Problem with Includes and Variables

Hey, im running Apache 2.0.36, and PHP 4.2.1, and im having problems with my site, which relies alot on includes. On each site page, it includes a file called "global.php" which contains the path's to the include folder, and various other directories needed. After that, it includes files for the site layout, which use variables from the global.php file. They all load fine, and in each included file, it is correctly processed by php, but for some reason, the variables that worked for including the files from global.php, aren't seen in the includes. Kinda get what im saying? I cant figure out how to have all the files first included, and then processed as one big file, instead of smaller files. Thanks! --Pete