From Sunday, October 29: You know those times when it just feels like God is cupping you in His hands and, while not everything may be going exactly how you wish it would, you know it's all really, ecstatically, wonderfully good? This is one of those times. I just rode the bus from Iowa to Gallup, New Mexico. 1200 miles and 29 hours! And it was fantastic. I have always heard I should be scared of the bus because unsavory characters ride on it. While it is true that people ride on the bus who have made many choices I (and sometimes they, too!) wish they hadn't, I found out I didn't have to be scared. First of all, God was there. So really, I wasn't riding alone. Second of all, they were just people. And people are fun to get to know. After I got over being scared... and finally realized that there were enough people (and God) around that I couldn't get hurt, I really enjoyed getting to know people. There was this one guy who had driven a souped-up car up from Texas to deliver to a buyer, and he was headed back to Texas by bus. His name was Bo. And there was this really nice lady named Liddya who spoke no English except Thank You. Since I speak no Spanish except "dos" and "siete," we communicated only through gestures and following each other around. But she was on my bus the entire way from Sioux City to Gallup. Through four transfers. Crazy, eh? She made me feel more at home too, kind of like I got to take care of my Grandma for a little while. Then there was this Hispanic lady who was taking three little kids on the bus, and she seemed to be very harried and trying to figure something out and not able to. I think she didn't have the right change for the vending machines. I didn't know quite what to do but I offered a box of granola bar things that I didn't really need. Hopefully her kids liked them. And that was a good lesson for me, too. Because I went up to her expecting that she should be happy I was trying to help her, and then she just seemed kind of crabby. Then I realized that I was being a bit condescending, and that she probably didn't really NEED help at all. The night before I had gone to a presentation on the Catholic view of social justice, and the priest had quoted some guy who said we should apologize to the poor for helping them. And suddenly I realized it was true, because God made poor people in His image and they (often) want to be independent, and when we help them it makes them feel bad. I met my friend from college in Denver, and that was really, really nice. Even though it was at 6:00 in the morning! We got to talk face-to-face for half an hour at least! Then the bus from Denver to Albuquerque (9 hours or so) was quite empty, so I had all the space I wanted. Another treat. In Albuquerque we heard that our bus to Gallup, Phoenix, or Los Angeles (depending how far each person was going) was running 2 hours late. We never figured out why. But there was nothing we could do about it so we sat around comisserating with each other. That was when I actually got to know some people a little bit. There were these two guys who had just finished a trucking school in Idaho. One of them, a young guy who said he was from Post Falls, looked very familiar for some reason. But while trying to tactfully probe without sounding like I was "interested," I couldn't find any place we had met before. I decided to call him "Gus" because he looked like he was of good Norwegian stock. And the other trucker, an older one with black hair and a potbelly, I decided to call "Bob" in my head. I didn't ask their names because that would have been breaking an unspoken bus code. They were very colorful characters who used colorful vocabularies. We got into a conversation with a fellow who sat in front of me, who was explaining to a 20- or 30-something lady across from him that many things in the Bible could be explained as hallucinations. This came at the end of a long discussion about the various benefits of drugs such as meth, LSD, etc. When he got to the "fact" that Judaism was just a derivation from the Egyptian religion, because they used wafers in their worship just like Christians do in the Lord's supper, I couldn't handle it anymore so I tried to explain that it was possible he was not correct. "Gus" and "Bob" helped me out as I tried to explain the Biblical view. I almost wish I just hadn't even gotten into the conversation, because it seemed like it just made everything more confusing and wishy-washy than ever. But how could I keep quiet? And I was praying that God would somehow be there, on the bus with us, and help the people to understand the truth. So who knows. Maybe He can bring order even out of the confusion wrought by a guy with a black goatee who watches too much television and remembers every random fact he ever heard.
See what I mean about the cool people who ride the bus? Oh yes -- afterwards Gus told me that Bob used to be a preacher. I'm not really sure if that was true or not because I would never have attended a church where Bob was in charge. And when he was explaining why he was no longer a pastor, he hemmed and hawed a lot... "well, it was because I, uh, didn't quite get along with the, uh, group of people in my church." Oh. And Gus went to a church in Coeur d'Alene. Apparently it didn't affect how he acted much, but at least he went. Why do people feel like they have to pretend to be Christians? I don't quite understand. Anyways, at one point I mentioned that I had been a member of a church that splintered -- I don't remember exactly how, but it fit into the conversation. And the lady who was being kerflummoxed by the weird guy with the goatee suddenly looked at me with a face that was totally alive and seemed to be amazed that I had been betrayed by a church too. She explained that she had gone to a church up till mid-teens, but had been friends with the pastor's daughter and saw too much of his life. He got drunk on Saturdays and beat up his wife. I just want to scream -- why does God's church make such a mess in His world? Why does He let us? I tried to explain all the good that had come out of that church breakup -- that God had used it to show me that I couldn't depend completely on groups of people who called themselves Christians, but that I absolutely could depend completely on Him. I grew so much closer to Him through that awful situation! She wasn't as interested in that part of the conversation though.

Anyways, enough about the bus. If you want to keep praying for those people, that would be great! That God will raise up witnesses for them who can speak straight, unlike me -- and that He won't let them forget about Him.

So I arrived in Gallup around 10:00 pm and was met right away by my cooperating teacher/principal. She took me back to Zuni, a 40 minute drive. I was completely exhausted but still very much awake, so had a great time listening to the information she had to give me about Zuni. Then I met my housemate, unpacked so I could find my pajamas and toothbrush, took a shower because I suddenly realized that I smelled very strongly of bus -- a unique conglomeration of stale smoke, body odor, and maybe some greasy fast food.

This morning I went to church. It was wonderful. It seemed like God planned the sermon just for me -- it was the first in a series on the book of Ruth, and talked about how sometimes God doesn't give us exactly what we think would make us happy, because He wants us to know the true joy of knowing Him intimately (this was from the point of view of Naomi, in case you were wondering how that connected!). That was exactly the lesson God taught me Friday night on the bus as I was wrestling with Him about something I wanted but He wasn't giving. (That's the other benefit of the bus -- as you are wishing you could sleep sitting up, you have lots of time to pray!) He led me to Psalm 37:4 -- "Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart." Same thing. Twice in one weekend! I guess He really wants me to learn it!
The other wonderful parts of church are that I got to sing hymns again -- a lot of them -- and that people were very friendly. And it was small, and there were lots of kids around. I just felt right at home. I met my supervisor from Calvin College, and my two supervising teachers (one does double-duty as the principal and a teacher, so they share the job to make her load manageable), and the aide in my classroom, and the other teachers at the school, and the pastor and his wife. And a lot of other people whom I will have to meet again because I already forget names and faces.

So life is wonderful so far. God is definitely here, and He is definitely working, and for some reason He wants me to be here too. Oh -- and there are jobs open in the public schools around here. Sounds promising, although Idaho is still my first choice. God will guide!

Zowie! I didn't realize this would be so long! If you made it to the end, congratulations!