In the Arms of Angels: True Stories of Heavenly Guardians by Joan Wester Anderson

Author:Joan Wester Anderson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Christian, Angelology & Demonology, General, Religion, Inspirational, Sermons, Christian Theology
ISBN: 9780829420401
Publisher: Loyola Press
Published: 2004-08-31T22:00:00+00:00

DEFEND US IN BATTLE

God has something planned for each of us, and he does protect us. But after a while, if we keep rebelling against him, our protection runs out. If we live for him and try to stay in his will, we will be protected until he wants us to come to live with him in heaven.

-NELL BERRY, STOUTSVILLE, MISSOURI

ouis Saia was born into a large, close-knit Sicilian Italian family in the New Orleans area. “I went to Catholic schools and practiced religion as an obligation until I got out of the house,” Louis admits. He finished college, then worked in the family trucking business. Even after marrying and starting a family, he hung out with other tough young men who were not exactly looking for trouble but were never at a loss when it came. In 1986, the Saia family sold their business, and the buyer asked Louis to stay on and run it as president. He did so for six years, then tried to buy the company back. He failed and decided to resign.

Despite his rough exterior, Louis had always been extremely talented and inventive. Now he worked on developing a “pallet reefer,” which was actually a new way of shipping refrigerated products. “In my travels I had noticed that there was a huge market for fresh seafood in the South, yet no really practical way to ship it out every day. It took a week to fill a big refrigerated truck with perishables, and by that time, the seafood wasn’t fresh anymore.” Louis designed a stackable shipping container, cooled by its own compressor, like a refrigerator. It could be filled by a forklift and immediately shipped alongside any other kind of load. He took out four patents on his designs.

Pallet Reefer Company was an instant hit. Louis was soon receiving calls from trucking firms that wanted to order the device. It was time to take in a financial partner, he decided, so he could manufacture his invention on a large-scale basis. A major corporation bought a 50-percent share of Louis’s invention and promised to finance its development with $25 million. In 1994, however, a larger firm bought out the corporation, and the executives who had negotiated the original arrangements with Louis were gone. The new company wasn’t sure it wanted to be in the trucking business. It would spend time learning what Louis was doing, he was told. Perhaps it would sell its half back to him.

Louis was impatient to get started. “But my staff and I spent the next several months answering all their questions and taking them to visit potential customers. Everyone was enthusiastic. The boss of one trucking firm in California said he would buy one thousand units immediately, if he could.” At that day’s end, in a trucking parking lot, the executives approached Louis.

“We don’t like owning 50 percent,” the company representative told Louis. “We’d like to own it all.”

Louis was stunned. “I don’t think I want to sell,” he told them.

“We’ll give you $2 million,” someone else said.

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