The Well Ministries

We need to raise about $3000 to pay for all of the parts.
If you want to give towards getting the bus back on the road you can do so by sending a check to The Well Ministries, be sure to mark it “bus fund”. For other options on donating, click here.
If you want to donate [...]

The teacher had said it could be a few weeks before they could get to doing the work on the bus since the students were still in the theory part but they must have been excited to see the bus because he called us already with a preliminary list of needed parts.
It’s not too bad, [...]

On the way to the school for the inspection work the rear airbag blew out.
Lou was following in the van and said it was about the scariest thing he ever saw in his life. One good thing is that they were only a few miles from the school so they drove it leaning to one [...]

We haven’t had an opportunity to use the bus too much so we figure inspection shouldn’t be too bad. But we do know that a few things need fixed up.
A friend, who has been learning to fix diesel engines, asked his school if they would consider taking the bus as a project and doing the [...]

It’s been a long process to get this thing fixed. No one seemed to be able to help us find the fuse. Every fuse we found was good so we were not locating the right one.
A friend came by and offered to help find the fuse.
His electrical background realized that it wasn’t a fuse afterall. [...]

On our way to the gig last Sunday someone told us the brake light was out. We haven’t been able to find the fuse to fix it. Got a call into a bus specialist to tell us where the fuse IS.
Still trying to tell the lady about closing her window. She’s still not too [...]

Had to replace the batteries in the bus. There are 4 of them too! We found a company that gave us wholesale price on purchasing them so we were able to get better batteries for less than half the price!
We made sure to tell the lady next door to shut her window before we started [...]

This morning while we were getting ready for church Lou was running the bus a little to try to charge the batteries and the lady next door called the fire company for carbon monoxide fumes.
So several fire trucks and police cars were parked in front of the house…again.
Apparently the bus fumes were going right [...]

On the way to get the bus inspected, the power steering went. It sprung a leak in a hose. Gary and Lou tried to fix it but were unable to find the right tool to get into the mechanism. So we had to have the bus towed to a garage that could fix it.

This past weekend we journeyed to Mt. Pines Resort near Seven Springs. We were invited to do a puppet show for their Sunday Morning service. We took the bus up Saturday night and stayed over. Gary did a great job maneuvering the bus through the campground, even backed it into a spot like a pro. [...]

Had a call one day asking us if we needed any more seats for the bus. So happens that George and Rose Brletic (other Gospel Singers) had saved the seats from an old van and wanted to get rid of them. George called to see if we wanted them. He had kept them in storage [...]

It was the mayor of McKeesport, Jim Brewster, that asked if we would have the bus at the Gospel Sing and gave us permission to drive it right up in the park. Sure made things easier with the huge bays to haul everything in one trip! It also gave people an opportunity to see the [...]

Two things that Lou hates about remodeling — electricity and plumbing. Guess which two jobs Lou is doing most of the work?
We had a small fire in the bus due to a short in one of the light fixtures in the roof. Thank God it happened when it did. A friend of Lou’s (who also [...]

Everyone helped, Lou, Kris and even the kids.

We painted the roof with aluminum reflective roof tar to keep the interior cooler. (Know what happens when you leave a can of soup sitting in the sun? It cooks! The bus is like a big can of soup!)

Sink is finished and got the shower installed. Now we wait for the plumbing to get finished…attach the water and we’ll be almost set. Still lots to do including installing the shower door and the bathroom door too, but there’s progress.

Jim got the bathroom started. Soon we’ll have the toilet and the shower installed as well.

We had our first fundraiser to help with the expenses of the repairs and remodeling. It was held at Port Vue United Methodist Church. We had a spaghetti dinner with a concert by Chalice. We made centerpieces of paper buses, an exact replica of our bus, that had a hole in the top that could [...]

Sunday, April 1, 2007
When we bought the bus from Steel City Quartet, they had offered to include a roll of carpeting that they had bought to install on the walls and ceiling in the bus. We were finally able to get the guys together to go and pick it up.

Well, it had been raining [...]

Friday, March 30, 2007
The Mayor called back again this morning and reassured us that everything was fine with parking the bus. Plus we had spoken to the ordinance officer yesterday who said the same thing. Police officers are not and will not show up at our place because the city has sent them. They are [...]

Tuesday, March 27, 2007
The police were here again last night complaining about the bus. You would think residents in McKeesport would have more to complain about than our bus. Just the other night someone was shot on a street near our church. The mirror on our van has been busted. My car windows broken several [...]

Monday, March 26, 2007
Friday night and Sunday afternoon, Lou and I went shopping for the bus. We needed things like curtains for the bunks and windows, curtain rods, mattress covers, sheets, pillows, towels, etc.
We went to Wal-Mart Friday night and I just found a great deal on curtains when they announced over the loudspeaker [...]

Friday, March 23, 2007
Well all of the beds are done being built. Now all I need is the mattresses, sheets, etc.
We removed the stove and are sliding the refrigerator a little closer to the sink to allow more space for the shower. We’re going to put in a microwave instead of the stove. I [...]

Friday, March 16, 2007
Today, Jim got the basics of the beds installed. Since we have 6 to travel and really not a lot of space, and a lot of us are on the bigger size, we didn’t want to stack the bunks 3 high. So we’re going to put a small bunk above the table [...]

We have discovered that the toilet was not hooked up right so we’ll have to do something about that. Jim and Lou were out there trying to disassemble the old toilet to hook it up right and they couldn’t get it out. Jim laughed because Lou brought out the old “sledge-a-matic” and with brute force, [...]

Monday, March 12, 2007
Thank you God for sending us someone like Jim, to do the remodeling we wanted. He’s putting in beds so we can sleep in the bus instead of paying for hotel/motel accommodations. And he will be installing a shower too so we can bathe.

Saturday, March 10, 2007
A group of us went to the Gaither Concert last night so we decided to take the bus to save on gas and parking. We all had a great time at the concert and in fellowship on the bus.
There were so many buses parked in the lot and we weren’t in any [...]

Friday, March 9, 2007

The Mayor has attended many of our Gospel Sings at the Park and often has said that if there was anything he could do for us to give him a call. So we took him up on his offer. He returned the call this morning.

Wednesday, March 7, 2007

It didn’t take but four days for someone in the city to complain about the bus. This morning two police officers showed up to tell us it had to move. They said, “you can’t park that bus here.”

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Here is a list of some items we need for the remodeling in the bus.

Monday, March 5, 2007

Well, it has finally happened. The bus is ours! We went last week and transferred the title and registered the plate and moved it here to our house this weekend. There were some complications with the deal but we prayed through them and God finally made the way for it to happen.

February 1, 2007

We’ve been praying for quite a while that the Lord would provide a mobile home for us to use to travel to and from events. It’s been listed on our website “wish list” as well. We’re getting a little crowded in the van, even with the trailer. The kids are getting bigger and now with Keith and Gary traveling with us more in addition to all their equipment, we’re even outgrowing the trailer.

Another local music group that recently retired has a bus that they want to sell. Now the bus is a little bigger than what we were originally looking at but isn’t that like God to give you above and beyond what you expect or hope for. [click title to read more]