05 July 2011
Little-ton, big adventure
Oh, what a challenging week. Thank goodness our youth group is a bunch of good kids.
04 July 2011
driving some of us crazy
Or, Driving: Some of us? Crazy.
Last week I took my annual mission trip with the middle school youth of my home church. This year's destination: New Hampshire, which was really exciting because it's a state I hadn't been to, but also exciting for its weather (less hot and more pleasant for working on houses). However desirable this all might have seemed, the trip started out less than desirably in that it came to a complete halt at about 6:35 AM, just after we departed from the church parking lot with our two 15 passenger vans and a mini van full of luggage.
The two passenger vans stopped for fuel before hitting the parkway; our youth director, Robin, continued onward with her 4 year old daughter and one of our other leaders, Mike. As we finished fueling our vans, we received the call from her: there had been an accident. A bad one. We weren't sure if the other driver was alive.
We caught up to Robin at mile 87 on the Parkway, pulling up past the wreck at my insistence so that the youth wouldn't be forced to sit and stare at the mess. Robin's van, heavy laden with the kids' luggage and tools, sustained quite a bit of damage after being rear-ended by someone who must have been flying, because the other vehicle, an SUV, was upside and absolutely smashed. The good news was, by the time we arrived at the scene, the other driver was out of the van on her own volition, sitting on the ground, motionless, staring blankly at it.
My role in all of this was the calm person who was paying attention to details like, let's make sure the kids understand what's going on and that no one was seriously hurt (the other driver had some cuts on her arms and our guys in the luggage van were a little sore), and, how about I take care of the 4 year old, who is very confused why her mommy is talking to a police officer right now. She had no idea what was really going on, but had never seen a cop before and was pretty scared.
As time wore on, we watched some paramedics patch up the other driver, and talk to her a bit, and eventually handcuff her and send her off with the police. I can't imagine the other driver being sober and driving so wrecklessly at 6:30 on a Sunday morning.
It took us two hours to get back on the road, thanks to Mike's parents loaning their van for our luggage. Our youth were troopers through it all, mostly behaving themselves and tolerating the emotionally exhausted adults for the following 10 hours it took us to get to Littleton, NH (including stops for lunch and fuel). A lot of the conversation amongst the adults were What If's. What if Robin hadn't been so in control of the van? What if they had stopped for gas? What if that car hit any of our other vans that weren't so weighed down? What if that car had hit any other car?
We could speculate the What If's forever, but what happened, happened. Also, I am amazed at how well timed and perfectly it happened. If that SUV hit anyone else, it might have ended very differently. There weren't many cars on the road at 6:30 on a Sunday morning. Robin may have momentarily forgotten to stop at the gas station, but her heavy van stopped that SUV in its tracks. No one was seriously hurt. As much as it was a terrible way to start the week, it really ended as well as it possibly could.
Last week I took my annual mission trip with the middle school youth of my home church. This year's destination: New Hampshire, which was really exciting because it's a state I hadn't been to, but also exciting for its weather (less hot and more pleasant for working on houses). However desirable this all might have seemed, the trip started out less than desirably in that it came to a complete halt at about 6:35 AM, just after we departed from the church parking lot with our two 15 passenger vans and a mini van full of luggage.
The two passenger vans stopped for fuel before hitting the parkway; our youth director, Robin, continued onward with her 4 year old daughter and one of our other leaders, Mike. As we finished fueling our vans, we received the call from her: there had been an accident. A bad one. We weren't sure if the other driver was alive.
We caught up to Robin at mile 87 on the Parkway, pulling up past the wreck at my insistence so that the youth wouldn't be forced to sit and stare at the mess. Robin's van, heavy laden with the kids' luggage and tools, sustained quite a bit of damage after being rear-ended by someone who must have been flying, because the other vehicle, an SUV, was upside and absolutely smashed. The good news was, by the time we arrived at the scene, the other driver was out of the van on her own volition, sitting on the ground, motionless, staring blankly at it.
My role in all of this was the calm person who was paying attention to details like, let's make sure the kids understand what's going on and that no one was seriously hurt (the other driver had some cuts on her arms and our guys in the luggage van were a little sore), and, how about I take care of the 4 year old, who is very confused why her mommy is talking to a police officer right now. She had no idea what was really going on, but had never seen a cop before and was pretty scared.
As time wore on, we watched some paramedics patch up the other driver, and talk to her a bit, and eventually handcuff her and send her off with the police. I can't imagine the other driver being sober and driving so wrecklessly at 6:30 on a Sunday morning.
It took us two hours to get back on the road, thanks to Mike's parents loaning their van for our luggage. Our youth were troopers through it all, mostly behaving themselves and tolerating the emotionally exhausted adults for the following 10 hours it took us to get to Littleton, NH (including stops for lunch and fuel). A lot of the conversation amongst the adults were What If's. What if Robin hadn't been so in control of the van? What if they had stopped for gas? What if that car hit any of our other vans that weren't so weighed down? What if that car had hit any other car?
We could speculate the What If's forever, but what happened, happened. Also, I am amazed at how well timed and perfectly it happened. If that SUV hit anyone else, it might have ended very differently. There weren't many cars on the road at 6:30 on a Sunday morning. Robin may have momentarily forgotten to stop at the gas station, but her heavy van stopped that SUV in its tracks. No one was seriously hurt. As much as it was a terrible way to start the week, it really ended as well as it possibly could.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
