Take A Break
Our first bus was a 1955 Flexible. Ya, I said a 1955. It was old but it was fun. We drove that thing lots of miles, had lots of fun and shared the gospel with lots of kids during the years that we owned that ol thing.
I will never forget something that happened one night as we were sound asleep. We were at Resurrection Bible Camp in Cooper Landing, Alaska at the time. The camp isn�t there any more and today the grounds hold a beautiful resort. Back then, it was quite rustic and primitive. You had to drive a twisting dirt road to get back to where the camp was. Once you were there, there wasn�t much room to park or even to turn around. Getting a big ol bus back in there wasn�t an easy task but then comes the challenge as to what to do with it once you get there.
There was an old building up on the side of a fairly steep hill where chapel was held. It was there that we had all of our equipment set up. It was next to this building that we were asked to park the bus. I somehow managed to back the bus in beside the building on the uphill side. From the building you could look down to the fast flowing Kenai River.
A bus like ours is equipped with air brakes. When you put your foot on the brake pedal, it allows air to go to the breaks pushing the brake shoes out and stop the wheels from turning. This is the same system used on semi trucks. It works very well. When you park your vehicle, you pull a knob which causes the air to go to the breaks much the same way putting your foot on the pedal would do. Once the breaks are set you can shut things down and exit the vehicle. I had done all of this.
We were parked at quite a slant with the nose of the bus pointing down towards the river. For some reason I slid a small log in front of the front tire once I had the bus where they wanted it. There it sat all week.
Somewhere around our third or fourth night there, as we were sound asleep in the bus, the breaks suddenly released. Little did we know at the time, there was a slow leak in the air system. On ââ?¬Å?mostââ?¬Â vehicles with air brakes, if you loose your air, the breaks will set up bringing the vehicle to a screeching halt. The breaks stay set until there is enough air pressure to cause that button you pull to be held open. This bus was not equipped with that safety feature. At least not yet. We did add that later.
Meanwhile back to the story. The brakes suddenly released and the bus took off rolling down the mountain right towards the river. Now keep in mind that this is in the middle of the night, we were asleep at the time. Oh, did I mention that our bed was at the very BACK of the bus and the steering wheel is in the front? Oh ya, you have to start the engine and leave it running for a while before you have enough air to do anything with the brakes. There really wasn�t any time for any of this.
Alas, the log. The bus rolled up onto that log and God must have held His foot against it because the bus stopped short in its tracks. When we realized that we were no longer rolling down the hill there really wasn�t much that needed to be done but to go back to sleep.
Isn�t it great to know that even as you and I have our eyes closed in sleep our God never sleeps but keeps watch over us? That Fall we had the breaks go out again but I will save that story for another time. Take a break. Sleep tight, God is on watch.
ââ?¬Å?He who watches over you will not slumber.ââ?¬Â Psalm 121:3