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God is in the details for Powerball winner
Washington Times
| 12/27/02
| Gavin McCormick, AP
Posted on 12/27/2002 12:16:35 AM PST by kattracks
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Andrew Jackson Whittaker Jr. thanks God that he picked the six numbers that won him the $314.9 million Christmas Day Powerball jackpot, and he's putting up the money to prove it.
"The very first thing I'm going to do is go home and make out three checks to three pastors," Mr. Whittaker said. Those checks, a tithe to the Church of God, will total $17 million.
"Seventeen million in the state of West Virginia will really do good for the poor," he said, adding that the three pastors will control the money and perhaps establish a Christian school.
The 55-year-old contractor, who won the largest single-winner lottery jackpot in history, opted to take a lump sum of $170 million before taxes, instead of 30 annual installments. The lump sum is worth more than $111 million after taxes, lottery spokeswoman Nancy Bulla said.
"I just want to thank God for letting me pick the right numbers, or letting the machine pick the right numbers," said Mr. Whittaker, who claimed his winnings dressed in black and wearing a big, black cowboy hat.
Mr. Whittaker lives in the small town of Scott Depot, about 20 miles west of Charleston, and is president of three construction companies that build sewage-treatment plants and other water projects.
"I've had to work for everything in my life. This is the first thing that's ever been given to me," he said.
Mr. Whittaker said he originally thought he had lost the jackpot because the numbers came up wrong on the televised drawing Christmas night. It wasn't until yesterday morning that he realized he won.
His wife of 36 years said she plans to go to Israel.
"I'd just go to go there. It's where Jesus walked," Jewell Whittaker said.
The couple planned to travel to New York City last night.
Mr. Whittaker said he would share the rest of his winnings with his family, and may expand his business. He has a daughter named Ginger and a 15-year-old granddaughter.
Ginger McMahan said she had cancer twice and had not worked for about a year. "I was getting ready to go back to work, but I think I'm retired now," she said.
Mr. Whittaker also said he wants to help "people who want to better themselves to have a better life."
"I'm getting really excited because of the good works I can do with this money," he said.
He said little about buying luxuries for himself — aside from a helicopter he said he had had his eye on for a while.
"I have 25 people laid off right now at Christmas, and I want more work so I can put them back to work," he said. He now employs 117 persons.
He told Miss Bulla he was not a regular lottery player but he bought $100 in tickets because the jackpot was so high. He plays when it reaches $100 million.
The ticket was purchased at the C&L Super Serve in Hurricane, 25 miles west of Charleston.
Mr. Whittaker went back to the store yesterday morning to fill up on gas and buy some biscuits, as he does each day. The clerk was the one who sold him the ticket. He told her he won, but "she said, 'No, you didn't, you're not excited enough to win the lottery.' And she just pushed me out the door," he said.
"It's so just that the poorest state in America wins the biggest Powerball in history," said Bob O'Dell, a 51-year-old resident of the town that's pronounced herr' ah cun. (West Virginia's per-capita income actually was second-lowest to Mississippi's in 2000.)
The Super Serve's owner, Larry Trogdon, will get $100,000 for selling the winning ticket.
"I have a daughter getting married this summer," he told NBC.
"I guess we're honeymooning in Hawaii," said his daughter, Amy, who manages the Super Serve and is getting married next summer to a clerk at the store.
"Heck, if you're going to Hawaii, I'm coming with you," Mr. Trogdon answered, laughing.
The jackpot was the largest ever for a single winning ticket, Miss Bulla said. It also was the third-largest jackpot in U.S. history.
An unexpected Christmas Day run on Powerball tickets pushed the already whopping $280 million jackpot to $314.9 million just before numbers were drawn, making it the Powerball's largest prize ever.
The winning numbers were 5-14-16-29-53 and the Powerball was 7.
Mr. Whittaker had the option of taking a cash payout of $170 million before taxes or collecting the entire jackpot in 30 payments over 29 years. He took the lump sum and Gov. Bob Wise presented him with an initial check of $10 million.
Powerball, the nation's largest lottery game, is sold in 23 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Before the Christmas 2002 prize, the largest Powerball jackpot was $295.7 million in July 1998.
The biggest lottery jackpot in U.S. history was a Big Game prize of $363 million, won in May 2000 by ticketholders in Michigan and Illinois. The second was a $331 million Big Game jackpot split between three tickets in April.
Spain's annual Christmas lottery known as El Gordo — "the Fat One" — is billed as the world's richest. This year's $1.7 billion jackpot spreads wealth among millions of people. About 10,000 numbers win some kind of prize, from $20 to $200,000.
TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
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To: go star go
BTW, you acted like I swore at you and that my friend is a lie... - No, I merely stated you swore - point where I said you swore at me
To: Revelation 911
Why don't you post everything before that so we can get context. It seems that you believe only paupers can get into heaven.
You still haven't told us how you figure on getting in being as you have a tendency to judge when the Bible clearly forbids it. You can try to DECLARE that it fact that you see but then you're not the judge of that are you?
To: Taliesan
like I thought - your presumption
To: Revelation 911
I'm not arguing that point. That requires context and I've lost interest in that point. I want to know how you think you have the power to declare things as "FACTS" thus you didn't judge. That my friend is the definition of judging.
To: go star go
yawn
To: Revelation 911
And also while you're at it explain to us why is it that God would prefer someone to win the lottery that would blow it on worldly things instead of this guy who intends to do good deeds with it.
To: Revelation 911
Repeat: I want to know how you think you have the power to declare things as "FACTS" thus you didn't judge. That my friend is the definition of judging.
To: Revelation 911
There you go. Run and search for another verse that has absolutely nothing to do with the issue at hand. Don't even attempt to defend you indefensible position that this man was a bad person.
To: go star go
I personally think that this was exactly the right person to win this lottery...
To: Revelation 911
So now you have come around 180 and are agreeing with the rest of us about the
LOVE of money being evil instead of money...don't you think you owe an apology ?
In answer to your question here, the man who won the lottery clearly stated he doesn't bother to play unless the jackpot is over 100 million because that much would enable him to do things to help others. What a fine man and example to the rest of us who is putting his actions to work and not mouthing off. You never answered the other FREEPERS who asked what you do for work and whether or not the product or service was ever misused ? Material things are just that, THINGS and living in a material world condeming all that does not meet your approval is similar to the camel passing thru the eye of the needle. Try to see God's prescence in your fellow man and work along with that instead of slinging arrows at those you dont agree with. Unless somebody can create universes and other life forms I don't think they could really speak for God.
Not to offend but if you take a Jew (Jesus) and make him God and then tell the other Jews they aren't going to heaven unless they abort their own religious views (like the Jewish religion), makes one wonder what difference is there in your beliefs and those of the Hare Krishnas who believe you must come thru Krishna first......and then all the other religions ? ...it goes on and on....and if you really do respect Jesus then his teachings were that the I AM within is GOD and GOD is within everyone....Those who try to sell us Jesus say he is the ONLY way.....you do the math !
To: Searching4Justice
This lottery winner should get man of the year IMHO. He's precisely what is good about this country.
To: go star go
I totally agree and it's almost as if God picked him to show the rest of us how to be.......
To: Searching4Justice
Durn tootin...
OOPS. I guess I'll be judged a sinner and condemed to hell for that remark. Oh well...
To: Revelation 911
not purposefully done? (sigh)- whos sins are they then? 
Not what I meant. I meant that sins come natural and the temptation cant just be turned off. And many times, temptation leads to sin but is not "unpardonable".
I disagree with RC on many issues like Mary, saints, confession among other things. My wife was catholic and had no clue what the second coming of Christ was. Her dad never heard of the book of Revelations. I am at odds with Catholic schools as they sometimes dont prepare their pupils spiritually.
Pope is but a man elected. I admire him as a person but never would I place him higher or at the same level as even John the Baptist.
To: go star go
yer gonna need an ocean of calomine lotion .....watch out for the grammar god.........
To: Revelation 911
I think lotteries are horrible, perfect examples of the cesspool culture we live in.
Yet I confess I still buy a ticket now and then and I'm tickled to death for this country feller and the clerk he purchased his from.
May God bless them and their families and keep them free from the potential curse.
To: Revelation 911
"how exactly is a Christian youth group not "of God"Has nothing to do with where the money is going or how it is to be used, according to your original argument.........this discussion has to do with where the money comes from.
"For the record - my denomination does not participate in fundraisers, relying on tithes and offerings to fund our youth programs"
Great; really is..........but now you, according to your belief, must closely examine every source of income from which you derive those tithes and offerings. Make sure none of the money in the bank accounts of your congregation comes from gambling, lotteries, or any nefarious means. Of course, that now means you must form a committee to decide what amounts to "nefarious means".
Vicious cycle, isn't it?
To: Revelation 911
Money is not the root of all evil. The LOVE of it is!!
Our bartering used to be with stones, many eons's before. Now paper money and coins are used.
God knew we would need this and His warning was not the money itself that would lend itself to all kinds of evil, but the LOVE of it. Money today is power; used in the right way can do wonders; it is in the heart of the individual that produces the LOVE OF MONEY that creates terrible evil
To: DearAbby
An old prospector friend of mine told me of GOLD MINER'S DISEASE......it's when you are so busy finding gold that all else is put aside and you lose yourself in your search for materialistic riches.....another way to show how LOVE OF MONEY can distort reality.....
To: E.G.C.
If you're sending money to Rush Limbaugh you're wackier than these Pecksniffian fundamentalists. ;o)
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