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| The Holy Ghost Riders in uniform with the red carpet! |
We have had some exciting developments over the last several months which we are going to chronicle but this blog is going to devote itself nearly entirely to a week by week logging of the events that take place. This will cover everything from the daily attendance on each route to neat, exciting or even tragic things which occur as God has His way. It is exciting to see our youth become more and more involved and you can see the change as burdens begin to settle in and they claim it more and more for themselves.
Before we get to where we are now we are going to quickly recap some of the really really neat things God has already done.
First a HUGE thank you to everyone that has been involved in this bus ministry from its inception to where God has brought it. Years of blood, sweat and tears have been poured into this and we cannot say enough about the wonderful people who have been involved throughout the years.
I apologize for the personal point of view on this blog but I don't know how else to write it but from my experiences.
When I started, I went on the bus as a favor. Someone integral to the bus wasn't able to make it and they asked if just for one day I could help out. As I had NEVER been involved with the buses in any way I figured this would, if nothing else, be an interesting way to spend the morning. I had taught Sunday School for years and had dealt with the bus kids on that level but I had never ridden the bus, never been to their homes and never been able to know them on anything but a surface level. Well, this morning changed everything.
At that time there weren't too many kids on the bus but I found that first of all, it was a LOT OF FUN! They were singing songs with the kids and I instantly found that all of the kids we picked up knew all the words to songs I hadn't even known existed. I nevertheless joined in raucously but suddenly we were interrupted by the bus stopping at a railroad crossing, the doors swinging open and everyone on the bus screaming "HALLELUJAH" at the top of their lungs, an occurrence which both nonplussed and delighted me.
When that morning was over, I wanted to come back... it didn't hurt of course, that I was very attracted to one of the bus workers (soon to be my wife).
After a few trips on the bus learning the ropes, I finally began to get the hang of things. I had learned the songs and was soon becoming obnoxious with my water buffalo-like bellowing. A few of the bus workers and I wanted to see if we would be able to fill the bus up a bit more however, so we got together and decided that we would try going on a Saturday outreach to one of the apartment buildings we routinely visited.
About 8 to 10 of us went on that first outreach to Sierra Pointe apartments in north Rialto. Our goals were two-fold. We wanted more kids to come AND we wanted them to be ready and on the curb waiting for us if possible. That day we hit every single door in that complex.
At one door I met an older Spanish lady who didn't speak a word of English. This coupled with my complete inability to communicate in Spanish lead to quite an exciting few minutes. Limited sign language and a lot of effort later we came to an agreement; the agreement that she would come to Sunday School in the morning on the bus (actually I had no idea what we had agreed upon but it at least ended amicably).
The next morning we made a few other pickups but imagine our ASTONISHMENT AND DELIGHT when pulling up to Sierra Pointe we saw a crowd of people on the sidewalk waiting for us! I don't remember the exact number of people we picked up (around 10 or so) but while they were loading I will NOT forget seeing the lady I had talked to the day before, resplendent in her Sunday-go-to-meetin' clothes getting on the bus with her granddaughter!
Our bus up to that point had an approximate attendance of around 10 or so but this day so inspired all of us we made it each of our personal goals to increase that number DRASTICALLY in the very near future.
God soon honored our commitment and within just a week or two we had the twenty kids we so craved. We then pushed our goal to 30! But that proved MUCH more difficult.
Week after week went by with dedicated outreaches. Every time we got a new family to get on the bus an old one would get sick or be on vacation. It seemed like we were NEVER going to get their despite our best efforts. In fact there were one or two Sundays when we would have 28 and 29 kids but not 30. But every Saturday we went out again.
One Sunday, with no special push we began to notice the bus we getting more full than normal. Each stop had a few additional kids but as they are like ants, in constant motion, it is very difficult to ascertain the number of passengers until they file out and are counted one by one. Imagine our astonishment when not 20 or even 30 kids exited but over 40! We were dumbfounded but thrilled... God was doing great things.
* * *
First a HUGE thank you to everyone that has been involved in this bus ministry from its inception to where God has brought it. Years of blood, sweat and tears have been poured into this and we cannot say enough about the wonderful people who have been involved throughout the years.
* * *
I apologize for the personal point of view on this blog but I don't know how else to write it but from my experiences.
When I started, I went on the bus as a favor. Someone integral to the bus wasn't able to make it and they asked if just for one day I could help out. As I had NEVER been involved with the buses in any way I figured this would, if nothing else, be an interesting way to spend the morning. I had taught Sunday School for years and had dealt with the bus kids on that level but I had never ridden the bus, never been to their homes and never been able to know them on anything but a surface level. Well, this morning changed everything.
At that time there weren't too many kids on the bus but I found that first of all, it was a LOT OF FUN! They were singing songs with the kids and I instantly found that all of the kids we picked up knew all the words to songs I hadn't even known existed. I nevertheless joined in raucously but suddenly we were interrupted by the bus stopping at a railroad crossing, the doors swinging open and everyone on the bus screaming "HALLELUJAH" at the top of their lungs, an occurrence which both nonplussed and delighted me.
When that morning was over, I wanted to come back... it didn't hurt of course, that I was very attracted to one of the bus workers (soon to be my wife).
After a few trips on the bus learning the ropes, I finally began to get the hang of things. I had learned the songs and was soon becoming obnoxious with my water buffalo-like bellowing. A few of the bus workers and I wanted to see if we would be able to fill the bus up a bit more however, so we got together and decided that we would try going on a Saturday outreach to one of the apartment buildings we routinely visited.
About 8 to 10 of us went on that first outreach to Sierra Pointe apartments in north Rialto. Our goals were two-fold. We wanted more kids to come AND we wanted them to be ready and on the curb waiting for us if possible. That day we hit every single door in that complex.
At one door I met an older Spanish lady who didn't speak a word of English. This coupled with my complete inability to communicate in Spanish lead to quite an exciting few minutes. Limited sign language and a lot of effort later we came to an agreement; the agreement that she would come to Sunday School in the morning on the bus (actually I had no idea what we had agreed upon but it at least ended amicably).
The next morning we made a few other pickups but imagine our ASTONISHMENT AND DELIGHT when pulling up to Sierra Pointe we saw a crowd of people on the sidewalk waiting for us! I don't remember the exact number of people we picked up (around 10 or so) but while they were loading I will NOT forget seeing the lady I had talked to the day before, resplendent in her Sunday-go-to-meetin' clothes getting on the bus with her granddaughter!
Our bus up to that point had an approximate attendance of around 10 or so but this day so inspired all of us we made it each of our personal goals to increase that number DRASTICALLY in the very near future.
* * *
Those of us that were involved with the bus ministry at that time began to set goals...modest goals at first, such as we wanted to get 20 kids picked up on a single Sunday. We began weekly outreaches on our existing routes with as many people as we could get and began visiting all of our "regular" bus workers every week.God soon honored our commitment and within just a week or two we had the twenty kids we so craved. We then pushed our goal to 30! But that proved MUCH more difficult.
Week after week went by with dedicated outreaches. Every time we got a new family to get on the bus an old one would get sick or be on vacation. It seemed like we were NEVER going to get their despite our best efforts. In fact there were one or two Sundays when we would have 28 and 29 kids but not 30. But every Saturday we went out again.
One Sunday, with no special push we began to notice the bus we getting more full than normal. Each stop had a few additional kids but as they are like ants, in constant motion, it is very difficult to ascertain the number of passengers until they file out and are counted one by one. Imagine our astonishment when not 20 or even 30 kids exited but over 40! We were dumbfounded but thrilled... God was doing great things.
* * *
As our faith in what God could do with our bus ministry soared, so equally did our imaginations and expectations. In the back of our minds there were two goals that at first we almost dared not to be speak out loud but were there nevertheless... the first was that we wanted to fill our bus up so full that we had to purchase and run ANOTHER bus and secondly, we wanted just once before April of 2013 to have over 100 kids on the bus.
Gradually the numbers increased and our bus (a 72 passenger) experienced a very strange dynamic. At first there were so few kids that we felt almost silly driving such a large vehicle... this graduated into a feeling of joy and thankfulness that we had a bus big enough to hold the increasingly large attendance... and finally into a claustrophobic feeling of almost panicked crampedness as we became overcrowded.
Then came our special push. We stole the idea of "Super Sunday" and implemented it on a limited basis for our Sunday School. We planned for hamburgers, chips, bounce houses, snow cones, basketball, football etc and were hoping to get 80-90 kids. We were absolutely dumbfounded when our FIRST load of kids that morning was over 95! We had to offload many of our bus workers while still on the route to be picked up on the 2nd trip. We had a second load picked up by our shuttle bus and the big bus then made another trip. All told that day we had a WHOPPING 132 people come on the bus. God had helped us reach what we thought was a nearly impossible goal WAY before we anticipated it would happen.
After week after week of having 70 plus people on the bus (you can scarcely imagine how crowded and crazy those trips were) we began very actively to search for another bus. We looked online, went to auctions etc but something always seemed to happen which would put off the purchase. But God had everything worked out ahead of time. In one miraculous week we went from not having the hope of another bus to owning a beautiful 84 passenger bus that was absolutely perfect for what we needed!
We had previously started another route using our shuttle bus (18 passenger) and we moved that route to the 72 passenger bus, setup the main route on the 84 passenger and began running the shuttle bus on a third route.
This entire time we had been scrambling for drivers but one by one God blessed us with more and more capable licensed drivers. We now have four GREAT drivers available to drive with others on the way... THANK YOU JESUS!
During this process, we really wanted to see our youth get more and more involved in this ministry and as it expanded the demand became greater. We had some fantastic bus workers but just not enough for the increasing scope of the work load. One by one, just like God supplied the drivers, He gave us dedicated, consistent, committed young people as we needed them.
Finally we realized we needed to be branded and uniform. We came up with the Holy Ghost Riders theme with bright orange t-shirts. We asked each young person that wanted to be involved, who were willing to take it seriously and were willing to commit for up to 6 months to fill out an application. Once they completed their agreed upon duties, bus workers, greeters, outreach etc for 4 consecutive weeks they were given a t-shirt.
We currently have over 25 dedicated, eager, ambitious young people that meet every Saturday and Sunday who are doing their best to take Rialto by storm! We have two buses and a shuttle, are looking at purchasing another bus soon and only see good things on the horizon. TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY!
Gradually the numbers increased and our bus (a 72 passenger) experienced a very strange dynamic. At first there were so few kids that we felt almost silly driving such a large vehicle... this graduated into a feeling of joy and thankfulness that we had a bus big enough to hold the increasingly large attendance... and finally into a claustrophobic feeling of almost panicked crampedness as we became overcrowded.
Then came our special push. We stole the idea of "Super Sunday" and implemented it on a limited basis for our Sunday School. We planned for hamburgers, chips, bounce houses, snow cones, basketball, football etc and were hoping to get 80-90 kids. We were absolutely dumbfounded when our FIRST load of kids that morning was over 95! We had to offload many of our bus workers while still on the route to be picked up on the 2nd trip. We had a second load picked up by our shuttle bus and the big bus then made another trip. All told that day we had a WHOPPING 132 people come on the bus. God had helped us reach what we thought was a nearly impossible goal WAY before we anticipated it would happen.
After week after week of having 70 plus people on the bus (you can scarcely imagine how crowded and crazy those trips were) we began very actively to search for another bus. We looked online, went to auctions etc but something always seemed to happen which would put off the purchase. But God had everything worked out ahead of time. In one miraculous week we went from not having the hope of another bus to owning a beautiful 84 passenger bus that was absolutely perfect for what we needed!
We had previously started another route using our shuttle bus (18 passenger) and we moved that route to the 72 passenger bus, setup the main route on the 84 passenger and began running the shuttle bus on a third route.
This entire time we had been scrambling for drivers but one by one God blessed us with more and more capable licensed drivers. We now have four GREAT drivers available to drive with others on the way... THANK YOU JESUS!
During this process, we really wanted to see our youth get more and more involved in this ministry and as it expanded the demand became greater. We had some fantastic bus workers but just not enough for the increasing scope of the work load. One by one, just like God supplied the drivers, He gave us dedicated, consistent, committed young people as we needed them.
Finally we realized we needed to be branded and uniform. We came up with the Holy Ghost Riders theme with bright orange t-shirts. We asked each young person that wanted to be involved, who were willing to take it seriously and were willing to commit for up to 6 months to fill out an application. Once they completed their agreed upon duties, bus workers, greeters, outreach etc for 4 consecutive weeks they were given a t-shirt.
We currently have over 25 dedicated, eager, ambitious young people that meet every Saturday and Sunday who are doing their best to take Rialto by storm! We have two buses and a shuttle, are looking at purchasing another bus soon and only see good things on the horizon. TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY!
