Dear Friends:
It all started when I was a "wee kid" when I said "I am going to be a minister when I grow up." Even though I was in a cult at the time God called me and I made a good start in that direction but then took a detour. When I became a truck driver I did not want to be different from my co-driver so I started enjoying the pleasures of sin and went clear away from God. Still God had a plan for me so after some of my co-workers and a few drivers from other companies said a few words encouraging me in God's direction I was saved through a trucking ministry called Transport For Christ.

In 1987 I answered God's call to ministry after I had nothing to do but sit around praying and reading God's Word after a back injury. I know first hand that God is still our healer today because He has healed my back - He heals when we trust Him and believe that He will do it.

After serving God as a chaplain with Transport For Christ and then Association Of Christian Truckers Debbie and I answered God's call to start Steering Wheel Ministries in 1995.

The vision God gave us to start Steering Wheel Ministries included two to three mobile chapels, a trucker's Christian center, chapel services in TV Rooms at two or three truck stops and be available to minister to trucking families at times of accident, death or marriage/family problems. God reaffirmed this vision in November 2004. (You can read the entire Vision Statement on our web site at www.steeringwheel.org).

The chapel services in truck stop TV Rooms has been going on all along, as has been the ministry to the families. Marriages have been saved and drivers who have been injured in accidents have been visited in hospitals - that has been harder to do since the privacy laws came into affect because we cannot always get the information we need to be able to make the visits. I have been praying about how to get the information we need concerning trucking families and we have started getting calls and emails from families finding us on the internet so we are able to help them - PRAISE THE LORD!!!

The vision for the Trucker's Christian Center dictates that it is to be in a rural area where there is no church so the church will be the community church as well as the trucker's church. We will have meals for the drivers six days a week - Tuesday through Sunday - whenever they stop in. It will be a personal fueling station for the truck driver - spiritually and physically.

Here is the nitty-gritty of what is going on with fulfilling the vision God gave me for Steering Wheel Ministries. We came so close to getting the mobile chapel over the road and it came to a halt due to the weather for a while and now we are back at working on the final touches so it will be back on road by the time you get this letter.

We are on the verge of seeing God do something big here at Steering Wheel Ministries that will be taking Steering Wheel Ministries into another area of fulfilling the working of this vision. I will be giving you the details for this next month.

Thank you for standing with us in this battle of saving souls from Hell. We need you holding us up in prayer, not just financially. As you stand with us together we are Teaching Truckers To Be Fishers Of Men, Matthew 4:19. In behalf of the truck drivers that have been reached and those who will be reached, thank you for giving of your time in prayer and finances to the Lord.

In Christ's service,
Merwin Rhoades
Chaplain/President

PS:
Steering Wheel Ministries is now on Facebook and so am I. Go to Facebook and search for Steering Wheel Ministries and also search for Merwin Rhoades—Let’s be Friends.