Cramming Kids Into Busses

[notdrinkingthekoolaid]

The church van was the running joke with the youth group that we lead. (They were an amazingly normal, fabulous group of kids who have mostly found their way out of fundystan as young adults.) We had the "blue van" first and it was in bad shape. We DID get that one replaced and the newer one was HUGE improvement. It actually ran and the interior wasn't nasty.

The vans always made for an interesting journey to camp--summer or winter. Getting there WAS half the fun...

[senda wales]

Once on our way back from a spring retreat in Lake Tahoe we blasted the heater of the church van we were in most of the way back. Supposedly it would help with some engine issue. It was about 70-80 degrees outside. That was fun.

[Guilt Ridden]

(09-16-2011 07:16 PM)Away-From-The-Umbrella Wrote:  Come to think of it...

I don't remember any of our church busses having seat belts (and never air conditioning! In the desert heat!). They used to buy these ancient, broken down Crown busses and make them driveable.

I always wondered why this church spent so much money on buildings, their >$250,000 pastor's salary, and hundreds of thousands of dollars just for fancy pianos, yet would drive these rolling pieces of crap around to pick up children.

Everyone has their priorities, I suppose.

That does sound disgraceful... but not all churches are this way.

When I was in college, the church I attended had a middle-aged man that told us about the small church in another state in which he was saved: The pastor took a very modest salary, and would often go without heat in the winter because they just couldn't afford it. They had buses, and took the best care of them that they could.

He made the church sound pretty good. If it is still there, and the same pastor, that's a church I'd like to join, should I have the opportunity.... sadly, the odds are that the church is gone.