Lightrider Ministries
Lightrider proclaims the message of Jesus Christ, encourages individual faith in
Christ and
works
to strengthen Christian relationships through fellowship.
Doctrine
Lightrider is a non-denominational Christian fellowship ministry.
The Bible is the Word of God.
Jesus
Christ is who He said He is, the Son of God.
Christ died for the Salvation of all people,
young
or old, and desires to know each of us on a personal level, if we accept Him in
faith.
He
stands ready to care for us as mortals and to usher us into God's presence for
eternity.
As
ambassadors of Christ we are to share His love with the world.
As Christians it is essential
that
we maintain close bonds with the body of Christ, the church, sharing the burdens
and
benefits
of that body. We trust His Spirit
to guide and direct all areas of our lives.
Purpose
Our
founding fathers built this nation on a foundation of biblical values.
Believing that a
strong
church can bring revival of those values to this land, Lightrider seeks to
strengthen
Programs
picks
up groups (kids, adults or families) within a 5 hour radius of
road
on a
American
creation becomes our camp--pavement our
tool, quality time together our goal.
The RedBarn,
a before & after school outreach for 6th to 12th graders, begun 6 years
ago,
has over 350 kids signed up.
40-60 kids participate each school day from 7-740 am
and
3:30 to 6 pm. Volunteers, mostly
students from
University, assist the RedBarn director in providing
an exciting, safe, Christ centered
environment
in which these at risk kids may play and grow.
A weekly Bible study is well
attended.
The RedBarn ministry is a partnership between
Lightrider (LtR) and Youth For
Christ
(YFC).
A building addition to the RedBarn is now complete,
primarily because of the growing numbers
of
kids. A class room for tutoring and counseling as well as a pottery studio,
which will use
art
as a ministry tool, are included in this addition.
The GrayBarn,
an outreach to senior adults, is a warm, inviting place for seniors to enjoy
Christian fellowship.
A variety of activities are scheduled, providing opportunities for
sharing
life's burdens and joys, one with another, in a
Christ centered atmosphere. Volunteers and
or
paid professionals, working with Lightrider's full
time staff, plan and conduct these activities,
to
include: weekly senior men's
fellowship (currently led by Jay Kelser); weekly
ladies Bible
study;
ladies chair exercise class;
lessons in water color painting; lessons in publishing literary
writing;
LITE (Life independent through exercise)--a twice weekly exercise class for
senior men
and
women; Saturday Night at the
Barn, a Bluegrass/Gospel shindig open to the community;
card
making classes; scrap booking classes; instruction in square foot gardening;
walking our
half-mile
walking path; the Truth Project--a Bible study for couples; etc.
We plan to develop mentoring activities between RedBarn
kids and senior adults (Titus 2:1-6).
Our
Veteran's Corner, which honors
have
provided our first forays into this arena.
Wood working, auto mechanics, chess, cooking,
and
the like may be used in the future.
The GrayBarn is also available for special events:
graduation parties, open houses, wedding
and
anniversary receptions, and the like.
The GrayBarn has a garage for the
LowRider.
The LowRider,
a modified low floor motor
coach with step-less entry, to be used for mobile
retreats
with senior adults. This program is
not yet up and running but has progressed from
the
vision stage to raising money to begin production of the prototype.
The Prayer Room, a
place where individuals may commit to an hour a week in prayer for
our
community and nation.
The Pete Carlson Room,
is available for groups to
conduct a variety of interesting
activities,
which have included a Karate Class, a ladies tap dancing class, and tap and
ballet
lessons for primary and elementary aged children.
The Ron Rich Fund,
started in memory of a long
time participant in LtR's mobile retreats,
is
used to assist folks that come to our attention that could use help with small
domestic needs.
Demographics
Lightrider serves families and varying age groups ranging from 6th grade through
senior citizens.
History
The
mobile retreat style of ministry used by Lightrider was introduced by the
Wandering
Wheels organization, formerly
of
share
27 years experience with that program.
It was during those years that a dream of
using
a double-decker motor coach as a tool for ministry began.
In 1987
Bob Walker and I joined forces with the Creator of the Universe to make this
dream
a
reality. Proverbs 15: 22 says,
"Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they
succeed."
Taking this to heart, we assembled a board of directors to hold us accountable
and
to gain the advice of many. Early
on we were led to Proverbs 16:3--"Commit to the
Lord
whatever you do, and your plans will succeed", and succeed they have.
We have made
this
commitment and are continuing to follow His lead.
Lightrider's
first double decker was a 1974
Neoplan Skyliner--the 1st double
decker in
with
US components. A friend gave us
$37,500 for a down payment and to get the coach to
able
to get a 15 year mortgage on this 13 year old vehicle.
We paid that mortgage off in 1997
and
have been debt free ever since.
By
August 1988 we had outfitted our Neoplan as a
sleeper coach so that we could sleep
groups
of 30 while we motored down the highway at night.
Traveling at night saves on
motel
bills, allowing us to offer these Adventures in Christian Fellowship at a more
affordable
price.
Traveling at night also saves time, allowing us to enjoy far away places with
kids
without
their having to miss much school.
For the
next two years God revealed Himself and His faithfulness as we encountered
myriad
mechanical
maladies. We broke down on the
on
our first overnight retreat; on our second retreat we took 3 days to cross
then
stranded in the
right
person, with just the right equipment, and with just enough money to get back on
the
road.
In fact we recorded 29 miracles during those first years that attest to
God's faithfulness
and
provision, that greatly tested and then strengthened our faith.
That
first coach did yeoman duty for 15 years and 850,000 miles, serving over 11,000
people
on
361 mobile retreats over 2092 days on the road.
Most of
our first 10 years of ministry were managed out of an office on
first
in Mathews, then on
In
August 1996 Lightrider purchased 2.5 acres of land in the Old Mill Subdivision.
By summer
1998 we
had moved our offices and the Lightrider into our own new building.
In
October of 2002 we took delivery of a brand new Neoplan
Skyliner, one that we had ordered
and
that had been built in the
"Miracle
Bus" is still going strong.
We call
it a "Miracle Bus" because that's what it took to get it.
$18,000 had been invested in
Yahoo stock in 1997 by a
friend of Lightrider.
At the end of 1999, having grown in value to
$500,000, that stock was given to us.
On the first Tuesday of 2000, 6 days after we received
it,
and after it had increased in value by $65,000, and despite the fact that we had
a full
board
meeting coming up in just 3 days, we sold it.
An hour after that sale, the value of that
stock
plummeted. So badly did Wall Street
suffer that day that its been called Black Tuesday.
God
multiplied that original investment, protected it, and put it into His service.
As we had
been
gifted this new double decker, we gifted our
faithful old steed, then close to 30 years
old,
to a sister mobile retreat ministry, Eagle Wings.
Lightrider grew beyond just mobile retreat ministry when we built the
RedBarn to help out
the
Print Shop, a small downtown Upland ministry started by an
Joe Lee.
Joe had seen kids waiting for the school bus on
provide
a place out of the weather that was safe, warm and friendly where he could share
the
love
of Jesus with his fellow students.
He began using the old Freeze Printing building, but soon
was
out growing it.
Volunteers,
throwing
incident inspired Lightrider to help out by putting up the
RedBarn near the site of
that
incident (which happened to be next to our first building).
The Print Shop was moved
into
this new, larger than the Print Shop building about 6 years ago.
connected
with YFC to help with raising support as
Today,
the school bus picks up and drops off here, making our location prime for this
after
school
program.
With
over 350 at risk kids signed up at the RedBarn, it
seemed like there may well be over
a
thousand at risk grandparents in our neighborhood.
Hence, work on the GrayBarn began
and this dimension to Lightrider Ministries got going
in the summer of 2006.
Part of
the GrayBarn plan, from before the
RedBarn's revealing of serious local need for senior
ministry,
was the idea of finding a motor coach to use with senior adults--a coach without
the
characteristic
physical barrier found on all motor coaches, steps.
Low floor, stepless buses are
used
in cities, but none are available for highway use, and none have the luggage
capacity to
make
them practical for travel.
Our
vision for the LowRider sprang from this deficiency
in the extant motor coach design.
Since we
had the need for a step-less motor coach, we were ideally situated to apply our
dozens
of years of motor coach operations into designing one.
Rather than just build one,
we
were led to the idea of creating a commercially viable replacement for the
40,000 motor
coaches
presently in use in the
updated
to overcome the limitations of the 70 year old design presently in use, might
generate
revenue
to grow and sustain Lightrider's vision--a vision to
plant coaches in churches, coaches
that
could make mobile retreats possible for all age groups in the body of Christ,
not just the
youthful.
"Vision
without action is merely a dream.
Action without vision just passes the time.
But . .
. vision with action can change the world."
...Joel Barker
Habakkuk
2:2-3 tells us, "Write down the revelation (vision) and make it plain on tablets
so
that
a herald may run with it. For the
revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the
end
and will not prove false. Though it
linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not
delay."
We have
written the LowRider vision down, and though it has
lingered for 6 years or so, we
have
used that time to focus, polish and pursue it.
As our
aging staff has begun ministering with senior adults in the
GrayBarn and preparing to
get
the LowRider underway, our fervent prayer has been
that God would call a young man
or
woman, married or single, to take over as Lightrider's
Director of Youth Ministries. We've
been
asking for someone that would have the vision and gifts to take over the reigns
at Lightrider
when
the time comes to surrender those reigns.
Mike
Manganello
Executive Director, Co-Founder
Lightrider Ministries