Since I became a Christian, I have worked on bus routes.
The first church that allowed me to come had a single bus that they ran on Sunday nights. The bus picked up adults that didn’t have any other way to church. I wasn’t needed on the bus, but I wanted to ride and they let me. I was just trying to be involved in as much as I could at the church.
The church that I attended with my parents had a bus ministry with six routes. Every Saturday, our pastor held a bus meeting at 10:00 AM. I would show up early to make sure the room was clean and the chairs were set up. Each bus route was named after a person from the Bible and was represented by a flag. The bus meeting consisted of singing some bus songs together, a funny skit was performed and then our pastor would give us a challenge from the Bible. We would then dismiss and go and visit our routes. We would go and see all of the regular riders and then knock on doors looking to sign up new kids.
I started on the Andrew bus route. We picked up some pretty rough kids. I got drilled in the nose and laid out in the aisle of the bus by one kid who thought I was being too hard on his brother. Eventually, the route became so rough that our pastor had to make the call to shut it down. The route still existed but became one that picked up mentally and physically disabled teens and adults. I was given charge of a young man named Eddie. Eddie was about 25 year old. He didn’t talk but he always had a smile on his face. He was strong as an ox. He wore a parachute harness . My job was to keep a grip on the harness at all times. If I ever let go, he may get up and take off running. Eddie and I got used to one another. I learned his mannerisms. I sat next to him in church and he would just sit there smiling. He would start to rock back and forth, gently and slowly at first, but then he would pick up in speed and intensity. This was a sign that he was going to jump up and run. I would release his harness from my grip while sitting in church, but if he started to rock, I would grab it. He would jump up and try to run, but I was able to pull him back into his seat. Sometimes, I would get wrapped up in the sermon and Eddie would start to rock unbeknownst to me. He would jump up and take off like a rocket and start making laps around the auditorium. On more than one occasion, I had to jump up and chase after him until he was caught. Our pastor would have to stop the sermon until I caught Eddie and returned him to his seat.
While no one ever considered not letting Eddie come to church in spite of his potential for distraction, it was probably considered that I not get to handle Eddie. I was the only one fast enough to catch him though.
Joel Stiff's Adventure 