Summit Ministries

Today was an interesting day at Summit. Eight days into this two-week camp all the students were allowed to choose between a trip to King's Island or a trip to the Creation Museum. I chose the Creation Museum because I had not yet been on any kind of tour with Dr. Wise. As 9:45 am approached, the lounge as the Student Center began to fill with 35 students that were going. As expected, the bus arrived and we were on our way by ten o'clock. There were some people that were awake enough to keep lively conversations, but most, like me, either read or slept.
When we had been on the road for about 45 minutes, I woke up to the sound of the bus's breaks hissing as we slowed to a stop at an intersection. I looked around to get my bearings and saw that we had exited the interstate. I smelled burning oil and quickly drew conclusions. One of the guys sitting behind me said, "Man, I smell hamburgers." I had almost formed my smart remark for him when another guy from the back yelled the words of comfort, "We're all gunna diiiieeee!"
Our bus driver, Rebecca, yelled back a response, "we are not going to die, but you guys better start pushing or praying for us to get into that parking lot over there."
At this point I looked behind the bus and could not see anything except a thick cloud of smoke which smelled terrible.
By the grace of God we made it through two intersections and into a parking lot where Rebecca cut the power. Once off the bus, I noticed a 12 inch wide trail of oil which had come from our engine. In retrospect, Rebecca said that there was no reason that the bus should have gone that far. Parts of the engine had actually fallen our and had left a trail along with the oil.
Even with this slightly annoying detour, all the students immediately began to play games in the parking lot as we waited for help to come. Jon Jon led us in a mini worship service and we prayed specifically for the bus. Within five minutes of praying Rebecca made an announcement that another bus was on the way to take us the last hour to the Creation Museum.
The staff handed out lunch boxes to help pass the time (at this point it was 11:45.) we also amused ourselves by waving to passing cars. As it so happened one of the passing vehicles was the Vitamin Water van. They turned into the parking lot and gave us five flats of different flavored water just because we looked so pathetic, I guess.
Once the new bus pulled in, everyone got really excited. Loaded up again and somebody in the back started singing. Almost everyone joined in and so the rest of the bus drive consisted of every camp song, veggie tales and Bible song in existence being sung as loudly as possible. I'm still really not sure what our new bus driver thought of us.
So we arrived at the Creation Museum and sill got to tour the building, although the tour was much shorter than planned. We got home safely with barely enough time to eat dinner. An awesome worship session with Josh Bales and one classroom session completed the day.

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At times we wonder why it rains. We wonder why there are spiders in the world. We question God or His design and purpose for nature and all other things.
Sunday, June 18, 2008 we were all ready to go on a field trip but were caught off guard by the things God had in store. The students were split up into two groups. One went to King's Island the other to the Creation Museum. The group going to King's Island was getting ready to leave when their bus broke down. A couple of prayers, a few connections, a phone call and no worries, another bus from the same line was sent to transport the group. They were off with no more delays.
Forty-five minutes later the second group, going to the Creation museum, loaded "The General" and was off to their destination. Thirty minutes into the trip while everyone was laughing, talking, and having a blast, black smoke started coming out of the back of the bus. Even then, God was at work. Rebecca, our wonderful bus driver pulled off at an exit, went through an intersection and even, dare I share the secret, ran a red light and pulled into a parking lot. No sooner had the bus entered and pulled far enough up to be out of the way of any other cars, it stopped. While everyone was laughing and freaking out at the same time, we were praising God for His protection over us.
So we found out that the cam shaft broke and four of the six pistons were completely demolished like New York City after King Kong came through. We actually found some remains. Anyway, as soon as we broke down, we called to the staff at the camp and told them what happened. Immediately, they began praying for us. We pretty much thought that we weren't going to be able to go to the Creation Museum. Back at the camp, Jody prayed specifically that God would send us some encouragement. Well, He answered that prayer in a heartbeat. While we were all sitting in the parking lot, talking, playing games, and eating lunch a vitamin water truck pulled up and gave us three cases full of vitamin water. What a huge blessing.
Back at camp, Ben called Parker and Parker contacted the bus line where the other bus came from to transport the group to King's Island. It turns out that we were able to get a bus and go to the museum after all. But get this, the same bus that broke down that morning. This is the best part, if the bus hadn't broken down earlier that that morning, it would have taken so much longer to get a bus out to pick us up. And we wouldn't have been able to go to the museum at all. How bizarre is that?!?!?
We often question God's ways. If it didn't rain, the flowers wouldn't grow. If there were no spiders, the world would be eaten up by mosquitoes. To question God and His ways is to question why the earth revolves around the sun. we can't understand why at times, but we just need to trust. Isaiah 55:8-9. "'For my thoughts are not your thought, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the Lord." "As the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."