People helping people make changes

Some three years ago, a “fun” ministry was started at Central Heights Church, Abbotsford. We dreamed of giving away cars.

Why not? We help people in just about every other area.

Our church’s car ministry, however, is not just about giving away cars. That’s one of the outcomes, of course, but the real ministry is helping people with specific needs in their lives. It belongs to a bigger program of benevolence we now call “Changes.”

We want to help people make changes in their lives. As people are willing to make changes, our church family members help them make those changes by contributing to specific needs they have, while holding them accountable.

People receive a variety of helps through our church: personal counselling (emotional, financial, physical, spiritual), help through programs (like DivorceCare, Boundaries, Pure Desire, Good Sense), food, clothing, household articles, financial assistance, transportation and more.

Belong, believe, behave

Rather than asking people to change the way they behave so they may believe the way we do, we recognize that people first need to belong. As they become a part of our community through our love, care and generosity, they will, in time, believe, which will influence how they behave.

To qualify for assistance, a person must be willing to make changes in his or her life; be willing to be held accountable; be willing to accept the help offered by our community; and be at a financial income level that requires our help.

People are in need for a variety of reasons. Perhaps they’ve made unwise choices and are unable to provide for themselves. They may be separated or divorced and must be dependent on others. Perhaps their income is insufficient to purchase a car or they haven’t learned to manage money. Who among us hasn’t at one time or another been in a similar situation?

Here’s how our ministry of giving cars away works. People donate a car to the church. Donors include our church community and family members, as well as those from outside our church community, even though they may not be Christ followers.

A group of mechanically-minded men look the car over, and repair it up to a level of safe, reliable transportation. By that time, the Lord has usually given us an individual or family to receive the car.

Cycles of help

A man from Vancouver called us after he read our story on our church webpage. He wanted us to confirm we were actually giving cars away, which we did by telling him two stories of people who were helped through the gift of a car. He donated immediately. The car was an economical, comfortable yet compact four-seater. It had loads of life left in it, and we were happy to accept! It was amazing to see the level of trust he demonstrated in us by giving us his car.

It was almost a year later when his friend called us to give us his car. This time, a Mercedes 500 SEL was donated. While we couldn’t give that car away (too expensive to operate), we were able to sell it and use the proceeds to help the car ministry become fully self-financing.

It’s amazing how quickly the cycle is repeated. A man desires to get back into the work world after making a complete mess of his life and needs a car to get to work; a missionary on home missions assignment needs transportation; a single mom wants to make something of her life and needs a helping hand . . . and so on it goes.

We’re all called to help each other. We’re also reminded to accept help. Independence is not a biblical concept, rather the converse! We need each other, and cars are just one example of how people who care can help people who want to make a change in their lives!

Paul Dyck is executive pastor at Central Heights Church, Abbotsford. To date, the car ministry of the “Changes” program has given away 29 vehicles.