Adventure!

Last weekend the High School youth group at our church took a trip to go skiing. On the way back home the bus broke down about 75 miles from home. Parents were called and vans dispatched to take the children home, however all but essentials had to stay behind in the bus. The driver of the bus was not going to be able to get the stuff back home until later this week, so I volunteered to drive up and get the bags, snowboards, etc. off the bus, which was in a safe place, but the peeps need the junk, ya know? My good girlfriend Cindy asked if she could go along and we were set.

Since John's van doesn't have any seats in the back, I decided that I should take that, instead of hauling the seats out of my van. Gotta be enough room, right?

Well.

John's van has so much window space up front and the seat is different than what I am used to, so it wasn't too long before I was feeling a little woogy, but the show must go on!

We were tooling along and chatting (as girls will do) and all of a sudden the car slowed and slowed and I couldn't hear it running. "What the hell?" I said. (I know, don't judge) Cindy looked at the dash and sure enough, I had forgotten to get gas as I had planned and we were out. We were only about 1/2 mile from an exit with a station (thanks Papa) so we started walking. Seconds--and I mean seconds--passed and someone pulled over and picked us up. It was a man alone, and Here were his questions to us: "Can I give you a ride? Outta gas? Do you love Jesus?" (thanks Papa)

We proceeded to the station, where he pumped the gas for us, and on the way back to the car--the nearest exit was 6 miles--asked us about our hearts, and told us all kinds of things about what he was learning about the Bible, and the mission trip he had just been on. He was actually on his way home from the airport!

Well, we could see the hand of God all over this adventure!

We filled up and were on our way again and finally found the bus in the lot of a repair shop just off the freeway.

You cannot believe how much stuff was in there. Oh. My. Stars.

I helped Cindy hoist herself into the bus and we began unloading (her) and loading (me). I finally had to stop as I shoved a snowboard in, and the van was full to the top. We had to leave 2 snowboards and a sleeping bag as orphans, but we really packed that van full. We stopped for a quick dinner and we were off again!

We had the heat cranked, but all that stuff was so cold, my front was frying and my back was freezing! Add that to the diesel smell of all that stuff--the bus had broken a fuel line--and you can imagine how woogy I was on the way back. Yikes.

All in all a fun (mostly) adventure, and we got home safe and sound, and were in awe at how Papa protected us through it all.

Praise be to our great God!