The Annual Calvary Car Show

When I was on the trustee board, the topic of Kids Camp came up.  One of the issues was a lack of fund raising being done for the little kids to help those who could not afford to go to camp. Some kids wanted to go but could not do so because of a lack of funds. This information was very troubling to me because I was saved at Minnetonka Youth Camp and the thought of a young boy or girl possibly missing out on something that was as dear to my heart and important as camp because of money was a problem.  I asked the Lord to use us to help, if it was the Lords will.

Tammy and I asked the Lord to lead us and show us what our part would be "if any" in making sure that any child who wanted to go to camp would be able to do so without it being a burden on their family finances. The ball started rolling fast and I knew whatever the Lord had in store needed to be a big one time event and not the usual cookie, cake, twenty dollar bag of fundraiser popcorn type effort. There were no car shows in town except the city "cruise in" which was only drawing 20-30 cars, it wasn’t really a car show. We figured if the church put on a car show and did it professionally, it would attract lots of spectators as well as classic car enthusiasts.   Especially if 98% of them would otherwise never step foot on our church campus.

The thought was to raise money to send every kid to camp who wanted to go as well as attracting lots of folks who would come to the car show.  Folks would come only expecting the car show but find more than that through the love of Christ manifested by our members who would one after the other introduce themselves and love on these folks.  Letting them know that they go to church here and invite them to visit us sometime.

My prayer is that when one goes to the Calvary Car Show they are swallowed up by the love of our Savior and when they leave they say to themselves “Wow I'm not sure what this feeling is that I'm feeling but those were the most loving, nicest, and warmest folks I've ever been around" We as born again Christians would know that the feeling they experienced was not from our kindness or even our love, but the love of the Savior of the world Jesus Christ himself.  He was tugging at their heart and placing in their heart that they HAVE TO get back to that place, the place where they thought they were going to a CAR SHOW but as it turns out it was not about classic cars at ALL!  It was about the joy in those people at that church, it was about the pressing down upon our very existence that there is something bigger than ME, and whatever it is, it is calling ME, and I MUST answer that call.