Overview

Seattle, 1897 - where faith, laughter, and lumber mix in the most unexpected ways! Joseph ""Super-Size Joe"" Green is the biggest, kindest lumberjack in the Pacific Northwest-and one of the most emotional. One bright Saturday morning, while trying to help his friend Carol Buckley by cutting down a dangerous old tree near her boardinghouse, Joe's ropes come loose and the unthinkable happens. CRASH! The enormous tree topples the wrong way and flattens half of Carol's porch. Joe, horrified, drops his axe, falls to his knees, and begins crying so loud that the neighbors come running. He sobs so hard that Carol and her mama, Anne Buckley, bribe him with fresh bacon-filled biscuits just to calm him down. It takes three plates and two glasses of sweet tea before the tears stop! But Joe's trials don't end there. When he returns to his boardinghouse, he finds his tin of savings-years of hard-earned money-stolen! Broke, embarrassed, and still weepy, Joe shows up at church the next morning, crying again during testimony service until the deacons have to comfort him. Yet out of that puddle of sorrow comes something miraculous-the kindness of a child who gives Joe a penny, followed by the whole church offering prayers, encouragement, and coins of faith. Meanwhile, widowed Mrs. Anne Buckley is stunned when her long-gone husband suddenly shows up at The Gathering-the new farmers market she and Carol are building with Joe. His return causes more laughter than heartbreak when Anne tells him, in no uncertain terms, that the only thing she's interested in rekindling is her herb garden! Amid all this chaos, romance blooms. Carol and Joe find themselves praying together for ""witty ideas,"" and God answers mightily. They buy three acres of soggy land and turn it into a thriving farmers market where folks of every race and size-Native, Chinese, Black, Japanese, and White-sell food, share prayers, and discover love. Then comes the biggest surprise of all-Joe's secret plan to marry Carol right in church! When the reverend calls her name and the congregation gasps, Joe gets down on one knee with tears (again) streaming down his cheeks. Carol says yes before he can even finish the question! The joyful commotion spreads so far that ten other plus-size couples decide to get married at the same time during the market's opening celebration. What began as one man's mistake turns into a community-wide revival of love and laughter. Through every blunder, God's goodness never fails. Joe's rope may have slipped, but grace held firm. Carol's home may have been broken, but love rebuilt it stronger. And the town that once divided by color and class now gathers as one family under Heaven's open sky.

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9781970696325

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