We seek to bless the greater Carlisle area.

Tag Archives: Car Winterization

//Car Winterization for Single Parents Year THREE

November 10, 2009 – 5:00 pm

This is a story that love wrote. This December 12 is the Third Annual Car Winterization for Single Parents in our Community.  Last year we braved the 14 degree numbing cold to gather at Project Share for our 2nd annual Car Winterization for single parents.  Our first year we helped over 30 families to have their cars winterized for the rigors of winter.  Last  year through the efforts of New Life Community (our parent Church) we doubled the impact over last year! We winterized over 60 vehicles! In addition, we were able to raise $1,100 so we could give single parents gift certificates to local garages for tires, further maintenance, and other pressing mechanical needs.

View pictures and Read about the difference we made last year.

This year NLC our parent church is hoping to service over 200 cars on Dec. 12th.  So here is how we can help this year.

1. We can donate our time on Dec. 12th. We will need people who can vacuum cars, check tire pressure, wash windshield, top off antifreeze, do crafts and play with children while they wait with their parents, or just hang out and talk with those who we are serving.  You don’t need to be a mechanic to help. Just show up, be willing and we will put you to work.

2. Money. It costs $20 to sponsor a car this year.  Engage has certificates you can purchase to “adopt” a vehicle and ensure that those in need in our community will be able to get to work, take their kids to school, and have reliable transportation this year. This year we are trying to raise 10K so we can give a used car to those who absolutely need it. Last year we met several whose vehicles were on their last legs. This year we hope to give them the gift of reliable transportation to alleviate a little bit of the stress involved in raising kids and working jobs to provide for their families.  Most of the people we serve at the Car Winterization are hard working people who simply can’t make ends meet. If you would like to sponsor a car please give $20 per car. Place the money in a giving envelop, write your name and address on the envelop and place in the Generosity box at Engage. You can also send money to Engage Community Church 320 E. Louther Street, Carlisle PA.  Please memo any checks “Car Winterization”

3. Distribute vouchers to people who may need this service. Click here to download a voucher, print it off, and give it to someone who may need it. voucher-20091

Learn the personal stories behind Car Winterization:
Last year I had a conversation with Norma. Norma is a single mom with 5 kids. She works two jobs and her family lives with her father in the area.  With pride in her heart and tears in her eyes Norma told me about her daughter.  Norma’s daughter is a senior this year at a local high school.  At one point in the conversation Norma paused, looked me square in the eyes and with a mother’s pride told me how her daughter has just received a scholarship to college.  Norma’s daughter will be the first person in her family to attend college. All I could do is smile and feel the great transfer of pride from her heart to mine.

Click here to read the rest of Norma’s Story

Stay tuned for more info at Engage as to how you can sign up and be a part of Engaging our community with love.

By jon hand | Posted in What's New? | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

//Norma’s Story

December 12, 2008 – 11:58 am

Last Saturday we braved the 14 degree numbing cold to gather at Project Share for our 2nd annual Car Winterization for single parents.  I want to thank so many of you for your prayers, participation, and help for this important project.  Last year we helped 30 families to have safe vehicles for the treachery of winter driving in PA. This year through the efforts of New Life Community (our parent Church) we doubled the impact over last year! We winterized over 60 vehicles! In addition, we were able to raise $1,100 so we could give single parents gift certificates to local garages for tires, further maintenence, and other pressing mechanical needs.  I had a conversation with Norma.  Norma is a single mom with 5 kids. She works two jobs and her family lives with her father in the area.  With pride in her heart and tears in her eyes Norma told me about her daughter.  Norma’s daughter is a senior this year at a local high school.  At one point in the conversation Norma paused, looked me square in the eyes and with a mother’s pride told me how her daughter has just received a scholarship to college.  Norma’s daughter will be the first person in her family to attend college. All I could do is smile and feel the great transfer of pride from her heart to mine.

Norma’s car needed more repairs than we could provide on Sat.  But we were able to give her a gift certificate so she could repair her windshield washer fluid pump. She has been driving around without the ability to clear her windshield on the snowy days she has to drive to work.

As the day drew to a close I thought to myself, “This isn’t much, we could do more, but this is what Christmas is about.”  Christmas is about God coming to be one of us.  God putting on coveralls, grabbing a wrench, braving the cold so he can meet us right in the middle of our greatest needs.  Obviously, the coming of Christ is so much more, but Christ’s entrance into humanity means that nothing is insigificant.  Every part of normal life matters when our Creator joins us in the ordinaries of everyday life under the hood.

By jon hand | Posted in blog | Also tagged , | Comments (1)

//Remembering Dec. 15th, 2007

November 26, 2008 – 3:01 pm

On December 6th from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m Engage Community Church is partnering with New Life Community Church to winterize vehicles for single moms.  We need your time. We need you to donate money. You need to meet these tired, anxious parents who are doing their best.  Read more to find out why…

It was a year ago next month.  We were blasted by the shrill early December cold as groups of us stood huddled like warriors on the 30 yard line in the parking lot of Project Share.  We danced around trying to stay warm as we waited for the vehicles to arrive.  We were ready.  We stood armed with numb fingers clasping cold wrenches, stiff hoses, and gallons of motor oil.

Last year at this time a group of friends from church decided to reach out to tired, struggling single parents in our area. In the days and weeks prior we put up posters, handed out vouchers, and invited as many single parents as we could to come take advantage of an opportunity to get their cars prepared for the rough winter months.  The lifeline for single parents is their vehicles.  If their vehicles aren’t safe or running properly they can’t get to work. If struggling single parents can’t get to work they could lose their jobs. If they lose their jobs they could lose their home or apartment.  If they lose their home or apartment they could could lose their children.  You get the point. If these people don’t have safe, maintained vehicles it could unleash a chain reaction that has no end…

The cars came driving in one after another.  Cars were parked side by side, each one reflecting the hard working, tired lives of its owner.  The long line of cars was a whose who of car maintenance no no’s.  There were bald tires, blasting mufflers, broken wipers, black gooey oil, chipped faded paint, and scabbed over rust spots.  I will never forget the helpless youthfulness of one mom in particular. We will call her Tara. It was towards the end of the day and we were ticking off the last task on her vehicle. With check sheet in hand, I thanked Tara for coming and told her the bad news.  “Miss, your tires are bald. I mean bald. You need to get new tires as soon as possible,” I said.  Tara looked at me with a helpless stare. She tried to muster a grateful thank you. “Um, thank,” was all that she could say before her eyes began brimming over with tears.  As her tears spilled over onto her dark cheeks she quivered, “I don’t have it. I can’t do it. How am I going to pay for tires?”

I found out that this young mom works two jobs, raises her children, and tries her best to be a descent hard-working person.

We believe in a God who created humanity in order to love us.  I know what you might be thinking.  Well, if God created us to love us then why this or why that? If God is so loving why doesn’t he do a better job of taking care of people if we are so valuable to him? Great questions. I don’t have answers. All I know is God came to us in self-giving love personified in Jesus. He suffered with us. He identified with our struggle, our pain, our greatest fears.  Now we get to do that for people like Tara. Daily we pass single parents on the road. We watch them load their kids up in the grocery cart at Giant. We sense their tired anxieties echoed in the frustrated outbursts at their children.  We see “Tara” everywhere we go.  Here is our chance to be the change we want to see.  As one modern day prophet of love put it, “It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing.” Most of us will never go to the slums of Calcutta, but right under our noses here in Carlisle, PA the needs of the human heart are just the same.

If you would like to volunteer or financially donate to this need, please visit our web site and send us an email from the “contact us” form. Or call 701-9557. Click here to see pictures from last year.

Click Here to post a comment.

By admin | Posted in blog | Also tagged , | Comments (0)