Student Life Tour '08

Okay here is my long overdue blog about Student Life Tour '08. I'll try not to leave anything out.
Alright, so we left on Friday afternoon at about 2 o'clock. We drove for about 2 hours when the unexpected happened. We blew a tire while driving down the highway. When this happened we were next to a really big truck, I think an 18-wheeler. There was a loud POP! and then we served over and then Dave Ruhman, (the best bus driver ever!) managed to get the bus back into our lane and then off onto the shoulder. So, there's a school bus on the side of the road, with 40 kids and Life Group leaders in it. Jeremiah and some of the other adults managed to get a hold of someone to come fix the tire. The high school bus took the high-schoolers to an eating stop and then came back for us. Looking back, it was probably quite a sight. 40 kids and some adults, walking along the side of the highway and then up the hill to the overpass and onto a school bus. It was quite the adventure. The bus took us to where the high-schoolers were and we all ate dinner. We were back on the road at about 6:45-7:00. We were going to be late for the conference.
We reached the conference at about 8:45 or 9:00. That left only 1 hour of that night's session. We managed to slip in for music and that was it. We all headed back to our hotels and then got some sleep. In all it totaled to about 5 hours of sleep. Then we got up ate breakfast and headed to the church for the morning session. Then we ate lunch and went back for the afternoon session. The speaker, David Platt, was PHENOMENAL! While I was ready to head home at that point, I was also sad to see it end.
We headed off once again for another 5 hours of driving. We stopped along the way to eat some dinner. We reached Jackson and decided to stop and get some gas. They filled it up and Dave got back into the bus and tried to turn the bus on. Nothing. He tried again. Nothing. The bus wouldn't start. We had to get someone to help and like...jump start the bus or whatever it is they did. They managed to get the bus going and we headed off again although we knew the bus ride home could and would be tricky. To begin with, it was dark, rainy, foggy, our headlights barely worked, and we were on curvy back roads. On top of that we were running on the bus's low battery. We were about 10 miles away from Fredericktown when I heard Dave tell two of the small group leaders to pray. He said our battery was running really low. One of them got up and lead us all in prayer. Then we were told not to talk so we wouldn't fog up the windows or anything and Dave had to turn off everything he possibly could. He had to turn off his wind shield wipers, defogger, heating, everything. People were getting up and wiping windows for him when the windows began to fog up bad. I sat there in that bus seat and prayed and prayed that we would make it home safely. We came up on Calvary Temple and Dave goes, "Praise God, we made it." And we all began to cheer. I had never been so happy to see Fredericktown in my life. We pulled into the parking lot of the church and I was off the bus in a heartbeat. In fact, I probably won't get on another bus for a long time.
But let me just say this. You can read my story and think, "Oh my goodness! That had the worst luck! Their trip was probably awful!" and come off with a negative perspective. Or, you can find God in this story. It was God that pulled us away from the truck to safety. He was with Dave, our bus driver, and the driver of that truck next to us. The truck next to us was able to swerve at the right time so that we didn't hit him. Had he not moved, it may not have turned out so well. Thanks be to God for getting us through that situation safely. When the bus wouldn't start, when we were on those dangerous, curvy, back roads, when the battery almost died on us, God was there. God was with us and taking care of us, and God got our little old rickety bus home to Fredericktown. I thank God for this past weekend and all that He showed me through our tricky bus situations.
At first I was beginning to have second thoughts about going on the trip at all. I began to fear that I wouldn't make it that far away from home. I stood in the parking lot of the church before the trip with my dad and he told me I had to make a choice. I stood there unable to decide. And then, with the strength only God could have given me, I turned around and walked into the church building. Then getting onto the buses I almost decided to go over to the office where my mother was and just stay with her but I got on that bus with God helping me the whole way. After our tire incident I began to wonder if going on this trip was a mistake but as the weekend went along it was made clear to me that it was no mistake, no accident, and there are no regrets now. I thank God for giving me the strength to go on that trip and for those bus situations. (weird I know but bear with me) Through those tough times, God was able to show me that He was always there with me and that He is strong enough to overcome anything. His strength was made perfect in our weaknesses with the bus. So don't take negative things away from this story, take positive God things away from this. Maybe its time for you to get on the bus and let God show you just how strong He is and how much He cares for you.