March 28, 2025 • 17 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Mike Gideon was just a gearhead who loved working on cars and restoring classics (something he thought he could retire on). But God had other plans...
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
You're about to hear from Mike Gideon. Mike was just
a gearhead who loved working on cars and restoring classics.
Don't think he thought he'd retire on but God had
other plans. Here's Mike with the story of how Higher
(00:33):
Power Garage is a nonprofit car repair shop, came.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
To be.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
In a mechanic most of my life started doing as
a child. A young man, I always had an interesting cars.
Went to work in service stations rush out of high school.
Did that for a few years, and then I left
and went to a corporate job running a chain of
Quick Lips and in that chain of Quick Life, so
I was also responsible for helping to develop new business.
(01:03):
So I did a lot of that, working with people
to design buildings and inventory and train their staff. And
I did that for about five years. Did call warshes
for a while. It was unfortunately about a seventy eighty
hour week most weeks, and after about five years of that,
I decided it was time to do my own thing.
(01:25):
I'd always had a desire to own a repair shop.
So in nineteen ninety five I started getting instired on it.
We started off small. I started by myself as the
only technician, hired a friend of mine a year later,
but was doing really well in business and had gotten
quite large, had six bays, six technicians working full time,
(01:46):
and then late two thousands or mid two thousands, the
economy kind of changed and our business plan had to
change with it. We ended up going down to two
technicians that for several years and just kind of hung on.
But it kind of changed my perspective in that it
wasn't about bigger is better. It's about building relationships. Over
(02:10):
the years that paid off as we just stayed steady.
Business came back, and about seven years ago we had
some major changes in our lives. The church that we
had been attending for twenty three years, we really just
felt God was leading us to leave there, so we left,
and to be honest, the next four years were really
(02:33):
really hard, kind of in the desert so to speak.
It really didn't feel like God was very close. We
really struggling, and where we were at, we knew God
had us where he wanted us to be, because every
time we tried to leave, something would happen that we
would just end up staying there. And this went on
for a while and I was really really questioning, God,
(02:55):
why did you call me to leave there? And you know,
I just feel so far away. So through that time though,
I was really seeking God as to direction because I
didn't feel like had purpose. I was out one day
and I just went on a hike on some place
where I grew up. There's some trails. I was out
there just kind of one Sunday afternoon, kind of walking
(03:16):
around and come across the quote, and the quote was
we shouldn't fear failure, but we should fear succeeding as
something that didn't matter. Really, I really felt like that
was God telling me that my focus was off, that
I needed to be more focused on making a difference
(03:39):
than I did on being successful. You know, I believe
God wants us to have nice things and live good lives.
That I think he also wants us to be generous
and care for our brothers and sisters. So in that timeframe,
we got connected with an organization here in town. Water
Gardens started a project called Neighbor connect to working with them,
(04:01):
and one of the things that we found is as
they referred people to our shop that were in need.
Got to visiting with them, and I found out that
a lot of times what they were dealing with, you know,
sometimes it was addiction, or it was choices, poor choices,
things like that, but there was so many times it
(04:21):
was things beyond the control. Being in an accident and
being injured to the point they can't work any longer,
or a spouse that's sick, or a child that's sick
so they have to leave their job to care for
And there were just so many different situations. And as
we started really getting to know people, there was one
(04:41):
couple in particular, a younger couple, and we got to
know them and we worked on their vehicle and helped them.
She was trying to get a job and needed a
car and her brakes were out, and so we fixed
the brakes on her car. But in visiting with them,
I asked them if they went to church anywhere. They did,
so I invited them to church. Well, they started coming
(05:03):
to our church and over the next few months we
just got to see God just make big changes in
their lives and really really had an impact on me.
We started really looking how we can make a bigger difference.
You know, our shop were busy, and we were trying
(05:25):
to do this as a sideline through our business, and
it was really becoming a challenge, and I really felt
like God was really calling me to do a nonprofit.
We do a class at our church. It's about finding
our God given purpose in life and it's called His Own.
It's based on a book by Craig Grosschel and we
were doing that class and one of the questions that's
(05:47):
asked is if God would bless you in anything you
would do, what would you attempt? And I answered that question,
I would do a nonprofit to help people. About two
weeks after answering that question, God really just started dealing
with me. One weekend in particular, I just felt so
(06:10):
burdened to do this. So I came in that Monday
morning and I was talking to my service writer and
the ladies that worked for me, and we were having
coffee that morning, and I just told him, I said,
you know, I really feel like that I have a
building that's empty, and I think God's called me to
start a nonprofit repair shop. One of the ladies that
(06:31):
worked for me, she just kind of spoke up and said,
you know, what if you do this? I really want
to be a part of it. And so we started
kind of talking about what it would look like and
how it would work, and I started talking to anybody
that would listen, and I got some really sideways looks.
You're going to do a free repair shop? Well, who
doesn't want free repair? You know? And we just kind
(06:53):
of just kept going.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
And you've been listening to Mike Gideon and share his story,
and my goodness, we've all been in that wilderness wondering
what purpose God has for us. And then he gets
that question in the Bible study, if God would bless you.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
In anything you do, what would be your attempt?
Speaker 1 (07:09):
He was looking for his purpose and so often, well
that's what so many of us are doing in our lives,
looking for purpose and meaning, and very often God having
a central role in that play. When we come back,
more of Mike Ideon's story, Higher Power Garage's story here
on Our American Stories. Lee Habib here the host of
(07:33):
our American Stories. Every day on this show, we're bringing
inspiring stories from across this great country, stories from our
big cities and small towns. But we truly can't do
the show without you. Our stories are free to listen to,
but they're not free to make. If you love what
you hear, go to Ouramerican Stories dot com and click
the donate button. Give a little, give a lot. Go
(07:56):
to Ouramerican Stories dot com and give. And we returned
to Our American Stories and to Mike Gideon sharing his
story of how his nonprofit car repair.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Shop came to be.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
As we heard from Mike when we left off, there
were some skeptics about how he might make it happen.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Let's pick back up with the rest of the story.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
A few years ago, I had met a gentleman from Conroe,
Texas that runs a nonprofit there called God's Garage. I
had kind of kept in touch with him over the years,
so when we decided to do this, I wanted to
go down and just kind of see how their operation worked.
And so I went to Texas and spent a couple
of days with him, and they were just excellent in
(08:51):
helping us what worked, what didn't work, what we need,
how we need to do it, some really great insight.
But while we were down there to shut down for
COVID hit, so we decided to cut our trip short
and come on back home. So we got back and
it was like, you know, I don't know do we
continue this. You know, this doesn't look good. They're talking
(09:13):
about businesses closing and not being able to go out,
and I really don't know if we can do this
or not. And my spirit just kept telling me that
we just needed to keep pushing forward. So in March
of twenty twenty, we were in the process of trying
to start a nonprofit right in the middle of a
(09:35):
government shutdown, and they told us on our five O
one to see three status that we could be as
much as two years getting that status, and actually we
got that in mid July. We would call for the
city to get our city license and they said, well,
you've got to have an inspection, but we're not doing
in person inspections. And a couple of days later, got
(09:58):
from the city showed up to do an inspection on
our billing. And it was just things like that. At
time after time, our county government was telling us to
get our license. They were shut down most of the time.
They didn't have any online facilities to be able to
get our license online, but we got ahold of somebody
and he went through. So it was just things like that.
(10:19):
That just kind of told us that we were on
the right track. And I'm still amazed because we actually
opened on June first, twenty twenty as Higher Power Garage.
I have a real hard time talking about this without
getting emotional them because one of the things that I've
heard is you want to know what God's called you
(10:39):
to do, find what bricks your heart. Let me tell
you about Sam. Sam is a great example of what
we do. Sam is a veteran and Sam struggled with
addiction and homelessness for a lot of years. A few
years ago he was able to get with a ba
in get housing and started to get some benefits and
(11:01):
he started saving his money. And after a couple of
years of saving his money, Sam was able to buy
a car. And the next day after he bought the car,
the brakes started grinding and Sam was referred to Higher
Power Garage. He came in and I mean his anxiety
level was at ten. He was so worried about what
(11:22):
was going to happen next that he had wasted his money.
He had enough money to pay sales tax and buy tags,
he didn't have enough money for any repairs, and so
we were able to fix his car and put brakes
on it. For him, that wasn't a big deal. But
in the process of the interview, we found out that
the reason why Sam wanted a car he wanted to
(11:43):
go back to work. That he didn't want to be
in the situation he was in, and he was willing
to get back out into the workforce and do that.
So we have a partnership with ARP, which will work
with seniors to train them job skills. Were able to
point Sam into that resource and Sam got a job
(12:05):
to train with the local organization here. After a month,
he was hired on full time with that organization. So
we were able to help him not only with his
car need, but we were also able to help him
with his physical need his financial needs. But in the
process of that too, we found out that Sam was
really wanting to find a church and he didn't really
(12:26):
know where to go, and so we invited him to
church and he started coming on a regular basis, and
he started attending some of the classes that we have
their own discipleship and purpose, and he really started to
engage and after a couple of months we had a baptism.
Sam got baptized, and that's the reason we're here if
(12:52):
we only do that for Sam, everything we've done here
has been success. But the thing is God has used
us over and over again to do that and to
see lives changed and people's lives impacted. And you know,
we've had people come in that I don't really believe
in God too much, but after experiencing the love of
(13:14):
Christ change their mind. We have built some wonderful relationships.
We've had people come back to the shop to volunteer,
and we just keep every day we come in, we
get to do this.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
This is.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Not work, this is an opportunity. We're not just fixing cars.
In fact, if you notice in our logo there's a
line through the word garage, and the reason it's there
is because it's not about the garage. That's what we do.
But our purpose is far more than that. We're here
to help people to fix their lives, to improve their lives.
(13:52):
So one of the things we really felt strongly about
is education. Almost none of our clients we were seeing
or budgeting, so we started a budgeting class just to
teach them the basics to do that. Most of the
cars that we were working on were neglected. We found
that some of our families were second and third generation
single parent families. Bothers have been out of the home.
(14:15):
Kids weren't taught to check the oil or rotate the tires,
or when to check the oil, when to change the oil,
or what the lights on the dash mean. A car
is the second biggest investment we make in our lives,
next to our house, so it's important that they know
how to maintain that. So we have a Motto maintenance
class where we teach them the basics of why and
(14:36):
how to maintain their vehicle. We want to be a
hand up, not a handout, so we empower our clients
to pay for the parts and we supply the labor
at no charge. We sell the parts basically at what
they would pay if they went into o'riley's. In bottom,
we're really not making any money there. We just want
our clients to feel like they have an investment, as
some skin in the game. Then we have a low
(14:58):
cost vehicle program we work with we're primarily single parents
families to help them with transportation. We have cars donated
to our shop and then we go through them, do
the maintenance and do the repairs that are necessary on them,
and then we sell them to our clients for five
hundred dollars. That way, they have an investment in the car,
and so we're really happy to be able to do that.
(15:19):
And over the last two and a half years, we've
been able to provide about thirty six cars to families
that didn't have transportation. You know, we've been blessed. At
the end of this year, we showed where we had
done seven hundred and fifteen repairs in the two and
a half years. That's just for two people. We thought
that was a pretty amazing number. And then we've provided
over one hundred thousand dollars worth of free labor. That's
(15:42):
seven hundred and fifteen times we sat down with the
person one on one and we were able to talk
to them and find out their story, and we were
able to listen to them, and we were able to
just point them towards resources to help them further improve
their lives. But the most important thing we got to
do is we got to talk to them about their
walk with God, the relationship with God, and we got
(16:05):
to pray with them. You know, we've we feel like
that's the whole reason why we're here. If we really
want to share God's love, you can't do it any
better than just sitting down with somebody and listening to
them and then not just giving any advice or telling them,
you know, well, if you hadn't done this, or if
you do this, but you know, just tell them. You know,
(16:26):
we'll help you, we'll walk with you, we'll do what
we can do. In most cases, it's about hope, you know.
We see that so many times as our clients will
come in here and I hear over and over and
over again, and it's just bad stuff just always happens
to me. It's just like I'm hitting the one wall
after another. My luck is so bad. I just never
(16:46):
get over this or get ahead. And our purpose here,
our goal here is to break that, to show them
that there is hope, and through the love of Christ
and through the support of our community, were able to
impact people's lives every day. And that's exactly what we're
praying to do, is to break cycles and to encourage
(17:07):
people to move forward to be more.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
And what a beautiful, beautiful story.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
A special thanks to Katrina Hine for sourcing the story,
thanks to Madison Derricott for the production and the sound design,
and thanks to Mike Gideon for sharing the story and
that story about what he did for Sam. Oh my goodness,
he didn't just fix the car. He was trying to
fix a life and trying to love a stranger. Seven
hundred and fifteen repairs, thirty six cars donated and given away,
(17:36):
well five hundred dollars, so there's some skin in the game.
And then all because God called on Mike to do
something different with his life and to serve him differently.
The story of Higher Power garage and how God calls
on ordinary Americans to do the most extraordinary and beautiful things.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
This is our American stories.
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
You're about to hear from Mike Gideon. Mike was just
a gearhead who loved working on cars and restoring classics.
Don't think he thought he'd retire on but God had
other plans. Here's Mike with the story of how Higher
(00:33):
Power Garage is a nonprofit car repair shop, came.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
To be.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
In a mechanic most of my life started doing as
a child. A young man, I always had an interesting cars.
Went to work in service stations rush out of high school.
Did that for a few years, and then I left
and went to a corporate job running a chain of
Quick Lips and in that chain of Quick Life, so
I was also responsible for helping to develop new business.
(01:03):
So I did a lot of that, working with people
to design buildings and inventory and train their staff. And
I did that for about five years. Did call warshes
for a while. It was unfortunately about a seventy eighty
hour week most weeks, and after about five years of that,
I decided it was time to do my own thing.
(01:25):
I'd always had a desire to own a repair shop.
So in nineteen ninety five I started getting instired on it.
We started off small. I started by myself as the
only technician, hired a friend of mine a year later,
but was doing really well in business and had gotten
quite large, had six bays, six technicians working full time,
(01:46):
and then late two thousands or mid two thousands, the
economy kind of changed and our business plan had to
change with it. We ended up going down to two
technicians that for several years and just kind of hung on.
But it kind of changed my perspective in that it
wasn't about bigger is better. It's about building relationships. Over
(02:10):
the years that paid off as we just stayed steady.
Business came back, and about seven years ago we had
some major changes in our lives. The church that we
had been attending for twenty three years, we really just
felt God was leading us to leave there, so we left,
and to be honest, the next four years were really
(02:33):
really hard, kind of in the desert so to speak.
It really didn't feel like God was very close. We
really struggling, and where we were at, we knew God
had us where he wanted us to be, because every
time we tried to leave, something would happen that we
would just end up staying there. And this went on
for a while and I was really really questioning, God,
(02:55):
why did you call me to leave there? And you know,
I just feel so far away. So through that time though,
I was really seeking God as to direction because I
didn't feel like had purpose. I was out one day
and I just went on a hike on some place
where I grew up. There's some trails. I was out
there just kind of one Sunday afternoon, kind of walking
(03:16):
around and come across the quote, and the quote was
we shouldn't fear failure, but we should fear succeeding as
something that didn't matter. Really, I really felt like that
was God telling me that my focus was off, that
I needed to be more focused on making a difference
(03:39):
than I did on being successful. You know, I believe
God wants us to have nice things and live good lives.
That I think he also wants us to be generous
and care for our brothers and sisters. So in that timeframe,
we got connected with an organization here in town. Water
Gardens started a project called Neighbor connect to working with them,
(04:01):
and one of the things that we found is as
they referred people to our shop that were in need.
Got to visiting with them, and I found out that
a lot of times what they were dealing with, you know,
sometimes it was addiction, or it was choices, poor choices,
things like that, but there was so many times it
(04:21):
was things beyond the control. Being in an accident and
being injured to the point they can't work any longer,
or a spouse that's sick, or a child that's sick
so they have to leave their job to care for
And there were just so many different situations. And as
we started really getting to know people, there was one
(04:41):
couple in particular, a younger couple, and we got to
know them and we worked on their vehicle and helped them.
She was trying to get a job and needed a
car and her brakes were out, and so we fixed
the brakes on her car. But in visiting with them,
I asked them if they went to church anywhere. They did,
so I invited them to church. Well, they started coming
(05:03):
to our church and over the next few months we
just got to see God just make big changes in
their lives and really really had an impact on me.
We started really looking how we can make a bigger difference.
You know, our shop were busy, and we were trying
(05:25):
to do this as a sideline through our business, and
it was really becoming a challenge, and I really felt
like God was really calling me to do a nonprofit.
We do a class at our church. It's about finding
our God given purpose in life and it's called His Own.
It's based on a book by Craig Grosschel and we
were doing that class and one of the questions that's
(05:47):
asked is if God would bless you in anything you
would do, what would you attempt? And I answered that question,
I would do a nonprofit to help people. About two
weeks after answering that question, God really just started dealing
with me. One weekend in particular, I just felt so
(06:10):
burdened to do this. So I came in that Monday
morning and I was talking to my service writer and
the ladies that worked for me, and we were having
coffee that morning, and I just told him, I said,
you know, I really feel like that I have a
building that's empty, and I think God's called me to
start a nonprofit repair shop. One of the ladies that
(06:31):
worked for me, she just kind of spoke up and said,
you know, what if you do this? I really want
to be a part of it. And so we started
kind of talking about what it would look like and
how it would work, and I started talking to anybody
that would listen, and I got some really sideways looks.
You're going to do a free repair shop? Well, who
doesn't want free repair? You know? And we just kind
(06:53):
of just kept going.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
And you've been listening to Mike Gideon and share his story,
and my goodness, we've all been in that wilderness wondering
what purpose God has for us. And then he gets
that question in the Bible study, if God would bless you.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
In anything you do, what would be your attempt?
Speaker 1 (07:09):
He was looking for his purpose and so often, well
that's what so many of us are doing in our lives,
looking for purpose and meaning, and very often God having
a central role in that play. When we come back,
more of Mike Ideon's story, Higher Power Garage's story here
on Our American Stories. Lee Habib here the host of
(07:33):
our American Stories. Every day on this show, we're bringing
inspiring stories from across this great country, stories from our
big cities and small towns. But we truly can't do
the show without you. Our stories are free to listen to,
but they're not free to make. If you love what
you hear, go to Ouramerican Stories dot com and click
the donate button. Give a little, give a lot. Go
(07:56):
to Ouramerican Stories dot com and give. And we returned
to Our American Stories and to Mike Gideon sharing his
story of how his nonprofit car repair.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Shop came to be.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
As we heard from Mike when we left off, there
were some skeptics about how he might make it happen.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Let's pick back up with the rest of the story.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
A few years ago, I had met a gentleman from Conroe,
Texas that runs a nonprofit there called God's Garage. I
had kind of kept in touch with him over the years,
so when we decided to do this, I wanted to
go down and just kind of see how their operation worked.
And so I went to Texas and spent a couple
of days with him, and they were just excellent in
(08:51):
helping us what worked, what didn't work, what we need,
how we need to do it, some really great insight.
But while we were down there to shut down for
COVID hit, so we decided to cut our trip short
and come on back home. So we got back and
it was like, you know, I don't know do we
continue this. You know, this doesn't look good. They're talking
(09:13):
about businesses closing and not being able to go out,
and I really don't know if we can do this
or not. And my spirit just kept telling me that
we just needed to keep pushing forward. So in March
of twenty twenty, we were in the process of trying
to start a nonprofit right in the middle of a
(09:35):
government shutdown, and they told us on our five O
one to see three status that we could be as
much as two years getting that status, and actually we
got that in mid July. We would call for the
city to get our city license and they said, well,
you've got to have an inspection, but we're not doing
in person inspections. And a couple of days later, got
(09:58):
from the city showed up to do an inspection on
our billing. And it was just things like that. At
time after time, our county government was telling us to
get our license. They were shut down most of the time.
They didn't have any online facilities to be able to
get our license online, but we got ahold of somebody
and he went through. So it was just things like that.
(10:19):
That just kind of told us that we were on
the right track. And I'm still amazed because we actually
opened on June first, twenty twenty as Higher Power Garage.
I have a real hard time talking about this without
getting emotional them because one of the things that I've
heard is you want to know what God's called you
(10:39):
to do, find what bricks your heart. Let me tell
you about Sam. Sam is a great example of what
we do. Sam is a veteran and Sam struggled with
addiction and homelessness for a lot of years. A few
years ago he was able to get with a ba
in get housing and started to get some benefits and
(11:01):
he started saving his money. And after a couple of
years of saving his money, Sam was able to buy
a car. And the next day after he bought the car,
the brakes started grinding and Sam was referred to Higher
Power Garage. He came in and I mean his anxiety
level was at ten. He was so worried about what
(11:22):
was going to happen next that he had wasted his money.
He had enough money to pay sales tax and buy tags,
he didn't have enough money for any repairs, and so
we were able to fix his car and put brakes
on it. For him, that wasn't a big deal. But
in the process of the interview, we found out that
the reason why Sam wanted a car he wanted to
(11:43):
go back to work. That he didn't want to be
in the situation he was in, and he was willing
to get back out into the workforce and do that.
So we have a partnership with ARP, which will work
with seniors to train them job skills. Were able to
point Sam into that resource and Sam got a job
(12:05):
to train with the local organization here. After a month,
he was hired on full time with that organization. So
we were able to help him not only with his
car need, but we were also able to help him
with his physical need his financial needs. But in the
process of that too, we found out that Sam was
really wanting to find a church and he didn't really
(12:26):
know where to go, and so we invited him to
church and he started coming on a regular basis, and
he started attending some of the classes that we have
their own discipleship and purpose, and he really started to
engage and after a couple of months we had a baptism.
Sam got baptized, and that's the reason we're here if
(12:52):
we only do that for Sam, everything we've done here
has been success. But the thing is God has used
us over and over again to do that and to
see lives changed and people's lives impacted. And you know,
we've had people come in that I don't really believe
in God too much, but after experiencing the love of
(13:14):
Christ change their mind. We have built some wonderful relationships.
We've had people come back to the shop to volunteer,
and we just keep every day we come in, we
get to do this.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
This is.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Not work, this is an opportunity. We're not just fixing cars.
In fact, if you notice in our logo there's a
line through the word garage, and the reason it's there
is because it's not about the garage. That's what we do.
But our purpose is far more than that. We're here
to help people to fix their lives, to improve their lives.
(13:52):
So one of the things we really felt strongly about
is education. Almost none of our clients we were seeing
or budgeting, so we started a budgeting class just to
teach them the basics to do that. Most of the
cars that we were working on were neglected. We found
that some of our families were second and third generation
single parent families. Bothers have been out of the home.
(14:15):
Kids weren't taught to check the oil or rotate the tires,
or when to check the oil, when to change the oil,
or what the lights on the dash mean. A car
is the second biggest investment we make in our lives,
next to our house, so it's important that they know
how to maintain that. So we have a Motto maintenance
class where we teach them the basics of why and
(14:36):
how to maintain their vehicle. We want to be a
hand up, not a handout, so we empower our clients
to pay for the parts and we supply the labor
at no charge. We sell the parts basically at what
they would pay if they went into o'riley's. In bottom,
we're really not making any money there. We just want
our clients to feel like they have an investment, as
some skin in the game. Then we have a low
(14:58):
cost vehicle program we work with we're primarily single parents
families to help them with transportation. We have cars donated
to our shop and then we go through them, do
the maintenance and do the repairs that are necessary on them,
and then we sell them to our clients for five
hundred dollars. That way, they have an investment in the car,
and so we're really happy to be able to do that.
(15:19):
And over the last two and a half years, we've
been able to provide about thirty six cars to families
that didn't have transportation. You know, we've been blessed. At
the end of this year, we showed where we had
done seven hundred and fifteen repairs in the two and
a half years. That's just for two people. We thought
that was a pretty amazing number. And then we've provided
over one hundred thousand dollars worth of free labor. That's
(15:42):
seven hundred and fifteen times we sat down with the
person one on one and we were able to talk
to them and find out their story, and we were
able to listen to them, and we were able to
just point them towards resources to help them further improve
their lives. But the most important thing we got to
do is we got to talk to them about their
walk with God, the relationship with God, and we got
(16:05):
to pray with them. You know, we've we feel like
that's the whole reason why we're here. If we really
want to share God's love, you can't do it any
better than just sitting down with somebody and listening to
them and then not just giving any advice or telling them,
you know, well, if you hadn't done this, or if
you do this, but you know, just tell them. You know,
(16:26):
we'll help you, we'll walk with you, we'll do what
we can do. In most cases, it's about hope, you know.
We see that so many times as our clients will
come in here and I hear over and over and
over again, and it's just bad stuff just always happens
to me. It's just like I'm hitting the one wall
after another. My luck is so bad. I just never
(16:46):
get over this or get ahead. And our purpose here,
our goal here is to break that, to show them
that there is hope, and through the love of Christ
and through the support of our community, were able to
impact people's lives every day. And that's exactly what we're
praying to do, is to break cycles and to encourage
(17:07):
people to move forward to be more.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
And what a beautiful, beautiful story.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
A special thanks to Katrina Hine for sourcing the story,
thanks to Madison Derricott for the production and the sound design,
and thanks to Mike Gideon for sharing the story and
that story about what he did for Sam. Oh my goodness,
he didn't just fix the car. He was trying to
fix a life and trying to love a stranger. Seven
hundred and fifteen repairs, thirty six cars donated and given away,
(17:36):
well five hundred dollars, so there's some skin in the game.
And then all because God called on Mike to do
something different with his life and to serve him differently.
The story of Higher Power garage and how God calls
on ordinary Americans to do the most extraordinary and beautiful things.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
This is our American stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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