The next morning after breakfast the group gathered around the campfire for the final time. They had a special guest, it was the thin, tan man that the Leader had been talking to the day before at Santa Monica Pier.
The Leader talked to the group about changes. Changes happen in life all the time, and most of the time they are not easy! Today there were going to be many changes; this was the last time that the whole group would gather around a campfire, they would not be traveling down Route 66 anymore! Later they would go to the airport because the people from their Church had paid for the group to fly home! The kids were so excited, they could hardly wait to get on that airplane and fly all the way back home!
The Leader did have some bad news, he got the group to quiet down and then said, “We are not all going home on the airplane!” The kids were shocked! They looked at each other and wondered who was not going home on the airplane. The Leader told them that the Ugly Little Blue Bus was not going home with them!
There was silence in the group, even though the Ugly Little Blue Bus was not a person, that bus had been with them the whole trip on Route 66. That bus had kept them safe the whole way and was almost like one of the group! They were going to miss the Ugly Little Blue Bus. What was going to happen to the Ugly Little Blue Bus? They had seen pictures of old buses in junk yards, and they did not want the Ugly Little Blue Bus to end up like that!
The Leader then introduced their special guest. The thin man with the great tan was named Gus, and he was going to buy the Ugly Little Blue Bus. Gus had a dream of owning a small bus and turning it into a ‘food bus’! The Ugly Little Blue Bus would have a new name, it would be called ‘The Food Bus by Gus’! Gus was going to sell, Tacos, French Fries, Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, and Duct Tape!
The kids were happy that the Ugly Little Blue Bus was not going to the junk yard, but they were still sad because they would miss that bus!
The Leader talked to the kids about changes. Some of the most difficult changes in life involve losing people that are close to us. Our family might move, or their family might move, or someone might come to the end of their life and die. Any of these changes can make a person feel very sad and lonely. It seems like life will never be the same again. God understands these feelings, it is never easy to go through a change that involves losing someone who is close to you.
In the Bible in John 14:1 Jesus says:
Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in Me.
In the Bible in John 16:33 Jesus says:
I have told you all this so that you may have peace in Me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.
In the Bible in Proverbs 3:5-6 it says:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take.
God understands that changes often bring loneliness and sadness when people that we love go out of our life. God says to trust Him, He will bring you through everything in this life. No matter how much sadness we experience, we need to trust God and follow His leading in our life.
The kids learned a good lesson, even though they were only losing a bus, not a person, they would remember this lesson the rest of their lives. The secret is to trust God to bring us through any circumstance.