I believe that single mothers are made of sterner stuff than most of us, myself included. OnRamp has now donated reliable vehicles to almost sixty single moms in our community, and I have been stunned by every one of their stories. For many, abuse or abandonment left them as the sole provider and parent to their young children. Many work multiple jobs to cover expenses, budget and save to the penny to pay bills, and somehow muster the energy after a full day of work to feed, clean, and read to their kids. I don’t know how they do it day after day. I just know we have a responsibility to come along side them, for their sake and the sake of their children.
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Guest post by OnRamp Board Member and Grant Committee Writer, Austin Rogers.
In the month of June 2022, two things rose higher than anyone would have liked:
Temperatures outside, and
The prices of almost everything.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported recently that consumer prices spiked by an average of 9.1% year-over-year in June 2022. That is the highest increase in the consumer price index ("CPI") in 40 years!
While rising prices at the grocery store, the gas station, and the shopping mall affect all of us, it is important to realize that they don't affect all of us equally. The poor are hit particularly hard by inflation - far harder than those with higher incomes and more resources at their disposal.
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We gave away two excellent, reliable vehicles in the last two weeks, but neither increased our total client count. You see, both are replacement vehicles. While we tend to do VERY well at finding long-term, reliable cars and SUV’s for our clients, no one bats a thousand. When something goes wrong within the first twelve months of a client’s ownership, we make sure that OnRamp takes the loss, not the client.
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Last week’s quiet time had me in James 2:14-26, a famous passage on faith and works that I preached many times over the years. I have come to a sobering conclusion: I preached it wrong. Not exegetically or theologically wrong, at least as far as I can tell. Instead, my mistake was one of emphasis and application. I spent almost all of my time trying to prove that our church’s theological interpretation of the passage was right contrary to the interpretation of other Christian denominations. But why? James clearly cared far more about the obvious application of the passage: that followers of Christ should constantly do good deeds, especially caring for the poor and vulnerable! All Christians can agree with that application even if we’re divided over the theological details. I missed the forest (the clear application) for the trees (the contemporary theological debate). Notice James’ primary application in the passage: “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, be warmed and filled,' without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?” As he does throughout the book, he points us to our care of the poor. Here it is poor Christians. In other passages, it’s the poor and vulnerable regardless of religious affiliation (e.g. widows and orphans generally at the end of chapter 1). His point is that believers are COMMANDED to give sacrificially to alleviate poverty within the global church, at a minimum, and throughout society as a whole, where possible.
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On Thursday of last week, OnRamp crossed a milestone as we donated a vehicle to client 108, a deserving young woman named Chelsye. Chelsye was dealt a tough hand of cards in life. She endured trauma in her early years. She eventually found a home with her adoptive parents, but both died in the last few years, leaving Chelsye to navigate life on her own. She found and faithfully kept a job here in town while pursuing her bachelors degree at Sam Houston State. But both the job and degree were threatened when her car began falling apart (literally!) It was no longer safe or reliable to drive. Without a car, the job and degree would end. Fortunately, Chelsye found a friend and mentor at Brazos Fellowship named Amy who came along side her in this moment of need…
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James 1:27, Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
When I was a pastor, I was frequently asked, “How do I know God’s will for my life?” The person asking usually wanted to know God’s will for a particular decision they faced, such as what college to choose, what job to pursue, or who to date or marry. While there are certainly biblical principles to guide each of these decisions, God’s Word doesn’t tend to reveal those particulars. There’s no “thou shalt have no other universities before Texas A&M” despite what we Aggies might think! Yet while God chose not to speak directly on career, alma mater, or the name of your future spouse, He did speak explicitly about something that matters even more: your character. I do not think He cares overly much about whether you choose to be an engineer or a school teacher. I do think He cares deeply that whatever profession you choose, you use it as James 1 says above to care in practical ways for the needs of the most vulnerable among us, such as orphans and widows. That’s what truly matters in the end.
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For the first time, OnRamp just donated a vehicle in Houston! I am so stinking excited! While our ministry is generally confined to the Brazos Valley, we had a special opportunity to partner with generous donors in the city I grew up in to serve an Afghan family who were rescued after the fall of Kabul and brought to Houston to build a new life. Our client, whom we’ll call “S” for privacy, worked as a chef for the New York Times Kabul bureau. When the Taliban took over, the NYT committed phenomenal resources to fly at-risk national staff out of the country and help them resettle in America. I cannot speak highly enough of this company’s efforts to protect and provide for their Afghan staff. They supplied S, his wife, and their five children with all travel expenses, a safe apartment next to other Afghan refugees, English lessons, VISA assistance, and employment connections. With their help, S quickly found an excellent job at an upscale restaurant. The NYT was able to take care of everything… except long-term transportation.
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Max Gerall, a friend and a frequent advocate to OnRamp, coined a term that perfectly describes our 105th client: Essential Aggie. These are the men and women who serve the TAMU campus in food services, custodial, grounds-keeping, and similar professions. They keep TAMU running. Without them, the campus would rapidly become unlivable and unusable. Yet despite their essential service and hard work, most do not earn enough to afford the necessities of life, such as reliable transportation. This reality grows worse each month as inflation reduces their discretionary income even further. For many Essential Aggies, especially those who are single parents, assistance is needed to make ends meet.
Enter Monica, our most recent car recipient. She’s a single mom of two boys who works at the TAMU Hotel and Conference Center. But when her twenty year old car began to break down, her biggest fear was missing work and losing this job…
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A reliable vehicle is certainly a necessity in our community, but is it a matter of life-and-death? Yes, actually, for the subset of our clients who need a vehicle to attend life-sustaining dialysis treatments multiple times per week. These men and women need a vehicle they can count on to start every-time, without fail. They need a vehicle that can safely take them to transplant-grade hospitals and specialists in Houston and Temple. They need something large enough for a wheelchair or walker in many cases. And they need good air-conditioning in triple-digit weather like today so avoid overheating their already-taxed bodies. A reliable vehicle saves lives when given to dialysis patients. So this week OnRamp donated a beautiful Toyota Rav4 to our 104th clients, Daniel and Sylvia Estrada.
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Time to share one exciting praise and one urgent need for OnRamp. Let’s start with the great news: God has faithfully built OnRamp’s Client Care Committee and Prayer Team such that we now fill a whole room! There are now 20 of us! We met in person Monday at Brazos Fellowship (thank you for the space - yours is truly one of the most generous churches in this community!) to get to know one another, discuss upcoming clients, and sample Crumbl Cookies. It was such a JOY to share this ministry with these 15 skilled, loving women. Yes, I was the only guy 😂
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Ours is a faith of second chances, and third, and fourth, and fifth… forgiveness, grace, and hope without limit. When asked if we should forgive our brother seven times, Jesus responded, “seventy-times-seven,” a Jewish hyperbole for unlimited forgiveness. And when His friend Peter betrayed Him at His moment of greatest need, Jesus not only forgave, but fully restored Peter and lifted him back up into a life of joy and service. This is the hope of the Christian faith: that no matter how hard we’ve fallen, there is always HOPE for a new start. And it is our privilege (and responsibility) as followers of Christ to offer that forgiveness, restoration, and hope to one another.
So with that little sermon behind me (😂), let me tell you about how your support of OnRamp allowed us to share this restorative love of Christ with a brother named Tyler yesterday…
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What does OnRamp do? Most assume we “give away cars.” Yes, we do, but that constitutes only one part of our overall mission to share the love of Jesus by blessing people in need of reliable transportation in every way possible. For some, that will require a donated vehicle, and that is what consumes the majority of our resources (donating cars is expensive after all!). But for many others, what’s needed is a timely repair, an Uber card or bus pass, or in the cases below, training on essential automotive topics such as how to drive and how to change a tire. So here are two examples of significant ministries OnRamp performed this last week that were not about “giving away cars.”
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