You Matter Nashville

Mechanics on a Mission with Brian Sweatt

• Jason and Mindy Hoover • Episode 24

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In this heart-filled episode, we sat down with Brian Sweatt, founder of Mechanics on a Mission, to explore how something as practical as a car can become a vehicle for dignity, opportunity, and life transformation. From a post-flood miracle at Lighthouse Christian School to launching a full-blown ministry that gifts vehicles to those in need, Brian’s journey is one of faith, community partnerships, and unshakable hope.

Together, we dove into the beautiful, behind-the-scenes stories—veterans surprised with cars on the ice at a Preds game, partnerships with Nelson Mazda and One Generation Away, and the deep, emotional energy poured into every single car giveaway. Whether it's fixing up a donated car or rallying a team of mechanics and volunteers, Brian and his team are on a mission that’s literally changing lives—one vehicle at a time.

Key Takeaways

  • Transportation = Transformation: A car isn’t just a convenience—it’s often the key to holding a job, making medical appointments, and keeping a roof over your head.
  • Partnership Power: From repair shops to nonprofits like One Generation Away, the mission thrives through community collaboration.
  • Faith in Action: Every vehicle given comes with a Bible, prayer, and personal connection—reminding recipients they’re seen and loved.
  • Volunteers Make It Go: Driving cars, managing titles, detailing, bodywork—it’s all done by dedicated volunteers and professionals giving their time and heart.
  • Growth Fueled by Purpose: From 60 cars in 2024 to a goal of 100 in 2025, the growth is big, bold, and faith-led.
  • Everyone Can Help: From donating a car to giving monthly, spreading the word, or just lending a ride, there’s a way for anyone to get involved.


Mechanics On A Mission
www.mechanicsonamission.com

You Matter Nashville YouTube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/@YouMatterNashville

The Hoover Team
https://www.thehooverteam.com/

Jason and Mindy Hoover (00:00.098)

Hey, Nashvilleans, welcome to the You Matter Nashville podcast, the place where every story we share is a celebration of you, the heartbeat of our community. I'm Jason Hoover, delighted to be one half of your hosting duo. And I'm Mindy Hoover, joining you alongside Jason to bring the stories of inspiring individuals and unsung heroes making a positive impact right here in our hometown. Every episode is about passions, dreams and actions that stitch together the Middle Tennessee community. So if you're looking to get inspired by the good happening around us,

 

Or if you want to hear from the change makers who believe, just like us, that you matter, then hit that follow button on your favorite podcast platform. And if you are looking to make a move in the middle Tennessee area, and Dan and I are real estate professionals and would be honored to serve you with excellence. Now let's dive into another episode of You Matter Nashville.

 

Jason and Mindy Hoover (00:51.682)

Welcome to You Matter Nashville, where we spotlight individuals making a significant impact right here in our community. Today, we're honored to have Brian Sweatt, the driving force behind Mechanics on a Mission. This organization is dedicated to combating transportation insecurity by providing free car repairs and even free vehicles to those in need throughout Middle Tennessee. Brian, thank you so much for joining us.

 

Thank you so much, Jason and Mindy, for having me. It's really a privilege to be on your show.

 

Absolutely. And to start, could you share what inspired you to establish Mechanics on a Mission and just addressing all the critical need in this arena for our community?

 

Well, back in, it kind of starts back in 2010 when I was the head of school at Lighthouse Christian School and preschool in Antioch. And of course, many remember May 1st, 2010, it'll always live in the infamy of Nashville of the terrible flood. And of course, in that iconic picture of one of our buildings from Lighthouse floating down I-24. It's crazy. Yeah, not just floating down, we were floating down the interstate. Yes. then of course, it was definitely iconic. And one of those things like

 

Lord, what are you doing and what is going on? But you know, would say what Satan intended for evil, God intended for good. And ultimately, as we walked this journey, God sent ABC and Extreme Makeover in our community and they rebuilt our preschool. We had eight buildings that were devastated in that flood and they came with the community and they'll make it real clear, Extreme Maker does, their community is the one that sent the 13,000 volunteers and

 

Brian Sweatt (02:32.856)

Hardaway Construction and LP Building Solutions and GS &F and so many of them that gave up their time to Lee Company came and rebuilt us an 8,000 square foot preschool give or take in one week. And it was amazing. Yeah. We moved that bus with Ty and Polly and you know, it's always one those things you think happened to somebody else. But in your darkest moments when your community shows up for you and you see God just do a miracle. I mean, there's no other word for it. Shows up in a big way.

 

that as we were moving forward and after 17 years of leading Lighthouse, God made it clear to me and my wife it was time for us to take that next step. And we started a small ministry called Our Church Ministries with Jamie and Carly Noe. And that was just a ministry established for us to have a small group and then a ministry where we would find needs of Middle Tennessee and meet them. As we met and the group, you know, people started joining us and coming apart the group. We were only about 30 people. It's a very small group. We realized that we had several people that were in the car world. And I remember as we were meeting needs, my son and Jamie's son came to us. They were seniors at Lighthouse and one of their friends had been in a car wreck. It was on a cold rainy night and someone didn't see him. Unfortunately, they had forced him off the road and he had an old...

 

I think it was 1997 Ford Ranger or so, it just about totaled. He had been real sick and had lost 60 pounds. It was really struggling. They didn't have the resources to fix that. So our boys came and asked, hey, dad, can we get a car for our friend? And of course, any time your children step outside of themselves and care about somebody else, you feel like, they've heard some of the things that we've been talking about. And so we did, we went and got a vehicle and gave them the keys.

 

and they gave it to their friend one day after school, which is really special. We didn't even get out of the car. We parked way back in the corner. We wanted to see it. Obviously we parked back in the corner. And so really our first car giveaway that I recall, they did. We weren't even a part of it other than the supply and the vehicles. That's so neat. Yeah, they gave it to their friend and it was super moving. Of course, we're all in the car balling like babies. But it was really, really cool to see that. then shortly after that, Jamie was born in Hopkinsville and some tornadoes hit Hopkinsville.

 

Brian Sweatt (04:55.006)

and we purchased a couple cars. We knew some dealers up there for some people that needed cars there. Didn't even get to go up there and get those. So the first couple ones we were really a part of that we were able to facilitate and give away. And then after that, we just looked around and felt like, okay, God, what are you doing? you showing us that you want us to do that? Part of our inner circle are the guys from Nelson Mazda, Chad Custer, Randy Dismang, James Dixon.

 

Ryan Adams who runs one of the area tire worlds, I did his wedding and he just does an amazing job. He's been my mechanic for 20 years. Andrew Slump over at Christian Brothers in Murfreesboro Memorial. These are all guys who are part of our ministries in some way. And so we looked around and just felt like God wanted us to come together so we could do this in a more focused way. Cause I always feel like we're better together. so Mechanics on a Mission was born. That's a real quick version. I'm just gonna go a little more time. That's kind of the overview of how Mechanics on a Mission got started. the irony is I couldn't fix a car if my life depended on it. What? It was one of those things that this was really kind of ironic to say, okay, Lord, but this is what you want. I know that you'll supply what we need to be successful. And now we have over

 

Okay, I was wondering!

 

Brian Sweatt (06:16.142)

13, 14 different repair centers here in Middle Tennessee, 150 or so techs and mechanics that do the workforce, all professional techs and mechanics, not just weekend warriors. And it's been this crazy amazing journey when we started, we thought, hey, we'll give out 10 cars a year, last year we only got 60. And this year we're gonna give out 100. We only have one paid employee. And so that's been kind of an adjustment too.

 

People obviously get paid, but they get paid by their center and stuff. They volunteer for mechanics on a mission. But it's been an amazing journey. That's a lot. I'm sorry. probably...

 

No, that's great. It's Stiving in. mentioned Nels, Nelson Mazda. We, bought our last car from there. A really, really good place. Had a great experience.

 

Well, they will make a believer out of you. They will. And we bought some cars from them too. yeah, it's such a great business that lives their faith. That's what's so special about Nelson Mazda. They really do live out their faith.

 

you see it on the windows every December.

 

Brian Sweatt (07:21.39)

Well, and Nelson Mazda's key role for us, they detail every car that we give away because we want to give cars, nicest cars that we can give away. We want to give the people that we're giving them to, you know, allow them to have great respect and honor and getting in a nice clean vehicle. Yeah, it really is something we tell you. We've had the opportunity to some really, really wonderful vehicles away. And there's sometimes I take over Nelson Mazda. I'm going, let's see what you can do with this one.

 

It feels new. Yeah.

 

Jason and Mindy Hoover (07:51.054)

Here's the challenge of the week.

 

Yeah, and they make it look and smell and just beautiful. And they've done that now. We've given away 130 cars and they've detailed all 130.

 

That's incredible. love that. And I love the partnerships. think that's what makes an organization so successful is when you have different groups all kind of coming together and piecing it.

 

So we are built on partnerships. couldn't do it. do. Like I we really, have one paid employee and we hired them in January 25. So just hired her. And that was because our online port, we get so many requests. We couldn't even begin with volunteers to begin to reply and respond to all the requests, both car repairs and, you know, car giveaways. And so I had to bring somebody in who her name is Lori Sewell. She's doing an amazing job who can just, you know,

 

respond to people in the portal because you know, someone reaches out, you don't get a chance to respond to him was certainly not what we wanted. And so we're gone through some growing pains as we've gone and grown so quickly. But it's been it's been an amazing journey. So glad to have Laurie on board.

 

Jason and Mindy Hoover (09:02.86)

Yeah, they have assistance in that capacity is huge. It's not only is it take care of those tasks and those important to do's, but it takes it off of your mind so that you're focused on other things. You had mentioned the, was it your son that had the friend? what, and he said he had heard you guys talking about this. Was this something that you started after the church, our church ministries, something that came about. I guess share how all of this came about.

 

So in September of 2020, and I hate giving dates because, you know, I'm old now and I forget something, but it was September 2020 after 17 years leading Lighthouse Christian School and preschool. My wife and I knew it was just time for that next season of life. Running schools is definitely a younger person's game. It's a lot. Especially at times Lighthouse has been honored as the most diverse private school in America. Which, you know, right here in Nashville. Yeah. So it's a great school.

 

Really including a lot of kids who sometimes are underserved or potentially get overlooked and so they're doing amazing work there That's why extreme makeover came and built the preschool for us is some of the work that we've done there of course during the during the hurricane Katrina Several of the people a little part of lighthouse went down for 40 straight months To go down and help the people of hurricane Katrina recover So God God was preparing us without us knowing it that because there's funny the times would say

 

Hey, know, if it ever floods, we'll come help you. it never floods in Nashville. Knock on wood, God was uniquely preparing people who were part of Lighthouse for that ability to go out and serve the community during the flood. And so it was interesting God's hand work. But ultimately when we left Lighthouse, we were trying to figure out, God, okay, what's next? know that you have something for us.

 

Jason and Mindy Hoover (10:41.902)

All the way.

 

Brian Sweatt (11:05.056)

A parent, Jamie Koynoy mentioned came to us and hey, we'd like you to start a church with us that is really kind of a nonprofit based church that goes out and serves and ministers. And I'm like, man, Jamie, you don't understand how honored we are that you would think of us to come join you in that, but I'm not a pastor. That's not what I want to do. I'm an administrator. So, hey, thank you very, very much. But I think we're just going to look at some other things.

 

One of his mentors is Bob Goff, the Christian author. so literally when we turned them down, they were, they already had a, a, a week planned with Bob and his wife and Bob reframed it a little bit. And they came back and said, well, what if we do a small group and a nonprofit? And they asked us to come back. We went and we did. Me and my wife were there and I'm like, yeah, I can do that. And I remember getting in the car after that. And my wife goes, what did you just do? Oops. Well, maybe I should have.

 

I got excited about what they were doing, but ultimately it became a church and I became the world's most reluctant pastor. Still probably am, but love what it's, it's, it's awesome to see what God had planned through all of this. The church again is small. We meet at Rosso Constructors who allows us to use their building, how gracious they are. Again, another great partner that allows us to use their building so we can take the limited resources we have and invest it into our community and show people love of Jesus in a real and tangible way.

 

That's fantastic. cars. How did we get on cars? Did you, was it your idea?

 

So yes, Jamie and I had some conversations and as we had those conversations, it just kind of developed. I don't know if it was any one person's idea, but as we were talking about it, what if we do this? Canceling the mission was what God gave me to name our ministry. it was just a, again, it was more organic. originally we thought, well, hey, you know.

 

Brian Sweatt (13:07.98)

We can do this and let's partner up with all the car people God's put in our life. We've also got Godspeed, which is a group that was early on with us that has an exotic car club. And so they do car shows and things like that. But Robert Funk, who runs Godspeed, is a 40 year body man. So he does all the body work for us. So we can do almost anything now as related to cars. And again, the irony is that I'm not a car guy at all. At least I wasn't, I am now. I've learned a whole lot.

 

I bet you've My question next was, are you learning?

 

So only about vehicles and not learning how to fix any of them because I'm not going to waste my time with that when I've got the professionals that I have around me who are really, really good. And they do try to teach me and then they just give up and say, yeah, we can't teach you. So I'm like, it's all right.

 

But no one wants to look for in a car is really important.

 

That's been an interesting process because we buy the majority of our cars. We do get several cars donated, which we're certainly grateful for. Right now it's about 75 % that we buy and then fix up, and then 25 % that are donated. We're hoping in 25 to reverse those numbers, be able to buy 25 % and get 75 % donated. So being able to be on your show that gives people some awareness, hey, there's actually people who will take my car and not just scrap it or sell it and then take the money. We're actually going to fix it up.

 

Brian Sweatt (14:26.56)

and give it to somebody, it'll absolutely change their life. If you don't have a car in Nashville, it's almost impossibly successful. Our public transportation is not very robust. And so it's difficult. you get a car, you can go to work, you can pay your bills, you can keep your roof up your head, feed your kids, get them to school, get them doctor appointments. And with no car, you can't do any of that. I always tell people, just imagine walking out of your house to your driveway and there's no cars. How are you going to get to where you need to be?

 

was just about to bring that up because I mean the loss of a car and when I was in college, I had my car mess up and like I lost my job because my boss did not care that I couldn't get my car fixed in 48 hours and there was no such thing as Lyft and I was 30 minutes away from my job. like how, you know, I'm saying like who, who's going to bring me? Nobody.

 

So, I mean, it was very sad. So I totally understand that in living where we live, where either you're in a rural area, mostly a suburb area. And even if you live in Nashville, like, sorry, sorry Nashville, but our bus system is, it does not facilitate and most of them don't even run a full schedule late into the night when people are getting off work. it really disables.

 

yeah, it really disables, especially single moms trying to pick up their kids from school or from after school things or you know, it's, it's a mess.

 

We recently gave a truck to a gentleman who was having to ride the bus for two hours from Murfreesboro to get to the job at the airport. He to drop the airport, but he worked second shift and he would drive two hours to get to the airport. And then by the time he got off work, the buses weren't running. And so he got the Uber lift. He was living at the Salvation Army at the time. And to get all the way back to the Salvation Army was $80. So he would pay them 40.

 

Brian Sweatt (16:24.142)

get to Murfreesboro Road and then walk the rest of the way. Rains, shine, know, it's obviously night time, but rain, snow, cold, it didn't matter. So he could afford to that. So not only did he get a truck, we gave him a raise because now he's not having any, he his time back. So there are so many dominoes that fall when you don't have transportation, but be able to see somebody who now doesn't have to pay Uber a lift, has his own vehicle. And then the pride that comes with being able to care for yourself, there comes opportunity and freedom that comes with transportation.

 

and that ability to care for yourself, which so many people want. mean, we're finding that people who don't have a vehicle, you give them one, and they rise to the challenge of, can now take care of myself. Yeah.

 

Freedom. They now have freedom. You know, I think a lot of us take it for granted. You know, if you haven't had to deal with that or live in it, we do. We take it for granted. We don't understand the, I guess, luxury of having a vehicle that runs. Yeah.

 

Well, and there's a lot of people working in the housing space and the food space. In fact, you've recently had one of my really good friends, inner circle guy for me, Chris Whitney, from One Generation Away. They're a big partner of ours. Every car we give away, they give us a doorstep pantry bag of food. So we at least get to meet the food needs and the transportation needs because of our partnership with One Generation Away. But Chris is a mentor of mine and has poured a lot into my life. He's amazing. Very grateful for him. Yeah.

 

Yes.

 

Brian Sweatt (17:54.636)

But not many people are working the transportation space. It was just one of those things again that I'm not the smartest guy in the world. So God kind of had to really lay it out there in front of us and have us stumble into it. But what he's put together, I'm a small piece of this. get to often be the face, get to talk about it. But all the people he's brought to us to be able to do the actual work and make this possible.

 

Our church is very active. In fact, we have about 30 people in our church, then plus kids, about 50 total with the kids. And almost everybody has some sort of specific role that they have embraced and done almost organically for Mechanics on a Mission. One of those, Chad Beck, he comes to me after one Sunday and goes, I can build us a tow truck so we don't have to pay to get tows. We can go pick up cars ourselves. And we went out and built us a tow truck. And now we go and we're able to go get cars ourselves.

 

Occasionally we use a tow company, but that saves us a lot of money. Yeah, one of real cool things. Yeah. One of the real cool things with that is, is I've been able to go on most of the pickups and so it gives us time. He's part of our church. I'm his pastor and we actually get time together and how many, and one reason we don't, we don't even put out, we have not even put out anywhere our address to where we meet. We tell people we're also, but we don't. And I've had a couple of friends say, Hey, we're going to come Sunday, but we couldn't find out the address to where you meet. I said, well, you can always text me, but it's just because we're not trying to be the next big mega church.

 

We just want to be a church that we meet on Sunday morning to encourage some of them go out during the week and do things that impact our community and show people love Jesus in real and tangible way.

 

I love that. Yeah, that's amazing. So it's giving them back. What's a, do you have like a story or two to share of, you know, one of those instances where you gave it and it just completely changed their lives?

 

Brian Sweatt (19:47.392)

Yeah, we've had several that we've given who are now living in their vehicles. And so they had no transportation, they had no home, but at least now they have a place warm they can go. And again, we partner with to be referred to for a car repair or a car giveaway referred by local charity, nonprofit, organization or church. And so you kind of see how the pieces come together. That's where they go into the online portal and they make a recommendation.

 

the organization that refers to us, they have some responsibility for the vehicle and we partner with them. That's why partnerships are so important. At first we were doing everything and we realized, wow, this is first of all, super expensive and second, we're gonna run out of money if we keep going through this. So we partner now with area nonprofits and charities and ministries and churches and that's worked so well and allows us to do so much more. Plus we all have some skin in the game together, which makes it really special.

 

But for them, having that nonprofit, that charity, that ministry walking with them, we found out very quickly they have a much greater chance of being successful when they have an organization walking with them beyond our time with them and providing a car.

 

Brian Sweatt (21:02.606)

Yeah. And as far as some stories, just last night we had the opportunity, excuse me, Saturday night, had the opportunity to surprise three military veterans at the Nashville Predators game and roll a car on the ice. And they had no idea. Most, we don't often get to surprise people, but with the predators we were able to. So this week we're working on getting them delivered to them and everything. But one of the veterans there, great, awesome man, but is homeless right now, has no vehicle, has two kids, married, and they're just, they're

 

How do we get a car? What are we going to do? And able to give them a car, it's absolutely going to change their life. And his reaction on the ice was, you start bawling, crying and everything else. It's just one of those things that is beautiful. And the gratitude that so many people have as we present them with these vehicles. One of them, they had a video of the other two. Nash came and videoed the other two for us. They didn't want to try all three, but we did pull one out there.

 

Did they pull the cars out on the ice?

 

Brian Sweatt (22:01.55)

It was pretty cool. I got to be down there. I almost got run over by the Zamboni, but I got to be down there. Because they're pulling the car out. So I'm sitting there in the entryway taking some pictures, not knowing the Zamboni's coming behind me. It would have been my fault because the guy was yelling at me to get out of the way.

 

They're like rookie. Ron would have been a permanent fixture. Well, that is really amazing. And I love that the Predators, you they always honor the vets at the games. So what a great partnership that was to combine on that and then even come out. That's just, I love that. I just, I love the Predators. So, you know.

 

Yeah, exactly.

 

Brian Sweatt (22:29.207)

Brian Sweatt (22:43.746)

GoPreds, yeah. They've been huge supporters of the different ministries we've been a part of. Just love what they do. Rebecca King and Kristin Finch and Abbey Helpers, the whole crew over there is amazing. They are impacting so many, not just our nonprofits, so many nonprofits. I mean, the money they give away every year. And they show up too. They show up for you. It's like, think they have 50 people and it's like three or four. It's amazing what they're able to do.

 

That's amazing. Own the car. So if I've got a car, you know, we don't. But if I did, is there like a certain condition you're like, no, that ain't even gonna work. you know.

 

Yeah, you know, we'll take almost any car, but we really want to, we really hope the car is viable. Two things that we don't do just because of the cars that we give away usually average about $5,000. So we don't typically replace transmissions or replace blown engines just because the cost is usually prohibitive. If somebody wants to donate a car like that to us, then those are the rare situations where we will scrap it, take that money, put it to another car.

 

but, we've been really, really fortunate. last, several that we've gotten have been good viable cars. We've been able to work through, fix up and give away. we, we prefer not to have something that's, know, obviously been trashed and, you know, beat up and all that. Cause again, we have a set amount of money we can invest in a car to get it back up and running. And if it exceeds that, then we just at that point scrap it and move on. So, you know, but people have been really generous and really good.

 

And, you know, we don't have any really huge major donors, but, uh, God has supplied what we need. Like I said, we went from 60 cars last year increase now 60 % trying to do a hundred. Don't have all the money for that or the cars for that. That's the only challenge funding and then sourcing a hundred cars is a lot of cars, especially when you're primarily a volunteer organization. Uh, but, uh, again, we've got a lot of good pieces in place and we're still trying to find our rhythm for, um, uh, 25, cause we have to give out 8.2 cars a month and we're a little behind right

 

Brian Sweatt (24:52.994)

So for March, so, but we're catching up.

 

How do people learn about it? Or is it just all word of mouth to donate a car?

 

Yeah, so they can go visit mechanics on a mission.com or mechanics on a mission.org either one but through events like going out to be the Preds the Crosspoint Church had us be their Christmas dollar club and did a great video. We gave open table a box truck never done a box truck before it was all of God things. I'm like, yeah, I don't think we do that. And then literally I'm the next day I'm at a sports card show, know, collectibles that type of thing.

 

The guy sees my sweatshirt mechanics on a mission here and goes, what's mechanics on a mission? He goes, and so I explained to him and he goes, well, you know, I own Nashville auto diesel and do you need a box truck? I'm like, come on now. What? Yeah. And so we got a box truck. So we did our first box truck, gave that to open table, which helps house homeless families. And then we gave a Mazda, which was donated by Nelson Mazda Mazda CX nine, which are really nice to a Pakistani refugee family.

 

And so it was a really, really precious time and Crosspoint sponsored us for that. that was, again, those are those partnerships that make these things possible that is really special.

 

Jason and Mindy Hoover (26:12.238)

Is it like Christmas every time you get a call saying, I want to donate a car?

 

It is, and you know, the car giveaways have been the most amazing thing. There's really two reactions that happened. Either the tears, which is what you think would happen, and their tears of joy, but people are overwhelmed. But what's happened more is like celebration. And we try to make it really festive and more celebratory than crying, because I don't look good when I cry. And so we try not to do that too much. But it's been really exciting, but you never know what reaction is going to take place.

 

And what's really surprised me is two things, how it's impacted our mechanics, who, cause we try to give the car away at the repair shop that did the work. They get to meet the people and if someone donates a car to us, we invite them out to the car giveaway. And it's usually like 10 people. not, it's not big and massive or anything. Most are low key 10 or 12 people that they'll get to meet. But it's just people that are there celebrating them and loving on them. And then, uh,

 

perfect.

 

Brian Sweatt (27:13.922)

been surprised the emotional energy that it takes out of you every car giveaway. We did seven cars seven days before Christmas. I don't think I've ever been so tired in my life. Doing that is emotionally not like this is not right, Which is emotionally how that just how that can take it out of you. But I do feel like Oprah sometimes and you get a call. I have the best job ever.

 

have to say so. Now, how many mechanics and how many shops volunteer for your organization?

 

So we work with all the area Christian Brothers, the area Tire Worlds, both Nelson Mazda's, First Chance Tire and Auto, City Auto. So I think last count it was 13 or 14 different repair centers. We've also expanded down in Chattanooga and working with Christian Brothers Hickson. We're hoping to expand into Bowling Green here soon as stores opening up there. One of the guys who worked, one of the ones here we work with,

 

Miles is opening his own store in Bowling Green, so we'll expand up there. And then we're having some conversations with Birmingham and Huntsville, has some Christian Brothers down there. so Christian Brothers has like 350 different stores. So this is something that we could see going national, especially in cities like Nashville, those mid-sized cities. This probably doesn't work very well in New York or Boston or LA, where they have good public transportation, but other cities where public transportation isn't as robust.

 

Certainly can be really really helpful. So we'll just see what God does with it. It's it's already been this amazing journey to watch his hand guide and lead us and We're interested to see where he takes us next

 

Jason and Mindy Hoover (28:56.888)

So I want to go back, just out of curiosity, to that very first one. Okay, you've already decided, all right, we're going to do this, this mechanic's on a mission, we're going to give away cars.

 

Jason and Mindy Hoover (29:11.286)

Now what? How did you get started? Like, what was that first thing? like, okay, this is a great idea. We're ready to go. Where's the first step?

 

So it was, you have to have good repair centers. If you don't have somebody who can do the work on the cars and do it well, because we give a car away, we want it to be a blessing and not a problem. But when you're dealing with older cars, sometimes something go wrong, but we give them a car, we give them a 60 day warranty. And long as they don't wreck it, we can fix anything else. So they wreck it, that's why you have insurance. And we do have some qualifiers, they have to have a valid driver's license. They have to show us proof of insurance before we give them the keys. And then they have to be referred.

 

by a local non nonprofit charity ministry church organization and they go through our online portal. it's having a repair center is probably the first step. If you have somebody you can trust, obviously mechanics, car dealers, sometimes they get bad wraps. And so we're very selective of who we want to work with, people that we can trust, people that we know. Like I said, Ryan, who runs tire world over in Laverne, we started going there, met him and just through our opportunity to be together.

 

And not just because of us, but a lot of different reasons he came to know the Lord. And then I officiated him and his wife's wedding. He married a gal that works for you for Christ. And that's just been a really unique thing. And Ryan is probably the right hand of all of this. His dedication, commitment to this helped really push this through and get us off the ground. But you have to have, personally, behind the past, you had a really good repair center that you can trust.

 

It sounds like Christian Brothers, even their reviews, are always very positive.

 

Brian Sweatt (30:51.918)

Yeah, they do again. Amazing work. We've got the best partners in town and highly recommend any of the ones there. No, can count on them because I've dealt with them time and time again. you know, sometimes something doesn't go right and there's always a chance something might not go right. They're going to make it right, do everything they can to make it right. Same thing that we try to do. We've had two cars that we know that come off the road in a reasonable timeframe. You know, if they had them for two years and you know, we tell them these are not your

 

cars for the next 10 years, either stopgap cars, make sure you start putting money aside. Now you don't have to pay for Uber and Lyft. You're going to be able to have steady job. You're going be get there, put some money aside so when this car does break down, you're able to fix it and repair it and make sure you take care of the maintenance. We try to help them with that. We're still building out some of those things to even be more helpful and useful. But we've had two cars that we just gave them another car. We replaced it. We some issues with it pretty early on, so we just replaced the cars for them.

 

There you go. I love that. Okay, so I have a little switch of gears. So I know that you guys all have a church that's all integrated with all these different ministries and everything. How does the ministry part like, like interact with the actual mission? Like how do you share Jesus through service with the cars and the main ministry?

 

It's a wonderful question. Every car that we give away, we include a Bible. We pray over every recipient with all the people that are there, because we'll invite the nonprofit that referred them. The recipient will come. The techs and mechanics are there. If someone donated a car, they get to come. And then sometimes some people from our ministries will come and be supportive there just to, again, pray over them and help celebrate with them and love on them little bit. so

 

We make sure we take that time to do that. We explain who we are, why we're doing what we do. We want to hear their story. Even though we know some of their story, a lot of people there don't, especially the techs and mechanics. And I remember, I think it was car number, again, I don't know, in the forties, we were first getting started and we were given a car to Thomas over at First Chance Tire and Auto. And we got so excited about his story.

 

Brian Sweatt (33:12.236)

He worked with the little pantry that could they were the referring and it just had gone through some really hard times a daughter had been murdered and several things were all balling and We got so caught up in his story and getting his car We've got to pray over the car and that is the only car that didn't make it home and Lord made it really clear If you don't pray and do those things we will make sure that we humble and embarrass you Hey, not letting those cars get home. It's very embarrassing when that doesn't go the way you want it to go and you're like crap, but anyways

 

You know that was the one and God taught us a very valuable lesson. So we make sure that that's a point of emphasis Yeah, absolutely. I mean he's the reason he's the reason we're doing what we're doing I mean, we have no reason to be doing this, you know, than that we have seen God pour out his love on us and you know show us In our darkest moments in times. He's he showed up through other people and it's now we could do that for others and it's truly moving

 

Make sure he's part of it.

 

Jason and Mindy Hoover (34:10.478)

I know we've prayed over cars a time or two. One of them we were just praying that it got to the place to trade it in.

 

I picked up a couple cars people are donating. say, yeah, they're drivable. And I get in that thing. And somebody has to take me over there and drive it and I like crank it up. Oh, crank some, hey, I go. You learned a lot of things. And I got one car and I'm telling you, I got about half a mile and I was like, oh boy, I'm not going to make it anywhere. And I prayed that thing into a Christian Brothers and made it there. I was going to take you somewhere else. took a detour. was like, praise the Lord. had a shop right there close by.

 

just-

 

Jason and Mindy Hoover (34:50.362)

my goodness. You're like, have, we have a tow truck. Just let me know which way do we need to go.

 

Exactly. That's why I always say, are you sure this is drivable? You know, I ask that question all the time. They tell me it's drivable because obviously it's drivable. It's a little easier than hauling the big tow truck out there.

 

Right. like, it make it to the mechanic? I can get very specific. I was a teacher a long time to be very specific with your questions. Will it make it on a 30 minute trip? No. Okay. So I know you get donated cars and you shared about 7, 5%. You have to go purchase them. So on the purchase, obviously you're taking donations. that correct? Yeah. How do people go ahead?

 

No.

 

Brian Sweatt (35:31.862)

Go ahead, I'm sorry.

 

I'm just going to say, how do people donate or how do you get that message out to everybody?

 

Well, we've been so busy with cars. We haven't spent a lot of time, you know, sharing that message. We know what God wants. He pays for, I know we need to spend a little more time doing that. So I'm working very diligently at helping me be able to get out of working in the ministry and be able to work on it. Hiring Laurie was that first step. But again, we were set up in such a way that

 

Basically with mechanics on a mission we donate a dollar that dollar goes out Expenses are paid by our ministry like our insurance and things like that So the the techs mechanics are paid by their repair center and so we do pay Lori now But had to there's just no possible way. We try to keep keep that that budget as low as possible so we can give away as many cards as possible and They can go visit our website at mechanics on a mission calm and there's a donate now button

 

One thing that we could really use right now are recurring monthly donors. If they were able to give whether it's 2,500, 500, 1,000, didn't matter really the amount, but just recurring monthly donors, that would be super helpful for us. We've got some folks who are working with us right now on the car giveaways for our end and our part of the car giveaways. But the car repairs, usually try to pay through the month of recurring donors. And we need to amp that up some because we you know, we'll have several hundred repairs this year.

 

Brian Sweatt (37:04.35)

And it gets quite expensive when you're dealing with vehicles in a hurry.

 

yes, and it's not getting cheaper.

 

No, that's been one thing. The used car market is still really strong. And so that's cost us more than what we anticipate. And then another line item we had to add is now we've got all these cars on the road and we're giving 60 day warranties just to make sure we have the money to repair anything that goes on with a car that might need something. You can't really test your starter until it goes out. so that's happened a time or two, not much, but just go get it, replace it and get them back on the road.

 

Yeah. I used to, sell used cars long, long time ago, back, in the nineties. And it was my first sales gig and I did well, but man, I was, I w I'm an introvert and so going out and they, really thought I was going to get all this training. I got about a five minute talk and he said, all right, go out on point and know, point is you go out there and you're like, you have to call and.

 

man, but I made a lot of friends with the people that serviced them and I still can't fix a car myself. I mean, I can get in there and mess around, but probably not a good idea. So I highly respected what they did and what these people are able to do, fix the vehicles, because it was up to me, people be in a world of hurt.

 

Brian Sweatt (38:36.13)

Well, Jason, since you are experienced with car sales, we can put you on our vehicle acquisitions team and help us go find some cars.

 

He's like, did I hear a volunteer opportunity? Wait, wait, God? Huh?

 

You

 

Jason and Mindy Hoover (38:55.914)

man, I love it. love it. You know, and funny thing is I loved selling cars. when I, when we got together and I had my first real after college job, I ended up doing part-time at CarMax for a little while. Awesome. Yeah. was just kind of fun. I enjoyed it. It was good. Making that money.

 

Yeah, I had to afford you Mindy, right?

 

That's right. I was not cheap.

 

He knows this too well.

 

We had the opportunity, I share one of the things that's been kind of neat, had the opportunity, Senator Heidi Campbell and Representative Harold Love draft a bill for us to potentially get a dealer's license without having a location. And I got to go to the transportation subcommittee and the transportation committee and talk a little about that. We have decided to roll it over.

 

Brian Sweatt (39:48.93)

as we were going to start working with the Tennessee Automotive Association and some others, which will connect us with people in the car world that we really need. We've got a pretty good foothold in the repair world. Dealerships have just been a little harder just because, as we do really know, than Chad over at Nelson Mazda, who does an amazing job for us and our guys over at City Auto. Don't know a whole lot of folks there, so it's hard to get to the right person, but this should really help that.

 

So it's going be interesting to see. being a part of going and seeing the political process was very eye opening. I learned a lot through that. But it's pretty interesting how that works.

 

So back on the car lot, wait, know, back in my day, they just had wholesalers that came by the lots and would buy the cars. Is that still how it's done? Is that how you get cars? you go to lots?

 

So no, that's one of reasons we'd like to get tied in more with car dealers is maybe we could get some wholesale cars from there, have them donate cars to us. Right now we're doing, we have some mechanics that go to the auction and like work out of their garage at their house, that type of thing. And we buy a lot of cars from them. We a couple that we really trust who do a good job. They're not selling us lemons, they're working on the cars.

 

then they're able to say, this needs to be done. This is the price. This needs to be done or I can fix it. This is the price. And found a couple of guys like that that are doing a good job for us. to go from 60 to 100 is going to try to figure out some things of how to source cars more effectively. And so then we have to move all those cars. That's the other thing. And like someone's doing its car, even it's drivable, I've got to have somebody who can drive me out to it.

 

Brian Sweatt (41:32.482)

to get it and drive it back. Because I can't drive up my car. So it's been interesting. But God has worked out every detail. And it's running for as young as we are. It's running very, very well. And we're excited to see where God's going to take it next.

 

So on volunteers, I know you said like you need volunteers for something as simple as driving you to a location so you can pick something up. What other opportunities are there for volunteers to be able to call you guys and say, what can I do? I may not have all the money in the world to help you guys, but what can I do to help you guys run more smoothly?

 

Yep, the vehicle transpose always a really important one. Being able to take our titles because we're not a dealer, we can't reassign titles. That was another thing that that dealer's license was going to help us with. But like I said, we're working with some groups now that are trying to help us with that. And we're really excited about what's going to happen there. But going down to the county clerk, we use Williamson County. They're incredible in there, but it's just the time of going and getting in line and then getting all the titles processed.

 

They are nice in there, by the way.

 

They're awesome. really are good. Jeff would be in his team over there doing an amazing job. It really is a well run office. It's just a matter of the time that it takes and the amount of titles that we have to do and the paperwork that goes with it. I've got a couple of guys that are helping me with that and they're really helpful. My main man Don, who is amazing, my favorite volunteer because waiting at the county clerk is not my favorite thing to do.

 

Brian Sweatt (43:03.074)

But he is a snowbird and is down in Florida enjoying the beautiful Florida weather why it's cold here in Nashville. And I'm like, Don, I need you to come back.

 

You can do your volunteer work.

 

No, he's having a great time down there, but there is there does come that time during the winter months If I find someone who's not a snowbird who wants to do during the winter months we have wide open

 

There you go. What about, do you have anybody that like tries to contact people selling their cars on Facebook or anything like that?

 

Yeah, vehicle, yeah. I've stopped talking about Don, but the vehicle acquisitions got a couple of guys that are working on that with me. Jason just joined the team. So I'm super excited about that. But yeah. So people who want to do that, you know, they can help us facilitate getting cars. That'd be super helpful. And I said, Chad built a tow truck. Robert does the body work. You know, we have this whole group. I've got a guy. So show you our swag here. We've got a guy who does most of our swag in house.

 

Brian Sweatt (44:02.658)

So I can, we get it such a good price. can sell one and give like four away if I sell one. And so it's really, really helpful. We love dark people to wear our stuff. So we're always trying to give it out. They say you need to sell it. I'm like, well, I like to give away to people so they'll wear it.

 

Yeah. Speaking of, we have our own shirts that we give away to guests. So we'll definitely be getting your information and sending it to you. Sounds good. Well, this has been amazing, Brian. I haven't heard anything like this from time to time, but not in depth like you've shared. And it's definitely eye opening for me to know that there's people like you that are

 

We'll do a trade for sure.

 

Jason and Mindy Hoover (44:48.14)

going through this whole process. What I've always, I guess, understood and heard is like, okay, somebody has a car, it's almost like a pass through. Like here's a car, you don't worry about all the stuff. mean, it's just passing it on. But you guys really are going the extra mile to try to make this happen for people to get their lives in order to get them, some of them may even get their lives back.

 

Because yeah, we live in a world that transportation is a necessity. It used to be a luxury, but it's become a necessity.

 

And it truly is life changing. We've seen it just impact so many people's lives. If we had time, I could share just even more stories. But it's been a really eye opening for us to say, okay, Lord, you want us to do this? Okay, we're going to do it. And we start dipping our toe in the water and then it's kind of goes boom. And now we're just trying to catch up. we're already, again, we're expanding into other areas and as long as God provides the resources, we're going to keep.

 

moving forward and expanding and trying to do that responsibly as we're able to scale and grow. And really excited about what he has next.

 

It's always going to be good. Anything he has lined up is going to be good. All right. Well, did you have any final thoughts? No, I didn't. I was just thinking back whenever my car died and I went five months without a car. And I was in college and walking to work and bumming rides and it was a really difficult time. I mean, I just from personal experience, I'm just

 

Brian Sweatt (46:15.426)

goodness yeah.

 

Jason and Mindy Hoover (46:26.272)

I really appreciate that you guys are doing this for people. yeah, it's just amazing. It's beautiful. It really, really is. And I love people doing tangible things to show the love of God. So much appreciated.

 

You understand more than most because you've actually walked that path. And so, you know, we certainly just covet your prayers and wisdom. You know, we always pray at our ministry, God show us what you want us to do and be and then give us the courage to go do that, whatever that is. And so, you know, just keep praying for us and that God will bring what he has. Because again, our source is God and he's going to pay for what he wants. The cool thing is to use people to do it.

 

And so it's been amazing to see him just supply. I haven't shared with a whole lot of people outside of our ministry, but in 24, we gave away 60 cars, did a couple hundred repairs, and we ended the year with more money than we started. And that didn't make sense. No huge gifts or anything. We don't have any massive grants. He some grants and things, nothing. No million dollar gifts, anything like that. We'd like a couple now if somebody wanted to that. We'll not close that.

 

But just watching God just continue to take care of things. And so that gave us the courage to say, okay, we're gonna do 100 this year instead of just 60. And we'll see what he does.

 

I love it. love it. want to hear what the results are because I'm sure somehow, someway it will happen for you guys. 100 cars in 2025. It's going to happen.

 

Brian Sweatt (48:01.838)

Well, and if anybody has somebody they want to refer and they're a nonprofit charity organization they can go to mechanics on a mission comm or mechanics on a mission org and Right there. They tap into our online portal and and put the request in there and that's where it all gets started

 

All right. All right. Well, Brian, it's been such a pleasure. Thank you for your heart. Thank you for what you're doing to impact our community. That's what it's all about. It's just loving on one another. That's what God wants, right? Just, you know, in its very simple form, He just wants us to love each other. And so I appreciate you doing that. I appreciate you sharing your story and sharing what came about from the flood.

 

because that was that was a huge turning point for you guys, I'm sure and We look forward to seeing where this goes. We really do and So thank you for being on the show today Thank you everybody who has been listening and if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Brian Or you can do it on his website mechanics on a mission dot com or dot org

 

Both, we have both addressed.

 

Yeah, both. Okay, so mechanics on a mission.com or.org. You can go in there and find out all this information. I'm looking at it right now and you can has the donate button. Also, he is looking for some help. If you don't do it, I might have to. So please, if you are interested, reach out to him. But thank you for listening. Always remember that your voice matters, you matter, and together we can definitely make a positive impact in our.

 

Jason and Mindy Hoover (49:45.368)

God bless. And that brings us to the end of another episode of You Matter Nashville. We hope today's show has left you feeling as uplifted and inspired as we are. Remember, the spirit of Nashville lives in all of us, and every small act of kindness echoes throughout the community. A huge thank you for listening and even being a part of our You Matter community. If you love this episode, please share with friends and leave us a five-star review. It helps us reach more listeners and spread the love. And if you know anyone that is looking to make a move to Middle Tennessee area,

 

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