10-4 Magazine September 2024

10-4 Magazine / September 2024 69 the participants got into groups of five or six and the trucks and drivers were blessed. At that point, the “official” festivities were over. Like Friday night, the drivers who are left on Saturday help take the tables down and clean up. A friend of Lavern’s, who attends the Middlebury Community Church of the Nazarene in Middlebury, IN, got Lavern and Pastor Gary Sheets together when there was a need for a bigger church parking lot to accommodate the growing number of trucks for the Bobtail Cruise In, which happens on Sunday, the day after the trucks are blessed, and is an optional and separate event. I think it was a “match made in heaven” and Pastor Gary was a perfect match for a church and truck/trucker event. I have never been to a service where the Pastor was sporting a Peterbilt shirt with a Kenworth emblem sticker on his back! Pastor Gary spoke of the similarities between the church family and the trucking family. If you have been trucking for very long, I think you understand how truckers become friends and, ultimately, family, after a few years. This still happens today, but sadly it probably is not as common as it used to be. If someone in the family church or trucking is having a crisis it is common for others in the family to step up and help in any way they can. Pastor Gary truly understands the trucking life. His great grandpa started Sheets Trucking, which was located next to the stockyards in Indianapolis, IN. As a kid, he grew up riding in trucks. His love for Peterbilt trucks came from his grandpa, who owned 13 Peterbilt COEs and 13 bull racks. Gary remembers how hard those 13 drivers ran back then. Hauling livestock has been and still is a special niche in our industry. As a kid, Gary thought we wanted to become a trucker, but God guided