Cheryle Touchton believes a quarter can open the door to someone's heart. Carrying a pocket full of them, she gives one to each person she meets, a reminder of the love and grace God offers freely. After all, quarters served as the catalyst that sparked her own desire to travel America as a missionary.

It all started in an intensive care waiting room at a hospital where, in recent years, Cheryle has spent a significant amount of time at the bedside of critically ill family members.

"ICU waiting rooms are a sub-culture where people depend heavily on others," she writes in her book, Pocket Full of Quarters. In waiting rooms, strangers pray, cry, and laugh together. They cheer good news and grieve bad news together. And they share a common need: quarters to use in vending machines and in hospital pay phones.

"We were willing to help with almost anything except giving away the coveted quarter," Cheryle writes. "If we found quarters, we were careful not to jingle our pockets and give the secret away."

One day, Cheryle mentioned the need for quarters to her pastor. On his next visit to the ICU, he brought a roll of quarters. Suddenly, Cheryle had a pocketful, enough to share. She left the quarters on a table, and people used them as needed. "When they came back from the cafeteria, they dumped their quarters into the stack. The gift grew, and we all had pockets full of quarters."

"Pocket full of quarters" be-came Cheryle's metaphor for being prepared to face life. For Cheryle, being prepared meant spending more time getting to know God. As her spiritual pockets grew fuller, she became aware of the pain-filled lives many around her led. "I longed for them to have a pocket full of quarters, too."

Counting the cost
As an executive in a technology company, Cheryle logged 70 hours per week traveling up and down the East Coast. Everywhere she went, she sought opportunities to share Christ's love. "I always told my husband, 'I wish I could do this full time,'" she recalls.

She got that opportunity after the dot-com crash of 2001, when she lost her job. "When I lost my executive position, my husband and I knew God had paved the way for me to fulfill God's call."

Cheryle planned her first trip, intending to travel for two months and then look for another corporate job. "Those two months stretched into four months because I just couldn't come home," she admits. Cheryle travels alone; her husband recently earned a PhD and took a job as Managing Director of Autonomous Solutions with Honeywell Aerospace. "He builds robots that think for themselves and operate autonomously," explains Cheryle. Then she muses playfully, "I wonder whether he'll build an 'auto-nomous wife' if I don't stay home?"

"Seriously though, my husband is very supportive of my missionary journeys," she says. He joins Cheryle every two or three weeks to spend quality time with her—and to fix her vehicle. And every night, he edits her stories and posts them to her website: pocketfullofchange.org.

During the months she's on the road, Cheryle goes "anywhere there's people," looking for an opening to strike up a conversation. "It's often something as simple as remarking on the sunset or admiring a piece of jewelry a person is wearing."

She almost always asks her new acquaintances what they do for a living. Typically, it takes only a minute or two before they open up and share issues with which they're struggling. "When people sense that someone is interested in listening, they will share their greatest pain within three minutes," she asserts.

And Cheryle does listen, asking leading questions where appropriate. "I tell them that I am a writer doing research. Sometimes I introduce myself as a traveling missionary. Sometimes I'm a corporate executive. Always, I introduce myself as a Christian."

Changing tires … and lives
Cheryle recalls a memorable encounter at Hovenweep National Monument in Utah. She had just pulled onto the road to head down the mountain when an oncoming car blocked her exit. A lone man sat in the car, staring at her. Visions of axe murderers flew through Cheryle's mind. She grabbed her cell phone. No service.

The man rolled down his window, leaned out, and asked, "Did you know your tire is flat?"

Relief washed over Cheryle. Axe murderers don't begin conversations by politely informing victims of a flat tire, she thought. Or do they?

Praying desperately, Cheryle slid out of her car and informed the man that she'd never changed a tire in her life. In fact, she didn't even know where to find the spare or the jack.

"I'll help you," he offered.

As they unloaded Cheryle's heavily-packed Suburban in search of the jack, Cheryle learned that her rescuer was a vacationing single father of two who had moved to Seattle to be near his children.

"Are you going to church in Seattle?" Cheryle inquired.

"I've been meaning to, but I haven't gotten around to it," he admitted. "When I was married, we were active in church. When my marriage fell apart, I lost heart."

After changing the tire and reloading the car, Cheryle and her new friend parted ways, but not before she'd handed him a shiny, new quarter. He slipped the quarter into his pocket, a reminder of his promise to start attending church again.

The man recently e-mailed Cheryle, telling her that he, indeed, did return to church. Not only that, but he met and married a wonderful woman. They rededicated themselves to God, were baptized together, and are now happily serving God together in church. "I love it when God lets me know the end of the story," says Cheryle.

The ultimate energy booster
Every time Cheryle meets someone, she gives them a business card with a quarter attached to it. "Some people try to give it back to me," she says. "Others just take it and smile. And still others ask for 10,000 of them."

During her travels, Cheryle meets plenty of miserable people. "It's like they collect pain; they add each painful experience to the pile until their pockets are bulging."

Cheryle encourages people to empty their pain-filled pockets and to begin putting God in their pockets, instead. "I remind people that they have everything they need when they follow the Great Commandment: to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself."

Learning to love and serve God is the ultimate energy booster, she says. Those who decide to follow God—those who learn to please him and communicate with him—begin each day refreshed and excited about what God has in store. "We feel as if we have wings on our feet," says Cheryle.

And pockets overflowing with God's grace.

Cheryle Touchton's books, Pocket Full of Quarters, Pocket Full of Christmas, and Pocket Full of Hope, are available from her website, www.pocketfullofchange.org. Laura Christianson (www.laurachristianson.com), author of The Adoption Decision and The Adoption Network, writes from the Seattle area.

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