It was around 2010, when I met this young lady working at a Dairy Queen.
It is the same Diner that I stopped at every Wednesday, to study for my preaching time at the Federal Prison near Sheridan, Oregon.
I had around two hours to study after work, and this Dairy Queen became my routine. I would order some food, and after eating, I would flip the tray paper over, which was a blank piece of white paper. The front side had the Dairy Queen logo and a big ice cream cone picture on it. In color.
I had many sermons on this tray paper over the years, tucked away in my box of memories. I never used them again, but I kept them.
On this day, I was writing my sermon when the young 19-year-old girl placed my food in front of me. She paused after setting my tray down.
“What are you doing, Mister?”
I replied, “I am writing my sermon for the prison nearby. I will be preaching to the men in a couple of hours.”
She froze.
Bowed her head in shame, and muttered with a soft voice,
“My Daddy is in prison somewhere. I have not seen him since I was around four years old. I have vague memories of him, and I wish I could find him.”
I asked her what her Daddy’s name is, because at this time, I was preaching in all the State Prisons in Oregon, and maybe I could somehow help her.
She, again, softly said, “His name is Rick C.”
My turn to freeze up! I could not believe what she just said to me.
I asked, “What is your name?”
“Lacy C.”
“Wow, Lacy, I know your dad. I have known him for the past 15 years. He is at the Snake River Prison in Ontario, Oregon. “
She grabbed me and hugged me with tears flowing down her face.
I asked her if she wanted me to contact him, next time I was going there to preach. I also gave her the Chaplain’s phone number at that prison so there could be a way for her to get in touch with her Daddy.
The next week, upon my arrival at the Dairy Queen, she was off work that day, and I continued to pray about this whole situation.
Two months went by, and it was time for me to go to Snake River Prison for my scheduled preaching events.
When I arrived, Rick came up to me and wept on my shoulder.
“Joe, I got a letter from my daughter Lacy. Explaining how she met you and that you knew me. I am so grateful to the Lord Jesus for reconnecting us after 15 years.”
Another Divine appointment for a Daddy, and his little girl.
I received a letter from Rick a few weeks after my preaching event.
It read,
“Dear Joe, Lacy came to visit me last week with my former wife. My former wife and I are friends now instead of living apart with bitterness and unforgiveness between us. My former wife is saved, and when I saw my daughter for the first time in 15 years, she also said that she is saved too. Joe, Lacy told me after meeting you and finding out how I knew you for a long time, she surrendered her life to Jesus, the day you two met.”
Unreal.
I didn’t lead her in a prayer. I just prayed for her.
I did not get an opportunity to share a sermon with her; I just held her while she cried.
You see, Jesus does not always wait for a sermon to be preached.
He does not use witnessing as the only avenue to reach someone’s heart.
He uses everything. Including a hot meal at a Dairy Queen on a Wednesday afternoon.
He used a moment in time, to reveal His love to a young 19-year-old girl, who missed her Daddy.
Yes, a Daddy’s Little Girl, in need of a Father.
She not only got her Daddy back, but she also met the best Daddy ever.
Jesus.
Many years later, when my oldest son Caleb was old enough to go into prisons with me, we scheduled a visit to Snake River Prison.
Caleb brought his friend Nathan, and prior to the trip from Texas to Oregon, I called the Chaplain. I have known this Chaplain for over 20 years.
I asked the Chaplain to let the inmate led worship team know we were coming and that I wanted them to practice the song, “Who Am I,” by Casting Crowns.
I even gave the Chaplain the proper KEY to sing it in because I was setting up Caleb and Nathan for something that they had no idea what was going to happen once we three arrived.
Everything was set.
We arrived in Oregon, rented a car in Portland, and drove the 8 hour drive to the prison.
We stayed the night, and the next day, we arrived at the prison.
Good ole’ Rick C. was there, and when we walked in, he approached Caleb, Nathan, and me.
Rick looked at Caleb and said,
“I have been hearing about you for over 18 years. Your Daddy has been preaching here for a very long time and has told all of us about the miracle of how you and your brother were born.”
Caleb is stunned and frozen. So is Nathan.
(I knew what was coming next.)
Rick C. is around six foot 5, and weighs about 275 pounds, without any known body fat.
We call this in prison as “buffed out.”
Primarily from the weight benches the inmates use daily.
Rick looked at Caleb with a stern look as well as Nathan and said, “I want you two young men to join the worship team today. OKAY?”
The look on Caleb’s and Nathan’s face was horror and surprise.
Rick picked up my six-foot two, 185-pound son, and Caleb’s feet were off the carpet. Rick swung him around three times and sat him down. With his meat hook hands on Caleb’s shoulders he stated, “So is that a YES from the two of you about joining the worship team today?”
Caleb could hardly spit out the word yes.
So, the worship team began with Caleb and Nathan behind their own microphones.
The song by Casting Crowns began.
“Who Am I, that the Lord of all the earth.”
Caleb and Nathan know this song; they began to harmonize with the other singers.
Then, about halfway through the song, the inmates (on cue) tuned down their microphones completely, and let my son and his friend finish.
The looks on these two young men, with tears flowing down their faces, was unbelievable.
The harmony they had was from Heaven.
When the song ended, the entire 175 men in attendance stood up and clapped and worshipped Jesus.
Caleb and Nathan were set up by me and Rick.
Truly, they were set up by Jesus to do, what they have never done before.
Be used of God, to minister through music.
The ears of society’s “rejects” opened that day.
Though this world deems people in prison as outcasts, Jesus sees them as His children.
Children to be, when the Gospel is sung, preached, and simply given in love.
Anyway, God desires.
Over one hundred men received Jesus that day.
After duplicating the service with Caleb and Nathan singing again for the second service, Jesus moved even more.
These two young men, found out, just like the song lyrics say, “Who Am I, that the Lord of all the earth, would care to know my name, would care to feel my hurt. Chorus: Not because of who I am, but because of what You’ve done, not because of what I’ve done, but because of who You are.”
From a Daddy’s Little Girl, to having my son and his friend sing that day.
Only Jesus could put together such a divine intervention like the two stories I just shared.
Lacy C., and her Daddy Rick C., were reconciled to each other after 15 long years.
Daddy’s Little Boy, at one time, and his friend, sang and worshipped the Lord Jesus too.
Just think of it.
When I met Lacy at Dairy Queen, my son Caleb was 10.
Eight years later, Caleb got to meet the Daddy to a little girl, who never knew him before.
The last time I went to Oregon, last September of 2024, Rick C., is at the Oregon State Correction Institution in Salem, Oregon now.
He came up to me in the chapel and showed me a picture.
It was a picture taken just a few weeks prior to my visit that day.
It is a picture of Rick, his former wife, Lacy, and her brother Levi, in the visitation room in the prison.
Reconciliation.
This whole family is saved and whole now.
God will use abandonment. Rejection, Divorce, and heartache.
He uses everything.
Jesus does not waste a thing in this life.
We may discard things or do things that end up in life’s dumpster.
Jesus never throws away anyone. Even, a Daddy’s Little Girl.
The song, “Who am I?”
Who are you today?
If you are lost, you can be found.
If you are broken hearted, He can heal you too.
Psalm 147: 3 declares, “I have come to heal the broken hearted and bind up their wounds.”
If you have been wounded, He can and will heal you.
Especially when you find out “Who You Are, in Him.”
He cares about you, just like He cares about that young girl at Dairy Queen.
From an abandoned little child to a Daddy’s Little Girl.
Only Jesus can orchestrate this kind of reconciliation.
He is, who He says He is.
He is Daddy.
Copyright © 2025 by Joe Wilkins
