Friday night at Caffe Carpi
This past weekend, we had the joy of hosting our first All-OnRamp Conference here in College Station! We welcomed teams from OnRampDFW, OnRamp Coastal Bend, 3in1 Mechanical Ministries in Houston, and Middleman Ministry in Waco for two days of connection, collaboration, training, and encouragement.
We kicked off with great food and fellowship at Caffe Capri Friday night (thank you to our board member, Rami Cerone, for opening his wonderful restaurant to us!) On Saturday, we spent a full day together learning and growing. Through breakout sessions focused on client care, marketing, fundraising, and overall operations, we had the opportunity to share best practices, ask honest questions, and dive deep into how we can better serve our communities through this unique ministry. We laid the groundwork for each organization to continue to grow to serve more hard-working people in need as a tangible expression of God’s grace. Hearing each other’s stories, challenges, victories, and visions left left us energized and unified in our mission.
One of the most meaningful moments came at the end of the conference when we gifted former client Scott his Tier 1 Corolla. Long story short: OnRamp was gifted a Nissan that didn’t have much life left. Rather than sell or salvage it, we asked Scott to steward it to the end of its life to get the most out of this gift. He took great care of it for the next 8 months and used it to get a promotion at work and continue his ministry to other men at his church. Now that the Nissan’s life is done, we gifted him his long-term car, a low mileage Toyota that should last him many years. And then, since Scott is our brother-in-Christ, we asked him to pray God’s blessings over all of us so we can continue this vital ministry.
Scott (center) with board member and prayer partner, Matt (left) and OnRamp founder, Blake (right)
As Scott prayed for us, so we ask you all to continue to pray for OnRamp, 3in1, and Middleman Ministries and all the clients we serve. Pray that God would continue to multiply the workers, for the harvest is plentiful. Pray that He would help us launch OnRamp in new areas that have no automotive ministries so that God may be glorified as people in need find both earthly HELP and eternal HOPE.