2025 Year in Review + 2026 Preview
This past year we continued our partnerships in our Kansas Speedway ministry with Lenexa Baptist Church in Kansas. Lenexa Baptist was able to provide volunteers to help with the two NASCAR race weekends. This is a continued answer to prayer as we have been searching for Kansas City area churches to come on board. We look forward to working with them again this year.
Kansas Speedway campground ministry will continue to put a greater emphasis on opportunities to sit down with families, through expanded breakfasts and a Sunday worship time that is not like a service, but combined with a breakfast and personal testimonies. We had good feedback and felt we were able to really get to know people by sitting and eating with them. This year, the two weekends are April 17-19 and Sept 25-27 . Please be in prayer, as we are already finalizing plans for the April race weekend.
We also implemented a new software system introduced to us by the National Fellowship of Raceway Ministries. This software is typically used by churches to communicate with its members through emails/texts, schedule/promote events, create online sign ups, and track giving. This new system has made it much easier to communicate and organize our volunteers. Volunteers can now sign up for specific time slots and “duties” online. We also made a new website that is integrated with the software so that people can also sign up directly from the volunteer page. We have also been upgrading our hot wheels derby tracks to a new “open lane” race where the cars are free to run into one another as they race down the track. This creates an exciting, unpredictable race format that has received good feedback from the fans.
On the local scene we are continuing to focus on providing quality pro bono automotive services. In 2025, we helped 2 families purchase affordable transportation, complete necessary maintenance and repairs, and get them on the road well under their budget. Helping people navigate the used car market to find a reliable car is a service that is greatly needed. We plan on continuing to provide this new service, in addition to all of the regular car repairs and maintenance to our clients existing vehicles. Once it warms up we have plans to make a small concrete pad in the back garage area to accomodate larger vehicles that cannot fit in the garage. We also have now been providing help long enough that we are seeing repeat clients and further developing relationships as we help them on a more regular basis.
We will continue to be active in the local car show scene this coming year by attending the Route 66 Festival and some of the Coffee and Cars cruise-ins as our schedule allows. Many of the same people attend the car shows and this will give us another chance to form those all-important relationships. This past year we again set out free bibles in a small display under the hood of the show car, and over 200 bibles were picked up by those that came by. We plan on continuing this practice again this year. This year is also the 100 year celebration of Route 66, which has its origins in Springfield, MO. That means 2 big events/car shows and other activities that we plan on being a part of.