Jeff - Day 2

TRAVEL DAY Pt. 2: Stop the ferry, he’s a “pas-tah”

In the meeting after dinner last night I was asked to describe the day in three words. I think I chose the words “rested, surprised and tense.”

Rested: Woke up in the hotel bed in Atlanta yesterday morning. I always sleep like a ROCK on hotel beds for some reason. Maybe it’s the combo choice of soft or firm pillows. I felt ready to go about the day and finally arrive in St. John, but little did I know that I needed to cherish my memory of a soft bed and pillow to be followed by that night’s rest in the tents.

Surprised: I actually don’t remember why I picked “surprised”. Sorry.

Tense: The ferry rides are always tense, this year was not only no exception, it was more tense than usual. After getting all of our baggage out of the baggage claim in the airport, we all loaded up into the Jeeps to try to make the ferry that left in 30 minutes. It was 20 minutes away. John, Doug, Holly, Peter and I were the last to squeeze into a Jeep. As we got in, we noticed the seat didn’t lock when you sat in it, so, by acting on our instincts John decided that this would not be a very wise transportation choice. We began to be in a huge hurry, time was ticking. Therefore, the car-rental-man could not have moved any slower. Everything moves a little slower here on the island, but this guy must have been born and raised here. And probably injected with slow-motion poison. Whatever that is. ANYways, after signing all the paperwork and getting into a new Jeep we had to make the 20 minute drive in about 10 minutes or else we would miss the ferry to St. John, therefore making us miss the 2nd service in a day for the same church. (we missed the first due to Delta) Well, we pulled up. The ferry was there. We’re in. BUT….they were quickly running out of space. A man in a tiny little car with his wife/girlfriend and son actually cut us in line….therefore heightening the tension and causing us all to do that “I don’t know what to say to I’ll just blow air out of my mouth to make some sort of noise” or just stay quiet, because nothing any of us could have said could make things better. In fewer words, after an extremely stressed 10 minutes, we got onto the ferry and were on our way. This, however, DOESN’T include the fact that after we pushed off the dock, John forgot his clothes and they turned it around to get them because they found out he was speaking at a church.

We arrived at Cruz Bay Baptist right on time, and led the service for the evening. Doug, Jared and I led music and John, Allie, and Hunter spoke. Everyone did a great job sharing their testimony and John spoke on discipline with some nice stories from Georgia’s surfing lessons. That night after eating, we went back to the tents and set up our sleeping areas. We’ve brought back the Brentwood Baptist Power Circuit, which consists of us running hundreds of feet of extension cords from the bathrooms so we can have strategically placed fans in our tents. THAT was comfortable, but my inch and a half sleeping pad sans pillow isn’t so much. At least my back will be straight as an arrow by the time we leave. At least. Sorry this one doesn’t have a lot of spiritual content in it…I’ll touch on all that’s happened with the church and VBS tomorrow. With references and a large concordance. Later.