Which would you choose: Fuss, Cuss or Gus?
Some wanted to fuss: some wanted to cuss; but those who stayed on the bus met Gus: God w us. Emmanuel! Christ in us, the Hope of glory!
For those who didn’t see our Facebook posts this summer, our 1st Go West adventure flew beyond our budget but under God’s grace. For only the 2nd time in over 70 Go West trips we had to spend a night in a motel in order to fix a small oil leak. That was nothing compared to 6 more nights in motels after we lost the transmission the following night. 4 tows, $30k & 3 weeks later I flew back to Albuquerque to drive it home.
What happened on days 4-10 is what opened our eyes to see “Gus”.
• Sunday 1 AM: bus rolls to halt on single lane I-40 w road construction, pinning bus door against the steel barrier so that I had to exit an emergency window to investigate what forced the bus to stop.
• 2 PM: 1st tow to truck stop 1/2 mile away. $500. Safe to sleep & wait upon the Lord.
• 7-11 AM: 100s phone calls to try to rent cars, vans or a bus to get our group to Flagstaff Arizona 3 hrs away. No bites as students take a hike.
• 11:30 AM Lynn loca
tes Northland Baptist Church in Flagstaff who freely gives us the use of 3 vans even though they have never met us; nor we them. Do you belong to a church like that?
• 11:55 AM praying for a miracle empty bus to take us to Flagstaff & for students to come back from their hike.
• 12:00 PM answer to prayer: students appear just as empty bus suddenly arrives. Why did he stop? Faulty tire gauge reading…or did the Spirit release just enough air?
• 12:05 PM tow truck shows up and takes bus & Bron, our 2nd CDL driver, 17 miles to Gallup NM. $1500.
• 3:30 PM Arrive at empty church; but keys in vans ready to roll. Bus driver asks who we know who is so generous. Guess Who!
• 4:00 PM Walnut Canyon/Cliff Dwellings Natl Park
• 7 PM Motel for next 4 nights as we wait on bus repair that wouldn’t happened for 2 more weeks! Bus towed to Albuquerque for new transmission. $1750.
• Mon-Wed: Grand Canyon & other nearby natl parks.
• Wed AM: some students fuss & cuss, demanding to go to CA. I refund $ and help them find 2 rental vans and give them, Ron, our 3rd CDL driver to lead the way.
• Wed PM: Br
on calls to say the bus can’t be fixed and the remaining 22 students plead to go to Yellowstone. But how? After more prayer, we find rental vans in Phoenix, 3 hrs south of Flagstaff and in the opposite direction of Yellowstone. But as we are signing rental contracts & wondering how we’ll ever get back to Atlanta on schedule, Intown Community Church txt us that will buy us one way tickets home! Are you following the Spirit’s trail?
• Thur 5 AM “Yellowstone or Bust” via Zion NP.
• Fri: Yellowstone
• Sat: Grand Tetons, where I loose rental van key & when I find it, guess what lost parables I share as redemptive analogies for our trip from Luke chapter 15?
• 11:59 PM: Red-eye flights for 20 to Atlanta.
7:00 AM Atlanta: To everyone’s surprise Bron picks our groups up in Atlanta! We last saw Bron the previous Sunday at the Arizona-New Mexico truck stop as we hopped on the special delivery, God-send, bus that took us to Flagstaff AZ while Bron stayed with our bus that was towed to Albuquerque NM. And guess how and when Bron got back to Atlanta? I offered to buy him a airline ticket but Bron wanted to take a Greyhound Bus….that had 2 breakdowns that resulted in him getting back to Atlanta on Saturday. Remember, he called us on Wednesday to say our bus could not be fixed. So it took him 3 nights on Greyhound to get home! Point: even new bus maintained by the largest bus company in the USA, experiences breakdowns. But do the passengers see “Gus?”
