Post by JEM on May 26, 2006 3:07:36 GMT
Harry Eva The Umbrella Man
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One of the proofs that God exists and is powerful is the way he changes peoples lives, and make depressed down hearted people strong and successful
Jesus by the Holy Spirit gives us boldness and courage to do things.
When Harry Eva was a small boy he was not allowed to walk on the left hand side of the road on Sundays. Raspberries grew there and he might pick them and thereby break the Sabbath.
In those days religious regulations and two and a half hour services with a long boring sermon were enough to put anyone off church for life and in many cases did
Despite his parents narrow minded attitude he learnt that there was a God who loved and cared for him. He discovered Jesus Christ and trusted him. He was to have a deep and constant need for God in years to come
When Harry was 14 his parents died. He was orphaned and homeless
He made his way from Vermont to Boston. Because he could not keep his clothes tidy on the 5 dollars a week he earned at his first job in a grocery store, he was sacked.
Without wages he could not pay the landlady for the room he rented. He was put out on the street.
He spent that night on a bench in Boston Park.
Eight nights later without work and literally starving he came back to the same familiar bench. No one noticed him. Nobody cared. Why should they?
He was just one of many ragged boys in tight fisted well to do Boston.
Harry sat on his bench munching through the one loaf of bread he had been able to buy, thinking, wondering he made a promise to God
“If he should be preserved, should find work, somehow he would care for other homeless boys like himself”
Immediately God began answering this teenagers prayers.
For on the ground by the bench in the snow Harry noticed laying a one cent coin, Trying to decide whether to buy a roll or a bun, he determined to buy a newspaper instead and looked at the Situations Vacant column
The next day although 29th in a queue of boys, he was given a job in a Cafe at 6 dollars a week.
Although 6 dollars was hardly enough to rent a room and buy food, Harry started immediately to keep his promise.
Out of his weekly wages he put a few cents on one side.
He did the same with the next job, and the next .
What he put on one side rose to dollars. But more than a few dollars would be needed. He went on working and saving
At the end of 9 years he had amassed $400 dollars
He set out to find a way of using it
He went from Church to Church, institution to institution, offering his money, but no one would accept his terms.
It must be used to give food, clothes and shelter to stray boys regardless of their character or creed. Need was the only qualification.
He was shocked and disappointed.
He moved to New York and found a broken down store
The landlord to whom Harry told his story gave him use of the building for a very small rent and gave him a day time job too of selling umbrellas
In the years that followed the umbrella man became a familiar figure
Working at his business during the day, he scouted around the parks at night
He found his first ragged homeless boy in Union Square, and before he reached the store for the night he had found 5, and by the end of the week he had doubled that .
It became clear that $400 dollars saved up in 9 years would be spent in 9 weeks
The boys all waifs and strays, were used to making money in simple if dishonest ways and were disconcertingly cynical when Harry asked them to pray.
He said “If God wants me to do this He will be even more interested in this than I am. He will supply our needs.
As the days went by it was clear God was interested.
Somehow from somewhere came furniture, clothes, food, and money.
There were also bad times. With a debt of $260 dollars and nothing to pay it with Harry might well have given up hope.
But a man who had defrauded his firm many years earlier and found it closed down when he wanted to pay the money back sent $275 dollars to Harry instead.
There was a time when there was no food at all.
A 16 pound ham was handed in from Mrs Theodore Roosevelt
the widow of the ex-president of the USA
In 50 years the Home for Homeless Boys established by the “umbrella man” gave a shelter and a start in life to over 50,000 boys.
To the end of his life Harry Eva nightly went out looking for waifs on the streets. An old thin shabby looking man proved that God always keeps his promises.
######################
One of the proofs that God exists and is powerful is the way he changes peoples lives, and make depressed down hearted people strong and successful
Jesus by the Holy Spirit gives us boldness and courage to do things.
When Harry Eva was a small boy he was not allowed to walk on the left hand side of the road on Sundays. Raspberries grew there and he might pick them and thereby break the Sabbath.
In those days religious regulations and two and a half hour services with a long boring sermon were enough to put anyone off church for life and in many cases did
Despite his parents narrow minded attitude he learnt that there was a God who loved and cared for him. He discovered Jesus Christ and trusted him. He was to have a deep and constant need for God in years to come
When Harry was 14 his parents died. He was orphaned and homeless
He made his way from Vermont to Boston. Because he could not keep his clothes tidy on the 5 dollars a week he earned at his first job in a grocery store, he was sacked.
Without wages he could not pay the landlady for the room he rented. He was put out on the street.
He spent that night on a bench in Boston Park.
Eight nights later without work and literally starving he came back to the same familiar bench. No one noticed him. Nobody cared. Why should they?
He was just one of many ragged boys in tight fisted well to do Boston.
Harry sat on his bench munching through the one loaf of bread he had been able to buy, thinking, wondering he made a promise to God
“If he should be preserved, should find work, somehow he would care for other homeless boys like himself”
Immediately God began answering this teenagers prayers.
For on the ground by the bench in the snow Harry noticed laying a one cent coin, Trying to decide whether to buy a roll or a bun, he determined to buy a newspaper instead and looked at the Situations Vacant column
The next day although 29th in a queue of boys, he was given a job in a Cafe at 6 dollars a week.
Although 6 dollars was hardly enough to rent a room and buy food, Harry started immediately to keep his promise.
Out of his weekly wages he put a few cents on one side.
He did the same with the next job, and the next .
What he put on one side rose to dollars. But more than a few dollars would be needed. He went on working and saving
At the end of 9 years he had amassed $400 dollars
He set out to find a way of using it
He went from Church to Church, institution to institution, offering his money, but no one would accept his terms.
It must be used to give food, clothes and shelter to stray boys regardless of their character or creed. Need was the only qualification.
He was shocked and disappointed.
He moved to New York and found a broken down store
The landlord to whom Harry told his story gave him use of the building for a very small rent and gave him a day time job too of selling umbrellas
In the years that followed the umbrella man became a familiar figure
Working at his business during the day, he scouted around the parks at night
He found his first ragged homeless boy in Union Square, and before he reached the store for the night he had found 5, and by the end of the week he had doubled that .
It became clear that $400 dollars saved up in 9 years would be spent in 9 weeks
The boys all waifs and strays, were used to making money in simple if dishonest ways and were disconcertingly cynical when Harry asked them to pray.
He said “If God wants me to do this He will be even more interested in this than I am. He will supply our needs.
As the days went by it was clear God was interested.
Somehow from somewhere came furniture, clothes, food, and money.
There were also bad times. With a debt of $260 dollars and nothing to pay it with Harry might well have given up hope.
But a man who had defrauded his firm many years earlier and found it closed down when he wanted to pay the money back sent $275 dollars to Harry instead.
There was a time when there was no food at all.
A 16 pound ham was handed in from Mrs Theodore Roosevelt
the widow of the ex-president of the USA
In 50 years the Home for Homeless Boys established by the “umbrella man” gave a shelter and a start in life to over 50,000 boys.
To the end of his life Harry Eva nightly went out looking for waifs on the streets. An old thin shabby looking man proved that God always keeps his promises.