God's Creation Car Show

The Bay Area's lowrider faithful congregate at the Third Annual Custom Car and Bike Show.

By Nathan Trujillo

Every Easter for the past three years, God's Creation Christian Worship Center of San Jose, California, organizes a lowrider car show and last year they had a congregation of 300 of San Jose's best cars, bikes and crazy hydraulic hoppers. Anybody who knows anything about lowriding knows that San Jose and the entire Bay Area is one of the birthplaces of lowrider cars and bikes. And to this day, the culture and style continues to cruise the streets of San Jo. Many of these guys with their wives, kids and girlfriends cruised into Overfelt High School's basketball blacktop on Easter weekend for the time of their lives. It was one glorious show to remember, that's for sure.

The church center's president is Frank Saldana and he can testify that he could not have produced the show by himself; there were some cool sponsors involved to help promote a positive and healthy lifestyle. To help spread the good word about our spiritual leader and the show were sponsors like Hi-Low Hydraulics, Uso Car Club, Sinister Wheels (who gave away a set of rims), Fairground Collision Center, Thunder Alley Speed Shop and San Jose Auto Body & Service Center. Other sponsors included Dave Falcone & Son Plumbing, Mikkelsen Design and Tomas Foods.

"We consider ourselves to be a ministry. God is our first priority. We believe that you can love God and serve him and still have a nice ride. We also believe in being active in our communities to provide a safe, gang-free and loving environment," says Frank from his office headquarters in Manteca, California. Frank's wife, Kim, also mentioned that there are chapters in Manteca and Lathrop, California. The event may really be less about custom cars and more about attracting borderline kids who may stray off the positive path and instead come to the show and listen to what the church elders have to say about living a life without gangs and drugs. The Christian Center also featured performer Ab Cortez, DJ Bubba G. Scotch, a live band and breakdancers as part of the entertainment roll call.

More than 25 highly engineered hydraulic cars and trucks registered for the show, which ensured that the day's assembly would be a busy one for the show's crew. Earlier this year (July), in the name of beating the magazine competition with fresher than fresh photos, LRM ran pictures of Hi-Low's Brett Kopitz amazingly flipping his "Energizer" Buick Regal onto its roof. It was rumored that he would be at the show and sure enough Brett gave the crowd a super-charged car dancing routine that they were sure to praise in amazement and never forget. The pictures tell all, as jubilation was in the air! It's fair to say that high-flying car hoppers and dancers weren't the only cool attraction. The long-standing Duke's C.C. drove in some high-quality carros and bombas, as did the Oldies, True Elegance, Nuestro Estilo, Low Vintage, Classic Image, Sweet-N-Low, Personal Effects, the Impalas and at least 25 other clubs and individual lowrider cruisers.

It's important to know that even after the show's doors closing, the ministry's doors are always open. The center serves a saintly purpose in educating and steering kids away from life's dangerous turns because our youth can always use a mentor and a guiding hand. LRM's prayers were answered by the ministry for putting together a cool car show in San Jose. And the ministry also takes into account the hard work of the judges, Uso C.C. and the organization's 150 or so members. So what does the future hold for the ministry and lowriders everywhere? Another car show on Easter weekend in 2003, which we know will be a wonderful blessing.