Dondi
Well-Known Member
Recently we had a weeks worth of Vacation Bible School at our church. Our theme this year was Pirates, and so naturally we dressed up as pirates all week. I happen to be in several skits that had a pirate theme. I was also part of the bus ministry, whose job it was to pick-up kids around the neighborhood whose parents allowed them to ride to bus to VBS. We saw 70 kids accept Christ as Savior that week, and many are coming back for our regular church services. Praise God!
Anyway, on the third night, a Wednesday, after VBS we loaded the kids back on the bus for the ride home. Now it is our job as bus workers to supervise that the kids get into there place of resident safely, so we take them to their door. Well, we had a large group of kids get off on this one stop, and two of the kids left to my charge lived some distance away father than the other kids on the bus.
After seeing them safely inside their residence, I proceeded back to bus, but to my astonishment I saw the bus take off without me. So here I am in full pirate regalia (red bandana, eye patch, swanky clothes, sword at side: the works) in the middle of a dark creepy street trying to fruitlessly run down the bus. But alas, I was alone. And to make matters worse, it was a very rare occasion that I didn’t have my cell phone (seeing as pirates do not use cell phones). But I figure that someone one the bus (including my own daughter) would discover quickly my absence (No such luck, thanks Jessie). But I also figured that once they discovered me missing, they will retrace the route and eventually pick me up. But I didn’t wish to remain in a dark and creepy unlit street in the middle of a not so nice neighborhood, so I decided to proceed to the main road on the route where there was better light and a more crowded area. But I stop short of entering any business since I was embarrassingly still in my pirate out fit, so I remained kind of in the shadows to avoid people from seeing me while I waited for the bus to retrace it’s route.
And I waited. And waited. And waited. But after about 45 minutes and coming up to 10:30 pm, the bus still didn’t show up. (Let me say, however, that all during this episode I had no feelings of worry nor anxiety, rather I actually took everything humorously in stride. Meanwhile, at this point, I later found out, my wife learned of my absence and was quite fretful about it and my younger daughter kept crying, pulling on my wife’s arm to “Come on, Mommy, let’s go find Daddy!”). I had anticipated that the bus would pull up any moment, but no avail.
Finally, I felt I had no choice but to go to a public place and make a phone call, lest there would be excessive worry (particularly by the poor bus driver. I come to find out that the driver had indeed retraced the route working backwards to the spot of the stop, but didn’t bother to check the rest of the route which would have back-tracked them back to the main road that I was currently on, so he basically missed me.) So reluctantly I made my way to a corner gas station, that thankfully was sparsely occupied and asked if there was a phone and for change for a dollar. The clerk gave me a strange look and told me, sorry, he has no phone. Arrgghh!
But just at that time, one of the brothers in the church had spotted me going into the gas station and pulled in and honked his horn. Thank God! He told me everyone was out looking for me and they even called the police. Oh great! An APB on a man wandering the streets in a pirate suit. Just what I need.
Well, everyone was relieved and we all had a laugh about it afterwards. I quipped that “I once was lost, but now am found, was blind (in one eye), but now I see.”
An Epilogue to this Story: After VBS, we took to the task of visiting those kids to invite them to our regular Sunday School and Sunday services. I purposed to go visit the family of the kids that I dropped off when I got “lost”. The mother of the two boys answered the door with a sullen look and a kind of wary disinterest, so I broke the ice by regaling the above adventurous pirate tale. She ended up accepting Christ as her Savior. Praise the Lord!
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28
Anyway, on the third night, a Wednesday, after VBS we loaded the kids back on the bus for the ride home. Now it is our job as bus workers to supervise that the kids get into there place of resident safely, so we take them to their door. Well, we had a large group of kids get off on this one stop, and two of the kids left to my charge lived some distance away father than the other kids on the bus.
After seeing them safely inside their residence, I proceeded back to bus, but to my astonishment I saw the bus take off without me. So here I am in full pirate regalia (red bandana, eye patch, swanky clothes, sword at side: the works) in the middle of a dark creepy street trying to fruitlessly run down the bus. But alas, I was alone. And to make matters worse, it was a very rare occasion that I didn’t have my cell phone (seeing as pirates do not use cell phones). But I figure that someone one the bus (including my own daughter) would discover quickly my absence (No such luck, thanks Jessie). But I also figured that once they discovered me missing, they will retrace the route and eventually pick me up. But I didn’t wish to remain in a dark and creepy unlit street in the middle of a not so nice neighborhood, so I decided to proceed to the main road on the route where there was better light and a more crowded area. But I stop short of entering any business since I was embarrassingly still in my pirate out fit, so I remained kind of in the shadows to avoid people from seeing me while I waited for the bus to retrace it’s route.
And I waited. And waited. And waited. But after about 45 minutes and coming up to 10:30 pm, the bus still didn’t show up. (Let me say, however, that all during this episode I had no feelings of worry nor anxiety, rather I actually took everything humorously in stride. Meanwhile, at this point, I later found out, my wife learned of my absence and was quite fretful about it and my younger daughter kept crying, pulling on my wife’s arm to “Come on, Mommy, let’s go find Daddy!”). I had anticipated that the bus would pull up any moment, but no avail.
Finally, I felt I had no choice but to go to a public place and make a phone call, lest there would be excessive worry (particularly by the poor bus driver. I come to find out that the driver had indeed retraced the route working backwards to the spot of the stop, but didn’t bother to check the rest of the route which would have back-tracked them back to the main road that I was currently on, so he basically missed me.) So reluctantly I made my way to a corner gas station, that thankfully was sparsely occupied and asked if there was a phone and for change for a dollar. The clerk gave me a strange look and told me, sorry, he has no phone. Arrgghh!
But just at that time, one of the brothers in the church had spotted me going into the gas station and pulled in and honked his horn. Thank God! He told me everyone was out looking for me and they even called the police. Oh great! An APB on a man wandering the streets in a pirate suit. Just what I need.
Well, everyone was relieved and we all had a laugh about it afterwards. I quipped that “I once was lost, but now am found, was blind (in one eye), but now I see.”
An Epilogue to this Story: After VBS, we took to the task of visiting those kids to invite them to our regular Sunday School and Sunday services. I purposed to go visit the family of the kids that I dropped off when I got “lost”. The mother of the two boys answered the door with a sullen look and a kind of wary disinterest, so I broke the ice by regaling the above adventurous pirate tale. She ended up accepting Christ as her Savior. Praise the Lord!
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28
