THE BUS RIDE

Hello Students,

Below is the email is from my friend Mary which I read in class yesterday. Please note that Mary does not capitalize anything except for the Lord's name and pronouns that refer to Him. This is her style! If she were in my class, she would get in big trouble for that! LOL! However, it may be awkward reading for you at first, so take the time to get used to it.

That said, enjoy writing your Even Steven this week! Please let me know if you have any questions!

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isaiah 51:16
"I have put My words in your mouth, and have covered you with the shadow of My hand, I Who set the heavens in place, Who laid the foundations of the earth..."



last weekend i finally had the opportunity to get away. my friend ruth, a teacher at jerusalem school's bethlehem location, is 69 and has traveled half the world on a shoestring budget. she knows all about youth hostels, camping, and central bus routes. so last friday, without tickets, we packed our rollerbags, met at the old city, and made our way to the jerusalem bus station, hoping to find room on the bus bound for eliat, a resort town located at the southernmost tip of israel on the shore of the red sea. yes, the red sea that moses saw God split in half.

jerusalem's central bus station was loud and teeming with people. the interior reminded me of an airport, with shops and restaurants galore. traveling soldiers were everywhere - dragging their overstuffed military duffels, earphones hanging down their uniform fronts, M-16s swinging off their shoulders.

after clearing security, we discovered that our bus was scheduled to depart in 20 minutes! we found a rather large crowd waiting at the boarding "terminal," which looked more like the zig-zag waiting line for a roller coaster. clearly there were more people than seats. eliat is a famously popular vacation spot, especially for locals.

we got the last two seats on the bus to eliat. and the crowd we left behind was none too happy about it.

of course we couldn't get seats together. ruth got the last real seat, beside this really cool girl with dreadlocks who works for a palestinian-israeli reconciliation organization. their conversation must have been amazing.

i, on the other hand, ended up in the middle of the bench-type seat on the very back row that accomodates five. at least it was up a step or two, so i could see every single person on the bus. (that would prove interesting later.) i squeezed my way into my space, with two young soldiers on my right, and a hassidic jewish couple on my left. well, the military guys slept the whole time, and the jewish couple spent the entire 4.5 hour trip reading their torahs. at first i thought i would be bored to death and was glad i had my i-pod. however, the minute the bus pulled out of the station, the adventure began. and the truth of the scripture above was made clear in a way that i will never forget as long as i live.

the back of the bus was mostly a group of about 8 guys, all in their twenties. one or two were soldiers on leave. two had girlfriends. one guy in particular didn't seemed to fit, but he was with them. he was loud from the beginning and couldn't sit still. frustrated to be sitting beside someone he didn't know, he was up and down a lot, visiting his buddies.

my first clue that there might be trouble came when he pulled out a fifth of bourbon. it's legal to drink anywhere in israel, with no exception that i'm aware of. well, he proceeds to turn the bottle up and take a few gulps, then passes it to a couple other guys. he then starts making inappropriate jokes, laughing loudly, and generally being a nuisance. the passengers in the middle of the bus, including a family with young children, turn their heads and roll their eyes from time to time, but no one says anything. his buddies either laugh along or ignore him. i can't believe it. this kid is right in front of me, i dont even know him, and i want to choke him. at the very least, the teacher in me wants to put him in time-out. but God tells me not to say a word.

he adds a generous splash of bourbon to his coke bottle and puts on his headphones for a little while, singing along of course. the jewish woman beside me asks him to quiet down, and he resists but finally agrees. eventually bored, he gets out a guitar and starts strumming. yes, on a bus. he's playing a guitar. he starts singing a song, an original composition about a woman (sorry, i cannot repeat any of the words, they are mostly profane.) well, this is too much for the jewish woman beside me, and she elbows her husband, who very firmly (in hebrew) admonishes him. this starts a heated argument and everyone bristles at the thought of what could happen. the kid angrily puts away the guitar, tosses his bag into the aisle, and begins laughing with his buddy in front of him. they end up in a headlock and wrestle for awhile. yes, on a bus. they are wrestling. we are all frustrated, but i am furious. i settle back behind my sunglasses with headphones on, but i am willing to come up out of my seat the minute God gives me permission. i know exactly what needs to be said to this kid, and i am just the one to do it.

at this point we stop at a coffee shop for a break. i listen to ruth describe the fascinating life of the dreadlocks girl, and i tell her about the soap opera going on in my section. outside i notice a large crowd gathered near our bus. the kid is breakdancing! i'm serious. and he was good, too. the audience loves him. great. just what he needs. more attention. i am dreading the remainder of the trip even more now.

back on the bus, we still have two hours to go. i hear him conversing with his buddies, talking about his plans to go into the military this july and about his ADD (now everything is starting to make sense) and how people with attention disorders are much more intelligent than the rest of us, that their senses are more heightened, and they can think on many levels at one time. if that isn't enough, he then launches into reminiscing about several of his "almost caught" drug adventures.

I am frozen. i can just see this kid dead before the age of 25. the next thing i know, my entire picture of this guy is changing. i am thinking that not many people have ever taken him seriously, and i understand why. i put on my headphones again and start praying for him. i am actually starting to feel genuine compassion for him. wow.

well, believe it or not, he finally settles down and takes a nap in the aisle. yes, he is stretched out on the floor of the bus. his headset on, we finally get an hour of silence, and for that we are all thankful. here and there the bus stops to load or unload a few people, so when this kid wakes up, he changes seats. he is still in front of me, but in a double seat by himself. looking at him there alone in the silence (he is gazing out the window and talking on the phone quietly) i begin to hear God speak to my heart about this kid. and this is what He says -

"mary, you see him, don't you? you really see him. i see him, too. and i have something to say to this boy. no one else on this bus cares about this kid. every other person will be glad to see him go with hopes they never see him again. no one has prayed for him. no one has seen past the irritation. but because of Me, you have eyes to see him the way i see him at this moment. are you willing to tell him what i think of him? i have something to say. will you believe me enough to speak My words to him?"

well, the first thing i did was say to God, "are You kidding? this kid will never listen to me. i wanted to choke him two hours ago. are You sure it's me You want to do this?" but then i realized that God had melted away every ounce of my frustration and had replaced it with a genuine concern for this boy. so i told God i would say whatever He wanted me to, but He would have to give me the words.

well, immediately i began to hear exactly what i was supposed to say. it was so clear. so i leaned up to him, tapped him on the shoulder, and said, "hey, when we stop, can i talk to you for a few minutes? i have something to tell you." he looked at me warily, assuming i was going to give him down the road, so i added, "it's actually pretty good. it will only take 5 minutes." and he said, "sure. yeah."

moments later we pulled into the eliat transit station. it was hollow and empty, a tiny building with a few benches outside and maybe 100 seats inside. he very politely motioned for me to go ahead of him, and we got off the bus. he walked over to an empty place on the sidewalk. it was just the two of us. i didn't even get his name or tell him mine. i don't know where the rest of his crew was. i opened my mouth and this is what came out -

"listen, you might think i am crazy, but this hardly ever happens to me, so when it does, i pay attention. i think i am supposed to deliver a message to you from God. i'm serious. there are three things that God wants you to know. can i tell you?"

he was all ears.

"first, i was watching you on the bus. you have an amazing amount of energy and passion. it's incredible. and God wants you to know that He is the one who gave that to you. it is from Him. i don't know what you are supposed to do with it, but He gave you this energy for a reason. it was His idea."

"second, God is thinking about you all the time. and looking at you. and He is waiting to see if you will look back."

"third, i don't know what your life has been like, or what you have experienced up until this point, but God wants you to know that there is so much more to your life than what has happened so far. what is ahead is so much more than what has already been."

he took a deep breath and this was his response: "wow. well, first i want to say thank you. thank you for telling me all that. also, you should know that i come from a religious family, i was raised to be religious, but right now i don't believe in God at all."

i told him that didn't matter. i wasn't trying to convince him of anything, change his mind, or convert him. i just had to tell him what God wanted him to know, that he is thought about day and night and that God hasn't taken His eye off him for even one second, even if he isn't looking back. “I probably won't ever see you again,” i said, “but i had to tell you the three things."

so we smiled and shook hands and left.

and i walked away with my mouth open in utter astonishment. never in a million years would i have predicted that the bus ride would end the way it did.