The single mom's free oil change is one of the best events we do in order to be a bridge of God's love to our community. Interested in doing one in your town? Here is how:
1. Find a location. We have done these oil changes in school parking lots, business parks, and housing communities. Look for locations with high visibility, and universal community ties.
2. Establish a knowledgeable mechanic in your congregation who can oversee, and sign off on every vehicle. This person does not need to be licensed as a mechanic, but it doesn't hurt.
3. Write out a waiver form. The mom's need to understand while the event is meant to help them, we are not an auto shop. (this also gets you a person's name and address: we always mail an invite to church, and an invite for the next upcoming oil change)
4. Establish a plan for moms/kids while their car is serviced. We usually have an inflatable for kids, and food/coffee for the moms.
5. Have enough oil on hand. We take oil donations weeks in advance. Also, consider some of the other fluids you can top off.. like window washing fluid, and brake fluid.
6. Work out a plan with local Napa store. You will need oil filters for each car. Usually, they allow us to sign for a bunch of them, (the common ones) and return what we don't use. We also always have runners available for uncommon filters we might need during the event. (Never drain the oil out of a vehicle without having a new oil filter in hand)
7. Plan your event, and publicize it I suggest max 2hrs. It is hard to maintain momentum for longer than that. Only publicize for what you will be able to handle. A good starting number is to plan for 20 cars. More than that will be quite overwhelming for a 1st effort.
8. Have enough ramps, tools and oil pans to be able to change oil in 3-4 cars simultaneously. This depends on how much help you have, but 3-4 stations is the best way to keep things moving.
9. Have a clipboard and pen, and new oil filter with the waiver form stay with the vehicle at all times. This will allow your oil changers to write any information about the car that will be helpful to the owner on the form. (like suggesting a tire rotation, or noting that the car was very low on oil when it arrived)
10. Draw a map out showing the intended flow of "traffic" for a single mom when she arrives. Know where she will be greeted, who will talk to her, where she will be asked to step out and your driver take the wheel of the vehicle, where the car will go throughout the process, (think of it like a automatic car wash, and what order of steps work sequentially) and where the mom will be returned to the car.

The goal of this process is to meet an immediate need, share the love of Jesus Christ, and find out other needs the mother might have at home. Be sure to follow up on every need she is willing to share with you, even if this means directing her to another ministry that will be able to help her.

(Oh, don't you dare try to verify that she is indeed a single mom. If you are thinking about this right now, you probably missed the point of why the event is being held in the 1st place. Go to the top of the post and try it again)

Questions?

Doesn't it feel great to exercise? I love how I feel after a long day in the saddle, like I do when I have ridden 80-100 miles or more on the road. I love the days I have been able to spent 6 hrs or more traversing the incredible MTB trails and views at Dupont State Forest. It is this strange feeling of total exhaustion mixed with a adrenaline high, that I absolutely love.

I had lunch with some friends yesterday, and we got talking about some of the things - life long adventure goals we would love to do, but probably never will. John is a fishing and boating biff, and he wants to take a boat the length of the inter-coastal waterway. Don loves to hike, and wonders how far he could make it along the Appalachian Trail. I piped in that I would love to ride my bike from coast to coast someday. They all agreed that I should definitely do that.

Here's the the thing... when I am riding regularly, I get in an average of 400-500 miles in a month. Do you know how far I would need to ride to get across the United States? 300-600miles per week!

I accumulated 3.7 miles for the month of October. Right now I have the big goose egg for November. I got a long way to go. Anyone else feel my pain?

Ok, so I stole this entire post from Jonathan Pait over at www.lowcadence.com . Why? because these videos are proof that I am in elementary school when it comes to the ability of some of these riders out there... Check it out!

Danny Macaskill is back on the Internet… and Norwegian television… displaying his mad skills in Lisbon. Sure, it’s a Volkswagen commercial, but he still amazes me. See if you get the same feeling that he is about to drop down on top of the car in one of the sequences.

I have just finished picking our music for our Christmas Eve service. In our setting, this year will be very simple and acoustic, but sometimes simple requires a ton of work. In my planning, I use Halloween every year as a drop dead date for Christmas planning. Our service occurs on Dec 24. Many of you have earlier performances in Dec. If that is the case, Halloween may be too late. The point is, be ready early. This way, your people make their Holiday plans around you, rather than the opposite scenario. Here are a few things to think about when planning Christmas services.

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