On the Bus

Twenty-Two Americans, known as the White Bus group, climbed on board the coach that was awaiting us when we flew into the Kemerovo airport. Amazing white frills decorated the inside. Was that bus a giant coffin or a wedding cake? We couldn’t agree on that, but what mattered was that we had wheels. We would be spending hours on this bus getting to the Russian people each day.

Bus life took on a character of its own. It was where we tried to catch up on sleep, write in journals, eat meals, visit, pray, sing, play games, and even have water fights! It is where we became a family.

The White Bus was not an exclusive group of Americans. It was a gift from God to be able to spend time with our interpreter friends from previous years and new ones too. They were all aboard as part of the family.

A little song off of a tape we listened to as kids became the anthem of our bus. The song titled, “We Are The Body of Christ,” refers to the value of the different jobs that each person does, working in cooperation with each other. That song became a reality to us on the bus as well as at our destinations where we lived and worked together as brothers and sisters—the Body of Christ.