One Thing: We Could All Just Nonchalantly Lean Against the Back of the Bus

This is a short series of blogs about how I brought in the new year.  This is the second post of the series, so if you want to start from the beginning, go here!  This is the actual beginning of the story of my Onething experience. 

I attended the conference with three other wonderful women of God.  We all carpooled to Northfield, MN and met up with a group of students who all attend a Bible study from a ministry called Prepare.  There were about 40 of us, including a family who was chaperoning.  This beautiful family had six adorable children that we were all blessed with during the conference.  We piled onto our school bus and set out for Kansas City, Missouri. 

I believe I slept most of the way - in those crazy positions you can only dream up when you are exhausted on a bus.  I woke up to a strange sound - then the sound of us hitting the rumble strip.  Suddenly the bus was a tizzy, murmurs on what happened, what was going to happen - our bus blew a tire, it was engine trouble, we were going to have to push - all little whispers flying around the bus.  Then, it was as if an undeclared agreement was made and people began to pray.  Not aloud, but you could just feel it.  Our fearless driver, Dave-O, informed us that we had run out of gas.  It turns out that Iowa really doesn't have a lot of places to stop.  He said there was a station in about four miles, but we had been running on E for a while - so he didn't know if we were going to make it. 

I wish I could say that my first thought was to pray… instead, it was to call Triple A.  I forced the urge out of my head, and my friend and I began to silently pray for God's blessing… His favor on our little bus full of people who really just wanted to come and praise His majesty.  The bus started - basically on fumes… we were all so excited, until it died about a mile later.  It was now a little joke to us - people were giggling and we were trying to figure out the best course of action.  Pushing the bus was a favorite… on person made a joke that still gets me in stiches.  We were wondering what would happen if we could just make it up the hill and then it died and he said, "We could all get out and just lean nonchalantly against the back of the bus - no one would suspect a thing!"  Oh man, it gets me every time!  One of the adorable children offered to run to the gas station to pick up a can of gas - I told you they were adorable. 

Dave-O decided to just try as many times as he could to get us as close to the exit as possible.  The bus started and stopped numerous times… each time our faith renewed that God was carrying us.  Then, we saw it.  The exit!!!  Our bus completely died and coasted toward the exit.  We were so close, but we knew there was nothing left in the tank and the exit meant that we had to go uphill and across a bridge.  Dave-O was persistent and started up the bus, which miraculously revved up and we managed to make it up the hill!!!!  Praises were flying - cheers, screams, shouts of joy - we had MADE IT!  We coasted across the bridge and down the hill into the gas station. 

As we got off the bus we were the most joyful kids you will ever meet!  God had just provided for us!  He took our bus, which had nothing, and gave us something!  Isn't that what He's promised?  "But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. " ~ Philippians 4:19  God loved coming through for us and we loved experiencing it.  We ran into the gas station with HUGE smiles on our faces, proclaiming His glory - instead of sleepily walking in after riding on a school bus for hours upon end.  What a difference that made!  People were asking us questions, there was ministering going on.  It is so crazy how God can use any situation, even walking into a gas station, to bring glory to Him!

The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful.  We arrived in KC safe and sound and got our rooms.  They were very nice and I was so thankful to share it with only three other girls (the last conference I went to, nine of us ladies shared a room - fun, but only a once-in-a-while kind of experience).  We ate some pizza and hit the sheets early because we were so excited to start the conference early the next day!

More to come!

Love in Him Who Provides,

xx