Monday, November 19, 2012

Not Enough to Stop Us (Take that Devil)

So, there's these awesome teens in my youth group named Alex and Deanna. They recently accepted a call ministry and, as a pastor, I am naturally drawn to facilitating this sort of thing. Kingswood was the name of the university that both felt drawn to, and interestingly enough this was my college. As we raised support and did some lawn jobs I had to prepare my sweet 2001 Dodge Grand Caravan for the 1280 mile trip into the great Canadian Atlantic region. $225 of repairs later we were ready for the road. Half way through the trip we noticed a hub cap was missing, but that wasn't enough to slow us down. Massachusetts and Maine presented us with a tremendous storm that was apparently the tail end of some hurricane, but that wasn't enough to stop us. My windshield wipers attacked each other in Maine, and when I pulled off the road we bottomed out on something and destroyed the muffler...but that wasn't enough to stop us. Loud muffler, wobbly balding tires, weirdo wipers, missing two hubcaps now, and 6 hours behind schedule due to the storm is just not enough to stop us. Upon arrival at Kingswood University we pretty much went straight to bed since it was after midnight. The next day one of my former professors helped me get the van to a shop who put a used muffler on...for $113...sheesh. Also Deanna opened the van door and ripped the gas cap off the day before which set off a sensor saying "service engine soon" so we actually got that fixed for free which was a nice change. The school was awesome and really inviting. The teens had a great experience. The visit was short lived and we had to begin our return journey, still not well rested. New Brunswick and Maine flew by like a breeze, also a nice change. But Massachusetts was a bugger again. 3am and still rocking at a cruise speed we were making great time, and then the worst happened. The biggest deer I've seen yet in real life. 8 points and a back line that was hard to see over...oh yeah, Alex was driving. 75mph strong we plowed into this bad boy who was tall enough to just fall on us rather than slam into the van. Totaled. There was nothing I could do but laugh, and then tell Alex to hit the brakes since we were still going 45 mph after the collision. The police officer that responded was about 5'6", clean cut and had a startling resemblance to a young Elmer Fud. Jumpy as he was he examined the deer, cursed, and then after a heart felt apology he shot the deer...twelve times! He approached me shortly after the massacre and said, "Dat was a big fwiggen deeah" in the thickest Boston accent anyone could have. We got a tow to the nearest hotel, which happened to be a Holiday Inn, not a bad coincidence. We then rented a sweet 2012 Tahoe, and soon found out that I couldn't total my vehicle until Monday morning...this was Sunday morning, which means I had another night's stay and a wasted day of car rental to pay. The next day we finally made it back to Michigan after some interesting conversation with customs and a couple random carpool layovers. Longest trip ever. Knowing that these two kids have been called by God to serve him with their lives...I'd do it all over again.