Storytime!

We were three hours away from home when our bus broke down. Eighty-six sixth through twelveth graders piled into a YMCA and hung out in a half court of a gym for six and a half hours while waiting for the bus to be repaired. When it finally was, we set off again, far behind schedule. At eleven in the night, still a good four hours from our destination, we hit a snowstorm.

I had a seat on the bus all to myself. I was relatively comfortable, curled up with my fuzzy blanket and reading The Two Towers, the noise of the other kids toned out in my mind. But when our youth minister got up, the chatting died down and I snapped away from the great fields of Rohan. I realized we had pulled over and were parked in a Walmart parking lot. Go figure.

"We've made about eleven miles progress in the last two hours," he announced. "And it's one o'clock in the morning. We physically cannot make it to DC tonight. We will not be at Church tomorrow because we physically cannot make it there. We've called ahead and they understand. Everyone is exhausted. We'll be sleeping on the bus tonight. Pull down your window shades and makes yourselves comfortable. Try to get some rest."

I watched as our ever humorous youth minister turned around and walked back to the front of the bus. I sat, not sure what to believe. Was he serious? He rarely told the time of day without messing with us. But the longer we all sat, the shock and disbelief palpable in the air, we began to realize that he was indeed serious. Window shades began to come down. A silence settled over the bus. And so it was that I slept on a bus with my youth group of 84, not to mention the ten or so adults that were chaperoning the trip.

As my cousin later said, at least we know that Walmart will always have our back.

The story doesn't end there, but I'll cut my story time and summarize. We got up that morning and went into the Walmart to get our breakfasts. As we got back on the busses, the bus that had broken down the previous day shut down again as we were leaving the parking lot.

So the eighty-four of us spent half the day in Walmart. We rented minivans and eventually did make it to DC that evening. But the next day, a stomach bug broke out and took down exactly 40% of our group. It was violent vomiting, but thankfully it only lasted about 24 hours before the effected person was better.

Nothing has gone as planned this quarter. It's hard to share just one story, but I think that statement applies to just about everything that's happened. Between the bus breaking down (it broke down again after spending several days in the shop, so we had to leave it and take the minivans back home) and the stomach bug breaking out, forcing us to change our plans, my trip to Washington DC was quite a ride.

*I also went to Guatemala for a week long medical missions trip

(check out the chocolate!)

*I got to see Priscilla Shrier in person and sat in on a talk show she conducted

*I decided at last what college I will be attending in the fall, and what major I will be pursuing

Life has been crazy, and it's impossible to sum everything up here. It's already getting long, so I'll move on, but I will say that I am going to pursue a major in English, and I'm thrilled to see what path God leads me on with that degree!