last night was middle school ministry’s event at sky high sports. as i was getting things ready in the afternoon, i saw the rain and the wind and i felt that disaster could be looming on the horizon. my mind went to the worst: what if there were an accident on the road? or a student got hit by a car in the parking lot? or broke their neck? i prayed off and on all afternoon for God’s grace and protection.
it was a pretty stressful event, i really tried to be calm and cool, but looking back I’m sure that i looked frazzled. one of the bus drivers almost didn’t make it, some students arrived almost an hour early, the phone was ringing off the hook with people wondering if they could bring one more friend, the check-in girls were running late, the rain was pouring, the students were hyper, and a ton of parents still had papers to fill out. at one point, it looked like there weren’t enough seats on the vehicles to hold all of the students.
we finally got on the road about ten minutes late. about 90% of the way there, the bus i was driving started to act funny. it started slowing down. i pulled off the freeway at our exit. i tried so hard to get it to sky high, but on the off-ramp it just stopped. there i was, in my bus with 21 hyper middle schoolers in the rain, on the side of the road. the bus wouldn’t start.
i made some calls quick. i called kyle to drop off the students in his bus and come and get mine. i called Justin to fill in for me at sky high, i called the tow company to come get the bus. i don’t like asking for help very often, i guess I don’t like needing things, but there were students involved, so i had to make the calls.
the students did great. i told them that I was so proud of them. I said to them “I KNEW something crazy was going to happen tonight!”
one student said “I felt it too, Rob.”
we only lost a few minutes of their bouncey time. after kyle picked them up, i called wally to let him know that we were ok, and i called my wife to give her the update.
i’ll be honest: as i stood there in the rain, waiting for the tow truck to come, i was very disappointed with myself. i’m the bus-guy- I’m the one that looks after them. i felt that i should have seen this coming. there were so many bright spots to the evening, but at the moment, i couldn’t see any of them. i thought about all kinds of things: no longer having events that need busses, selling the busses, becoming a mailman or a lightrail driver.
the tow truck guy showed up, and the first thing he said was “I can’t tow something that big.” but he looked around and said “let’s see if we can at least get you off of the road, then I’ll call a bigger truck.”
for about 30 minutes I stood there in the rain watching him hook up cables and chains and pull levers, and finally, he pulled that big bus on top of his truck.
at one point he had the bus up at and angle and he had his head underneath the back tire while he chained up more points! i seriously thought he was going to be crushed. finally he said, “get inside.” we got inside out of the rain and he said, “alright. now where are we going in los gatos?”
“you mean you’re going to take it back to the church?!” i asked.
i wanted to cheer.
the driver’s name was rick, and he was a great guy.
being a tow-truck driver, he sees the worst parts of life: road rage, accident scenes, and people honking at cars obstructing traffic. he told me that recently he saved someone from committing suicide in the santa cruz mountains. i said “wow! you don’t just do towing, you do crisis-counseling as well!”
he had all kinds of interesting and crazy stories to tell me. he was telling me a story and we both paused and held our breath as we passed under a 15 foot tall underpass. once we made it through without scraping the roof off of the bus, he continued with his story. i told him that i was afraid that he was going to get crushed under the bus when he was hooking everything up; he told me that he was a little scared too. he could tell that i was really disappointed with myself over the bus and he said, “you know, these things all happen for a reason…”
a lot of people had that message for me that night: students, staff, even parents. one parent said “God cares more about working on you, than getting the logistics worked out."
the bus is back at church, waiting to be repaired next week.
i planned on sleeping in this morning, but i couldn’t sleep. i just stared at the ceiling thinking though what-ifs and what i could have done differently. i got up early and went to the gym. the sunrise was amazing. the rain had stopped and the colors reflecting off of the clouds were an absolute gift. i took time to thank God for all that went right last night:
the students had a blast
we had a great turn out
none of them were injured
the staff pulled together in my absence
sky high took care of us
wonderful people came through to help me, including Justin, kyle, bruce, niki, gwen, and a whole handful of parents that i didn’t get to thank.
i thanked God for letting MY bus break. not kyle’s not bruce’s.
i was proud of myself for keeping a level head and not shouting at any students.
i thanked God that the cell phone worked and that I had a great talk with Rick.
and i pondered the fact that even though it was wet and cold and very sad, it could have been a lot worse.
and i pondered that maybe it was all for a reason- and maybe I'm being prepared for stressul moments in the future.
super.
thanks again to all who came to my rescue-
you’re all heroes to me.
-rob
