Celebrating Two Donations in One Day!

Celebrating Two Donations in One Day!

Yesterday (Wednesday, Nov 3) we had the privilege of blessing two deserving local women with reliable vehicles. Client #80, Kandise, received this sweet blue Toyota Scion (I’m a huge fan of non-monochrome car colors!). She serves as the Transportation Operations Supervisor at Brazos Valley Center for Independent Living, a wonderful organization dedicated to providing freedom to seniors and disabled adults through services such as free transportation to medical appointments. Unfortunately, Kandise’s own vehicles died, and after paying for food, housing, and medical bills, there was no money left to buy an affordable vehicle, especially in today’s inflated used-car market.

Correcting an old error and praising a good friend

Correcting an old error and praising a good friend

I stand behind most of what I preached over my thirteen years on the Grace Southwood stage (the only preacher without any speech-related regrets was Jesus!). But there is one lesson I taught multiple times in early sermons that I do wish I could take back. When preaching on the biblical concept of “service,” I sometimes falsely equated serving God with service within the programs of the organizational church. Serving a ministry of the local church certainly does count as serving God, but so do many other types of service that occur outside the walls of the church.

“Naomi” - enabling a widow to keep her family together

“Naomi” - enabling a widow to keep her family together

I’ve been longing to share this story about a sweet widow OnRamp has been able to help through your generosity. To protect her identity, we’ll call her “Naomi,” a widow from the book of Ruth in the Old Testament. She lives out in the country in a home of her own off a dirt road. She and her husband built a family there, with four generations living under one roof. But just like Naomi, both her husband and her son died, leaving her on her own to care for her family.

Donating a Rav4 to Aid in the Fight Against Human Trafficking

Donating a Rav4 to Aid in the Fight Against Human Trafficking

Two months ago, on Aug 9 (which happens to be my wedding anniversary!), we got to celebrate OnRamp client #75... and this one's extra special! We were blessed to donate this reliable #Toyota Rav4 to Naomi, the new Director of Survivor Advocacy at Unbound Bryan College Station, a ministry that supports survivors and resources our community to fight human trafficking in the Brazos Valley.

Great Minivan for an Afghan Refugee

Great Minivan for an Afghan Refugee

Today I’m giving thanks for the amazing generosity of a summer project team at Grace Bible Church who bought this great minivan for an Afghan refugee whose family desperately needed reliable transportation. They escaped their country right before the Taliban took over and began violently persecuting their community. Now settled in Houston, they needed a large vehicle