Ogden charity giving cars to moms facing tough times

OGDEN, Utah — An Ogden charity is helping mothers who face some tough times by giving them cars.

It’s all done through donations and volunteers, and they say they can always use some more help.

God’s Garage started in Houston, Texas, and the folks at Washington Heights Church in Ogden worked with them to start one of their own.

Now, they focus on helping single moms, widows, and military wives, but on Monday, they added refugee to that list.

Outside a Tooele townhome, they deliver the unexpected.

“So today, we want to give you a van,” Jimi Pitts said to Zyningira Zchimpayi.

“Oh, thank you very much,” Zchimpayi replied.

“It’s your van,” Pitts said.

“Yeah? Haha,” Zchimpayi said to Pitts.

God’s Garage, headed up by Jimi Pitts here in Utah, fixes up donated cars to help moms with some big needs.

“Yeah, that surprised me, the car, haha,” Zchimpayi told KSL TV.

Zchimpayi is a refugee from Uganda. She’s been in the Beehive State about a year, and right now, her 3-year old son, Nicholas, is battling cancer in his stomach.

“Now, he’s doing good,” she said. “Sometimes we go to the hospital to get chemo.”

Chemo treatments where she often has to depend on others to help get them to Primary Children’s Hospital, but not anymore.

“Knowing that we’re providing a service to her, with no strings attached, is the reason why we do what we do,” Pitts said.

Pitts is the pastor that heads up God’s Garage Utah and Washington Heights Church. He said the garage is run completely by volunteer mechanics, working with cars and parts that are donated from the community.

“We just need cars,” he said. “We have, the mechanics are free. People want to come and volunteer with us. We’re in Ogden. We would love it.”

Why they do it, he says, is pretty simple — they saw a need in the community and a way to help make things at least a little better.

“It’s God’s Garage, because we honestly, we’re not ashamed. We love God, but we love people,” Pitts said.

And if they can spread just a bit of that good will, he says it’s worth it.

“Because that’s what we believe we’re here for,” Pitts said. “We help other people.”

God’s Garage out of Ogden gives away a car almost every week.

Pitts said they could always use some more help.

Visit their website or Facebook page for more information.