If you find yourself on the World Race you will realize that you take a lot of buses. And I mean a LOT of long bus rides from country to country within the continents you will visit.
As you board your new home for the next couple of days the thrill of adventure and newness will cling to you. So will your reservations as you survey your surroundings. “This looks like a Greyhound Bus”, you’ll think to yourself. But then strong new fragrances will waft through the cabin and hit you as you’re searching for your seat. If you’re lucky, your bus’s on-board “bathroom” will be situated directly over the engine.
After you push down the aisle with your sherpa load of belongings, like a duffle bag giving birth, you will want to get settled in quickly. You may attempt to stuff your daypack into the overhead bin. However, since you have crammed it to the gills with every item you cannot bare to part with for the next 48 hours you will realize it just will not fit. No matter which way you turn it or how many pairs of headphones and emergency underwear you pull out.
No matter! Just shove it at your feet. This will give you ample time to perfect your yoga “chair” pose and you’ve always wanted to know what your knees smell like anyway, right?
As the bus driver takes his position and throws the vehicle into drive you will commence praying to God and the makers of Dramamine that you don’t lose the sack lunch you’ve already devoured. How can there be this many sharp turns on the face of the Earth let alone in South America?! One of my questions for heaven.
In the words of Amy Winehouse, “My stomach dropped, and my guts churned.”
Our host this month described these bus rides perfectly… ” It’s like someone throws you into an empty shoebox and shakes it around for 36 hours.”
While you’re praying also pray that your bus ride is only 36 hours.
Let’s elaborate. Have you ever been on the “Tilt-a-Whirl” (aptly nicknamed the Tilt-a-Hurl) at the state fair? It’s a huge metal disc in which you stand against the wall and are spun by centrifugal force until your face is green with nausea and your limbs feel other-wordly.
Well instead of standing you are sitting. Your armrest becomes like a guardrail on the Titanic, the one thing between you and certain face-plants. Your bus driver will defy the laws of gravity as he whips you around each coming turn not unlike another carnival ride, “The Slingshot”.
It is during these very twists and turns that you may discover you have to go to the bathroom. You will then proceed to hold it like you never have before for the next 5-10 hours. Finally you can fight it no longer! As you begin your trek to the back of the bus, scaling Mount Everest will seem an easier feet. Break through your Dramamine haze & say hello politely to your Squad-mates as you fall suddenly into their laps or elbow them in the back of the head. Good thing you’ve stewed in your own sweat and won’t shower for days!
You’ve made it into the stall. If you’re really lucky the engine which it’s placed above will have been cooking on high heat everyone else’s trip to this same place before you. Let your nose enjoy. As you gingerly perch above someone else’s elimination (few bus’s flush valves work) you will question all that is holy as the bus lurches back and forth, threatening to slosh the substance below all over your legs at any moment.
And you thought you weren’t going to get your ab work-out in today!
Keep in mind that mid-flow the bus driver will either hit the brakes and you will have to swerve to avoid being concussed against the wall OR hit a mean curve and you will fall instead against the door and put on a show for all the back passangers to see.
With every inch of the seas-legs you’ve developed you again find your seat. For the next 3 hours try every position known to man to get comfy. 45% angles with your feet on top of the seat in front of you may do the job. And your chiropractor will thank you. Once you slip slowly into your sweet Dramamine assisted slumber the bus will again find all the turns on the planet. But don’t worry, this becomes a fun game to see how many muscles in your body you can tense at once.
For your viewing pleasure there will be movies playing! Another chance to learn Spanish. Fortunately as you try to fall asleep and it gets dark outside the employees will turn on the scariest, most terrifying films at their disposal. And crank them to full volume. I thoroughly enjoyed “Taken” and “Heist / Bus 657” which is actually about a bus high-jacking.
Why do all this you say? Why even take these treacherous bus rides? Why go on the World Race?
Jesus Christ holds the power the restore broken hearts and change lives forever. To find the lost, heal the hurting, qwell the angry, and give life to the very fullest. And if a bus is the best way to get to them… then I’m busing it!
And you know what? Jesus and His disciples WALKED to bring what He has to all they could reach. They endured treacherous travel by ship and through dangerous terrain.
In Mark 6:8-9 Jesus sent out His disciples saying: ” Take nothing for the journey except a staff – no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra shirt.”
And I panic when I don’t have snacks! Talk about believing in what you’re bringing. And trusting that God will provide along the way!
So much so that you would walk 1,000s of miles for 100s of day.
They were convinced with all of their being that what they had to share about Jesus was more important then everything they left behind and worth everything else they had left to give.
The love of Jesus is worth a week on that bus. And sharing His love with those who need it is worth even more.
The glory is all His but the pleasure is all mine. All Aboard!
