JOAN: “And he heard every word you said!” I had no idea!

Audience: [clapping]

JOAN: I had no idea! Thank You, Jesus! I would not have known. I just flew in. That was the very first service I ever worked in! Now I’ll tell you what. I was so shy it was hard for me to talk to the butcher at the meat market! I’d go [mumbling] “Uh, give me just some pork chops.” 

Audience: [laughter]

JOAN: [laughs] I didn’t have the nerve. But God gives you that strength! Do you know that you’re sitting in the presence of God’s Holy Spirit?

Audience: Mmm.

JOAN: Do you know that you will never be the same when you walk out of here? Do you know the desires of your heart?

Audience: [applause]

JOAN: Laying hands on the sick! Speaking words of encouragement to those that have no courage! Just smiling at a guy passing by and his heart changing! Do you know that there’s nothing impossible with any one of us?

Audience: That’s right.

JOAN: Nothing! Not any one of us. Do you know that my husband lost his job a long, long time ago? A year went by and now we’re on the last pork chop in the freezer. He still isn’t working. I’m praying “God, what are we supposed to do? What are we supposed to do? That’s the last pork chop!” I’m not saying that to Frank cause I don’t want to put more stress on him than what he already had. “But God, what are we going to do? This is the last pork chops. What are we going to do?” And I got up from the table and I walked to the telephone and Frank said, “Where are you going, honey?” And I said, “I’m going to go to the telephone.” What are you going to do there? he said. And he kept the phone on. The electric was off. And we had a fireplace in the family room that we were cooking the food on cause we didn’t have gas either but we had the telephone in case somebody called for a job. And we had water cause we had to drink and take a bath. He said, “Where ‘you going?” I said, “Frank, I’m going to go to the telephone.” He said, “What are you going to do there?” I said, “I’m going to call the newspaper.” He said, “What are you calling the newspaper for?” And I said “I’m going to put an ad in the paper and I’m going to put an ad in for catering. I’m going to go in the catering business.” He said, “How are you going to do that?” I said, “Well you think I’m a good cook, don’t you?”

Audience: [laughter]

JOAN: “Yeah,” he said. I said “Well, if I can cook for one I can cook for 400! I only have to multiply it 400 times!”

Audience: [laughter]

JOAN: Sound pretty simple to me! I put an ad in the paper and from that minute on God put me into the catering business and we were considered the finest caterer in the St. Louis area!

Audience: Whooo! [clapping]

JOAN: Yeah! [laughs] And my dad – I’m a Palermo. I’m Italian. They’re all from Palermo, Italy. Okay? They came over on the boat. And my dad said, “Oh, sug, nothing to this! We’ll get this done!” [laughs] “Nothing to this!” And the first catering job that I got was for 250 people. How do you multiply that? Well, I feed Frank 250 times!

Audience: [reacts]

JOAN: 250 times! Do you know within a short period of time I fed Albert Firestone, you know the rubber people? Okay? And his entire group in De Soto, Missouri. He had an old house that just he played with. He had wonderful people in and one of the people that stayed there was the head of the botanical garden in St. Louis. And so he had this formal rose garden in Albert Firestone’s farm and he allowed me to come and cook for his guests. Do you know who one of them was? The king and the queen of the Pearlies! I have no idea who that was or what that was!

Audience: [laughter]

JOAN: Had no idea! He had the highest caliber of businesses. One representative. There were 40 of them. Do you know where they came to talk after they ate the dinner? In the kitchen!

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