Fauss, Charlotte pulled her 1962 Chevrolet Impala car from the garage onto the steep driveway, set the emergency brake, and stepped out of the car to close the garage door. Her two beautiful kids, Milton, 2, and Jody, 3, sat in the front seat.
On this spring 1963 evening, Charlotte, then 24, rushed to get to a Wednesday church service at Southside Assembly of God in Tyler, where her father-in-law, M.L. Fauss, pastored. Her husband, Joe — the owner of three restaurants and four grocery stores — had to work that late afternoon.
When his mother left the car, Jody became alarmed about the blinking and clicking lights that came on with the emergency brake connected. He had observed his parents stop the flickering and noise before pulling the brake lever. Jody crawled under the driving column and did what he had found with his parents.
The automobile began rolling down the slope of the driveway. In an era of no child car seat restrictions — let alone seat belts laws — Jody plunged onto the roadway with the driver door still open as the car strongly hit the curb on the other side of the street.
Charlotte turned around after closing the door and saw Jody helplessly as the vehicle then immediately moved over her son’s legs, chest, and head. The tire tread went over the top of the boy’s face.
A neighbor called an ambulance after hearing Charlotte’s screams as she hurried to get Jody. Charlotte began praying as she looked into the dazed stare of her son. She would like to pick Jody up in her arms, but instead gently patted his little body to comfort him. Charlotte knew the medical experts’ warning not to move an injured person.
The ambulance came speedily, whisking Jody to Medical Center Hospital in Tyler.
M.L., feeling something wrong in his spirit, urged the group at the church to assemble at the altar to pray at the start of the service. Joe obtained a phone call at the shop, notifying him of the devastating news. Joe’s father had just buried another toddler from the assembly who had been run over by a vehicle.
Joe sensed too shaken to drive and called for a police officer to take him to the hospital. While he stayed, the successful businessman made a vow: if the Lord spared his son’s life, Joe would serve Him the rest of his life in no matter what capacity God determined.
“I prayed to the hospital,” Charlotte says. “I had a powerful faith that God was going to take care of Jody.”
Doctors initially didn’t share such confidence. Although X-rays showed Jody incredibly endured no broken bones, physicians doubted whether he would survive the night. If the boy did live, they felt confident he would have a brain injury and never walk again.
The next morning, Joe had to see to his business endeavors. But then he obtained a phone call from Charlotte, who put a coherent and happy Jody on the line. The boy amazingly made a quick and full recovery.
Jody, now 60 and the oldest of four Fauss sons, relates the story on occasion. He has been the children’s pastor of Church of Living Hope in Tyler as well as North Texas District Royal Rangers outreach director for 30years. He doesn’t expose the identity of the boy until the end of the testimony when he pulls out the shirt he wore that evening. Emergency personnel cut the shirt off his body.
“I tell the children about how Jesus is our healer and is enthusiastic in our lives today,” says Jody. He and his wife, Anne, have three daughters and a son.
Joe kept his vow to the Lord. Soon after the painful event, he traded the financial security of his business enterprises for the insecurity of ministry. He operated a Teen Challenge center in Tyler for seven years, then sensed a calling to care for prisoners after their release.
In 1977, Joe, Charlotte, and their sons moved from their four-bedroom brick dream home into a mobile house in nearby Lindale to start Calvary Commission. Joe, a U.S. Missions chaplain, since Calvary Commission to provide a residential discipleship system that enables parolees to achieve their mission to stay out of jail. More than 2,801 students, mostly former prisoners, have graduated from Calvary Commission to become living testimonies of redeemed lives.
Jody had a job at Calvary Commission since the age of 21, and he now is a campus director, managing ministry operations, the school, training, and outreaches. Anne, his wife of 34 years, is a dean of students.
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Thank you AG and JOHN W. KENNEDY for sharing this.
