This guy's name is David Smallbone. He used to organize music concerts in Australia. He had a great life with a wife named Helen and six adorable kids.
His business was doing well and he had a lot to be thankful for. David told Helen one night that he wanted to use all their family's savings to put on a massive concert and bring in a famous singer from America. He was convinced it would be the biggest show of his career and a huge hit.
As his wife, Helen could only rally behind him and support his ambitious plan. Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned. The Australian economy had a crisis that year, and David's concert was a flop.
This total failure led David to go bankrupt. A week after the concert, David was trying to get in touch with American Singer's manager to see if he could pay less for the cancel show. He didn't make any money.
In fact, he lost a ton and all his savings were wiped out. But his request was turned down because the singer already performed and the full payment was non-negotiable. David had to stick to the original agreement.
There was nothing he could do but accept it. When David got home, his fam and friends threw him a surprise bday bash. Later on during the party, Helen dropped the bomb that she was expecting her seventh kiddo.
Everyone was stoked except for David. After the event, David finally mustered up the courage to tell Helen that his big concert was a total flop. Their family was in a ton of debt and had zero savings.
Helen was totally stunned when she heard the news. The next day, David hit up his friends to see if anyone had a job for him. Luckily, one friend came through with a job offer, but it was all the way in America.
If he was interested, he could make the move to Nashville to meet up with his friend. The next day, David and Helen talked about the job offer. He assured her that they would only have to be away for two years.
He promised that once their family's finances were back on track, they could go back to Australia. Even though it was tough, Helen chose to believe in her husband. A couple of days later, David and his family sold a house to cover their debts and travel costs.
They said their goodbyes to their parents, and before leaving, Helen's mom gave her a letter to read once they got to America. Once everything was set, David's family took off. When they got to America, the immigration officer asked David how long his family was planning to stay.
David said 6 months, but one of his kids blurted out 2 years. The officer got suspicious and took them to the inspection room. It turns out David only had enough money for a 6-month visa.
So, after 6 months, he ended up staying illegally for 2 years. Luckily, the officer found a letter from Helen's mom in their suitcase. The letter said, "See you in 6 months.
" and finally convinced the officer that they were telling the truth. But they took so long to be checked that they missed their flight to Nashville and had to take the train. At night, at the bus station, David tried to call his buddy from a pay phone.
They were supposed to meet up 2 days ago, but he only just got there because he missed his flight. Since there was no answer, David carried on with his trip. The next night, when they got to the place they were staying, everyone was surprised to see that the house was completely empty with no furniture.
Helen didn't want her children to get sick sleeping on a floor, so she made beds out of clothes for them to sleep on. The next day, David went to see his friend, but before he could ask about his job, his friend told him that he had given it to someone else because David didn't show up yesterday like he was supposed to. David was totally taken by surprise when he heard that.
Back at home, when David told Helen what happened, she was totally surprised and said she needed some time to chill out. Then in their bedroom, Helen cried and let out all her anger. But in the middle of feeling hopeless, she saw a letter from her mom.
The letter didn't really say anything important, but it reminded her that their family was able to go to America because of that letter. She figured there must be a reason for everything. Like it's all part of God's plan.
After cooling off, Helen, who was bummed out before, actually boosted David's spirits. Their family had to come together and stick it out to make it through. That night, David and Helen decided to fill their kids in on the family's money situation.
Helen explained that they needed to tighten their belts and work together as a family until their dad found a job. The next day, David and his family went to church to pray to get through life's challenges. After the service, they met a super nice couple named Kay and Jed.
In the afternoon, while they were cleaning the yard at home, a neighbor said hi and made a joke about hiring them to clean their yard. When David's son heard the joke, he came up with the idea to start a lawn service and house cleaning business. They finally got going.
Throughout the day, they had more and more people paying for their service, so they were able to make some money. They also managed to save some money by using coupons when buying groceries and only getting what they really needed. It had been a few months and even though David's cleaning business was doing well, he still couldn't find a job.
One day, when David and his family went to offer their services to the biggest house in the complex, they were surprised to see that the owner was a singer named Eddie. Back when Eddie was just starting out, David had always turned him down for gigs. David only wanted to work with famous singers and had rejected amateur ones like Eddie.
Feeling embarrassed, David quickly asked his kids to leave. Seeing how David's life had turned out, Eddie felt bad and decided to hire their services. While cleaning, David kept an eye on Eddie, who was busy with his work schedule.
He felt super embarrassed because the guy he used to think was less than him had become really successful. And deep down, he was totally jealous. Two days later, while the neighbors were having a picnic, Kay asked Helen to come over to her place for Thanksgiving the following day.
She reassured Helen that her husband would give them a ride so they didn't have to stress about getting there. The next day, when Jed came to David's house to pick them up, he was surprised to see that there was no furniture. He didn't want to upset David, so he just stayed quiet and pretended not to notice.
When they got to Jed's house, everyone sang together before the event started. When David's daughter Rebecca started singing, everyone went silent because her voice was so beautiful. During the event, Jed mentioned that Rebecca has the potential to be a singer and suggested that David should help promote her to a music producer.
But David wasn't really into the idea. A couple of weeks later, on Christmas Eve, when David's family was eating dinner, they heard a bunch of car noises. Turns out Jed and the neighbors showed up with some unused household furniture as Christmas gifts for David and his family.
They were so moved by their kindness. 3 months later, while doing the laundry, Helen's stomach started hurting and she felt like she was about to have the baby. David hurried to get her to the hospital.
David was waiting for what felt like forever. But finally, his seventh child was born safely. However, his happiness didn't last long when he saw the crazy, expensive hospital bill.
He couldn't afford it at all, so he begged the hospital to cut him a deal. He promised he would pay it off in payments and eventually the staff felt bad for him and gave him a discount. She let him pay in installments and only had to pay half of the bill.
David was so relieved when he heard that. But then when the staff went to make a new bill, it said his bill was already paid in full on the computer, which left her and David confused. 3 days later, when David and Helen got back home, their six kids, and Kay and Jed were there to greet them.
After everyone went inside, David asked Jed to have a private chat. He told Jed that he found out it was him who paid Helen's hospital bill. Instead of saying thanks, David got mad.
He told Jed to stop helping him and that he appreciated having a friend like him, but he didn't want to keep relying on him. He wanted to take care of his own family and not rely too much on others. After a few months, David was trying to get Rebecca's music to different producers.
But none of them were interested because they thought she wasn't prepared and got nervous while performing. The next day, Rebecca told everyone that while she was cleaning Eddie's house yesterday, she saw in a magazine that Eddie was actually a singer and music producer. She thought it would be a good idea for her father to promote her to Eddie since they already know each other instead of looking for other producers.
David got upset and said they were just there to clean Eddie's house and couldn't ask for more. This hurt Rebecca's feelings and she left in a sulk. Luckily, Helen stepped in and helped them make up right away.
2 days later, David and Rebecca went to meet some other music producers. When they heard Rebecca's awesome voice, they were hooked and even invited her to practice singing in their studio next week. David and Rebecca were thrilled.
But later that night, their happiness turned to sorrow when their grandma called to tell them their grandpa had a heart attack and passed away. David tried to hit up the producer in the morning to get paid for the gig they were going to do together. He knew Rebecca's paycheck was still a ways off, but he needed cash to fly back to Australia and see his folks.
The producer, though, wouldn't budge and just ended their deal for a dumb reason. David was pissed and chucked his phone in frustration. Rebecca just looked on sadly seeing how upset her old man was.
David has been lying in bed for days, refusing to get up or eat. Helen, his wife, has been doing her best to support and encourage him. One day, Helen decided to take the kids for a walk in the park to chill out.
While they were there, one of the kids sang a really nice song that it turns out was written by Rebecca. When she got home, Helen told David about the song and how the kids were trying to help them out despite all the struggles they were facing. She reminded David not to give up and be a great father for the kids who had given up their comfortable lives in Australia to support them in America.
When David heard this, it brought him to tears. The next day, David got himself together and met with the kids. He said sorry for being a scaredy-cat dad who always pointed fingers.
And when Rebecca came up, he admitted he already knew she wrote the song. He promised to put his pride aside and make an effort to reach out to Eddie for the sake of the family. The next day, David set up plans with Eddie to come to church and watch Rebecca's performance.
He also patched things up with Jed and asked him to play the piano while Rebecca performed. Shortly after, Eddie and his buddy showed up to watch Rebecca's show. Eddie was blown away by her performance.
He chatted with his friend and then told everyone that Rebecca got the gig and will be getting a promotion. When David's family heard that, they were thrilled. Since Rebecca had become a singer, Eddie thought she should have a new stage name.
After talking it over, they all agreed to include her late grandpa's name. So now her stage name was Rebecca James. Years later, Rebecca's song was out and all her fans loved it.
She became a Big Shot singer. It was her first concert and before she rocked the stage, she gave a shout out to her parents. Her dad worked his but off outside of home and her mom busted her but to keep the family together.
They were her unsung heroes.