I spent a portion of my day Sunday traveling to Henderson (40 minutes north of Durham) to meet one of Debbie’s (my mother-in-law’s) oldest friends (Danny) she knew from Memphis. It was kind of a Facebook miracle that they reconnected.
We attended Danny’s Sunday church service and then headed to a local Mexican restaurant for brunch. Over the course of chips and salsa and three hearty chicken enchiladas, I was entertained with stories of the two of them from 30 years ago. One story stuck out in particular: the bus ministry.
Danny and Debbie used to drive a bus around town, knock on doors and ask families if they could borrow their children! The kids would get on the bus and I assume Debbie and Danny would teach Bible lessons and give their testimonies, etc. Debbie said the parents were eager to allow their kids to ride the “ministry bus.” At the end of the day it came down to how many “riders” had been saved. Debbie and Danny had to reach a certain quota. And according to them, they usually always met that.
Here’s how…
At the beginning of the bus ride, Danny would promise that if the kids committed themselves to Christ, or at least behaved well while on the ministry bus, he would perform some totally unnatural feat that any kid would deem amazing. This usually involved people getting to throw pies in his face…stunts such as that. He was known for his promise to eat a goldfish. At the end of the bus ride, he’d throw his head back, open his mouth wide, and have someone toss a goldfish into his mouth. Yes, he swallowed. Sounds like a guy willing to take one for the team. He is definitely a guy who loves children (he has 4 of his own).
I was very relieved when nearing the end of this story, Danny said, “Yeah, I can’t believe parents actually allowed their kids to ride around on a bus with strangers all day.”
Negative me; I thought I was the only person at the table thinking the worst. I mean, times have really changed. No person in this day and age would remotely consider allowing their child on a bus with strangers for the day.
But I guess therein lays the beauty of the story.
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3 comments:
That's a really bizarre story...Driving a bus around, picking up children, and eating goldfish! What I want to know is, how many margaritas were had before they told you that one? LOL ;)
Mel, The story is great, but a bit inaccurate. Pat was the bus 'pastor' and Danny worked with us on Sat. knocking on the doors of homes. We introduced ourselves from the local church and ask the parents if their children could come to church with us. If the answer was yes, then we would come back on Sunday morning and get the children. Sometimes they were not ready. After they had been riding the bus for a while we became like an extended famiy. Often the parents would ride the bus with us. On the ride I would lead in some songs, like,"The wheels of the bus go round and round, all over town" or "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so" and on we would go to church. Once there, the children would go to a childrens church service, and after that we would often have food and games like a carnival. It is at this point that Danny volunteered, once, to swallow a gold fish,...if we had the most number of riders that day. And we did...It was most memorable...
Thanks for the updated version of the story. I was sure I was missing details, seeing as how I caught the story between bites of mexican grub and various other tales. Sounds like a much better bus ride than I had imagined!
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