Mike: My name is Mike and I work with youth in Southern California as a Youth Pastor. I hang out with high school and jr. high students daily talking about life, school, pressures, relationships and whatever else comes up. A lot of the time, as a group we’ll go to the local skate park, grab some food or see a movie. This is originally why I bought my bread truck, to convert it into a mobile skate van that I could cruise anywhere and chill with students and their friends. I want to get out to where students are and encourage them to pursue their hopes and dreams and not get dragged down by the negativity that seems to be everywhere. It’s been a vision and hope for such a long time, that it has been so surreal knowing that MTV has pimped my ride and made the vision happen beyond what I could have done.

When I originally applied for the show I just kept praying that we would get picked so my vision could become a reality. I think God gave me a good idea, and I went with it. When I found out that we were in the running for being picked I got so excited and began to share with everyone in our church community, young and old. When it came down to waiting for X at my house, I think we had the whole church praying that we would get picked. You have to admit, thinking about our church, young and old, praying that we would get “pimped” by MTV makes you laugh.

That day as I sat in my living room waiting for a knock at the door wondering if I was going to get picked I was going crazy. The show’s production team was kind of down, not very confident that we won so I was a bit discouraged. When I heard the knock on my door my whole body tensed up and I was ready to be let down, I prepared for the worst. When I opened the door and saw X, I didn’t know what to think the only thing I could do was freak out. There was so much joy, relief, and excitement that I didn’t know how to process it all at once.

The rest of that day was incredible; X was hilarious and was into the fact that the truck was going to be used to promote kids toward skate boarding rather than the negative influences in life. Even though X cracked on me all day about my van, knowing that in a few days I would get it back pimped out made it all worth it. Anyway he’s a funny dude just having a good time.