are an oasis from a subculture of foul-mouthed radio chatter and truck stops sometimes rife with prostitution.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Should have quoted Rush on this one: the "drive by media"
Tailights flickerin', as he pulled up to a truckstop
The same old crowd was hangin' out again tonight
He said, Fill up my tank while I go check my load
It feels like it's shifting all around
He was the kind of man, do all he could
Above all he had integrity
But he was so young
And on a ten city run
In love with a truck stop girl
As he went inside, he was merrily greeted
By the girl with whom he was in love
She held out a glass and said, Have another
This is the last time we can meet
With her hair piled up high and a look in her eye
That would turn any good man's blood to wine
All his eyes could see, well all his eyes could see
Was the stare from all those around him
He ran out to the lot, and climbed into his rig
And drove off without tightening down
It was a terrilble thing, to see what remained
Of the rig that poor Danny was in
And he was so young and on a ten city run
In love with a truck stop girl
But he was so young, and on a ten city run
In love with a truck stop girl
May God bless the men and women who drive rigs for a living, supporting spouse & kids back home, while maintaining a trust in Christ. That career path is rough on the family & faith. And may God bless the men and women of orgs like TransAlive who aid them!
Thank God for true Christians who really make a difference in the world...
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