It’s Showtime! Men and Their Shiny Polished-Steel Cars, Trucks, and Cycles!

Award for the Top 25 winners

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Blog update: August 29, 2012

Summer Jam 2012 Tour came to a dramatic crescendo with a big crowd, roaring engines, awesome cars, free food and Gospel singing!  97 cars, trucks, and motorcycles registered for the car show, with a few more that arrived later, so we hit our goal of 100 registrants. That was my prayer… I wanted God to bring 100 vehicles. What an awesome turn out!  In addition, God truly blessed us with great weather, clear skies, and temperatures in the 70’s. That’s unbelievable weather for the month of August!

The quality and variety of cars that were entered were absolutely incredible! One winner, for example, was a Barrett Jackson car which was specially designed and created as “one of a kind” by the notorious car guy of the same name. We had some of our own UBC winners, too: Jess Wilson won a trophy for his cameo truck and Tom Leach for his 2012 Harley CVO Power-Glide motorcycle. Many UBC “car guys” brought their cars, too, so they could share their stories and testimonies with others.

We gave away 25 car award plaques, and additional trophies for motorcycles and trucks. All participants received Urbancrest Car Show magnetic dash plagues too. In addition to all this, we had drawings throughout the day and many folks were awarded additional prizes like caps, tools, Christian DVD’s, and other “guy” awards!  With all the sponsorships and donations for our concessions, we raised enough money to give $1500 to our local Lebanon Food Pantry. Barb Gregory, our UBC Food Pantry coordinator, was ecstatic!

Ellis Amburgy from UBC, who showed his 57 Chevy and “Amburgy custom truck with frame-off restoration”, partnered with me on this event. He rallied many local sponsors for donations that benefited our Lebanon Food Pantry. Thanks, Ellis, for all your hard work!

The Gospel was proclaimed three times during the show – once by Pastor Tom, then by Youth Pastor Aaron Taylor, and finally by Noel Grace. Noel showed his ‘67 Corvette and was featured in the Challenge Newspaper that was distributed during the show. Noel stepped out of the crowd to share his personal testimony and the Gospel. Join us in praying for the Holy Spirit to bring a harvest from the Gospel seeds that were planted!

All of our volunteers, like Disaster Relief leaders Wanda and Mick Lovely, deserve recognition for their hard work. Serving out of the Disaster Relief Truck, Mick and Wanda supplied coffee and pastries for our earlier arrivals that began showing up at 7:30 a.m.

 Steve and Julie Hendrix spearheaded the concessions and served free hot dogs, popcorn, and snow cones for the crowd. Them Bowman’s band entertained our crowd with many secular songs rewritten with Christian lyrics. Julie and Jim Reutener supervised the inflatable “race [obstacle] course”, Craig and Rhonda Miller took charge of the “kiddie” bounce house, Jennifer Marbach painted kids’ faces with fun designs, and Ron Turner operated the gospel “kiddie” train, along with Andrew Trezona, who partnered with me to distribute the Challenge Newspaper. Our “prayer station” was located near the concessions for a lot of walk-in business. Sandy Huddleston led the ministry in this booth where guests could visit and have prayer. She and her team prayed with the show participants, too!

I invite you to put Urbancrest’s 2nd Annual Car, Truck, and Motorcycle Show on your calendar for next year on August 17, 2013. Invite your friends, bring your family or show your own car! We’re shooting for 150-200 registrants next year. The more guests that attend, the more who hear the Gospel message!

The Car Show was a great way to conclude our Summer Jam Tour 2012 (SJT12). Thanks again to Rusty and Jill Young for helping us lead this new community outreach initiative where lives were touched by the Gospel.

I’m reminded of the power of the Gospel in what Paul shared in 1 Thessalonians 1:5, “For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and the Holy Spirit”… We joined God in His work, proclaiming and sharing the gospel here in our community of Lebanon. May God bring a harvest of new believers!

“If you confess with your mouth that ‘Jesus is Lord’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved!” [Romans 10:9-11]. This is good news!