{"id":5212,"date":"2018-07-21T18:08:19","date_gmt":"2018-07-21T18:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.brethren.org\/news\/?p=5212"},"modified":"2018-09-29T18:15:57","modified_gmt":"2018-09-29T18:15:57","slug":"waiting-for-the-buses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2018\/waiting-for-the-buses\/","title":{"rendered":"Waiting for the bus(es)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Church of the Brethren Newsline
\nJuly\u00a021,\u00a02018<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"
The Pacific Southwest District group is the first youth group to arrive at NYC 2018, at 8:56 a.m. the morning of Saturday, July 21. Photo by Frank Ramirez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the morning, there is the calm before the storm.<\/strong>\u00a0Everyone is hard at work–staff, youth workers, volunteers–but there are only a few precious hours before the youth arrive. Their buses are being loaded somewhere two, three, five hours away. Or perhaps they have been on buses for one, two, or more days. Some are walking through airport security now, some are preparing for their first flights. Experienced travelers are mixed together with the homesick, who may be leaving home for the first time.<\/p>\n

It won\u2019t be long, and they all will be here.<\/strong>\u00a0There will be confusion–where\u2019s my room, where\u2019s my dinner, why did I come, what are all these key cards for? But by this evening everything will fall into place. The schedule and the programing and the preparation will come together, and National Youth Conference will be on.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Boxes are being hauled into place for registration.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The sun is up. The hive is humming.<\/p>\n

Eddie found coffee. He is well.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Buses were scheduled to start arriving at 10 a.m.,<\/strong>\u00a0but the first bus arrived more than an hour early at 8:56 a.m., from Pacific Southwest District. For them, Fort Collins is a distant city in the East, not the West.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a big moment when we crossed the border (out of California) into Nevada,\u201d said Erik Brummitt, pastor of Live Oak Church of the Brethren. \u201cThere weren\u2019t any real adventures. Everything went smoothly,\u201d said district advisor Nohemi Flores.<\/p>\n

By 9:15 they had been through registration and were leaving for their rooms, water bottles in hand.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Dr. Norm Waggy was ready with sunscreen.<\/strong><\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"\"
Adrianna Keller, an advisor, and two of her youth group from Lititz, Pa.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

More buses arrived.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Liberty Mills Church of the Brethren youth from South Central Indiana District all wore the same t-shirt bearing the group\u2019s name, \u201cThe Chew.\u201d Sydney explained: \u201cYou\u2019re not supposed to just read the Bible. You\u2019re supposed to chew on the words.\u201d<\/p>\n

The North Liberty Church group from Northern Indiana District had flown in but spent some hours getting exposed to altitude, said Aubrey. \u201cWe drove by Mount Evans. It\u2019s about an hour and a half from here. It\u2019s the highest paved road in Colorado, about 14,000 feet.\u201d<\/p>\n

A group from Hanover (Pa.) Church of the Brethren did some serious acclimating to the altitude. \u201cOn the trip out we went to Estes Park, we took a Rocky Mountain Park jeep tour, we took an Alpine Train to the Estes Park overlook,\u201d said advisor Amy Despines.<\/p>\n

Camden of South Waterloo, Iowa, enjoyed the Badlands on the way, but wasn\u2019t impressed with Wyoming. \u201cWe did some hiking in the Badlands.\u201d<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

\"\"
Soliday from Stone Church of the Brethren in central Pennsylvania.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Meanwhile, the day wore on.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr. Waggy, in cargo pants and a bucket hat, started high fiving youth with handfuls of sunscreen.<\/p>\n

Staff urged everyone to cover up and drink plenty of fluids.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Luke is part of his high school\u2019s track and cross-country teams<\/strong>, and hoped he was ready to run in Sunday\u2019s early morning 5K. He and his youth group from Spring Creek Church of the Brethren in Hershey, Pa., had been training at altitude in Boulder for a few days. \u201cI think the time zone change works in my favor,\u201d he said. \u201cI do a lot of running early in the morning anyway. The time difference won\u2019t bother me.\u201d<\/p>\n

They have a special shirt they\u2019ll unveil at the race.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Soliday took his first flight to come here.<\/strong>\u00a0It was \u201cgood,\u201d he said. He is enjoying himself.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

How did high schoolers raise the money to get here?<\/strong>\u00a0With lots of work and lots of help from their congregations.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Cyrus from Oakton Church of the Brethren in Maryland.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cyrus from Oakton Church of the Brethren in Mid-Atlantic District explained how his group raised money for NYC: \u201cWe sold boiled potatoes for a potato lunch. We made around $1,000.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Xavier from First Church Harrisburg.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe sold chocolate-covered pretzels. They\u2019re very popular,\u201d said Xavier from Harrisburg (Pa.) First Church of the Brethren.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did a pancake dinner, a couple\u2019s night out, a movie night,\u201d said Carter of Chambersburg (Pa.) Church of the Brethren.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do a yearly project. It\u2019s a sauerkraut and pork night. It\u2019s really big,\u201d said Adrianna Keller, a youth advisor from Lititz (Pa.) Church of the Brethren.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a silent auction. We cleaned houses. We auctioned off an old penny collection. It was probably worth a lot more than it went for,\u201d said Ben of the North Manchester (Ind.) Church.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe sold slushees at the popcorn festival,\u201d said Josh of Beaver Creek Church of the Brethren in Ohio. (There\u2019s a big popcorn festival in Beavercreek.)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe served Easter breakfast. The youth were involved in selling gift cards, taking advantage of a script program,\u201d said Dennis Beckner, pastor of Columbia City (Ind.) Church of the Brethren.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a chicken noodle dinner and a Super Bowl lunch,\u201d said Trenton of Osage (Kan.) Church of the Brethren.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Erika from Melvin Hill Church of the Brethren.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe had a love banquet on Valentine\u2019s Day,\u201d said Alyssa and Elizabeth of Monitor Church of the Brethren in McPherson, Kan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a car show, a tournament, and a spaghetti dinner,\u201d said Erika of the Melvin Hill Church in North Carolina.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe mostly sold food. We sold food at baseball and softball games. We had a soup and salad dinner, a bake sale, and the church gave us money,\u201d said Gabrielle of the Annville (Pa.) Church.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

The shade slowly moved<\/strong>, from the east side of Moby arena to the west side.<\/p>\n

Soon, inside Moby, worship will begin.<\/p>\n

— Frank Ramirez contributed this report.<\/em><\/p>\n

Members of the NYC 2018 Press Team contributed to this reporting. The team includes Laura Brown, Allie Dulabaum, Mary Dulabaum, Nevin Dulabaum, Eddie Edmonds, Russ Otto, Frank Ramirez, Alane Riegel, Glenn Riegel, and Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford, director of News Services for the Church of the Brethren.<\/em><\/p>\n

Photos by Frank Ramirez.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to\u00a0www.brethren.org\/Newsline<\/a>\u00a0to subscribe to the Church of the Brethren Newsline free e-mail news service and receive church news every week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the morning, there is the calm before the storm. Everyone is hard at work–staff, youth workers, volunteers–but there are only a few precious hours before the youth arrive. Their buses are being loaded somewhere two, three, five hours away. Or perhaps they have been on buses for one, two, or more days. Some are walking through airport security now, some are preparing for their first flights. Experienced travelers are mixed together with the homesick, who may be leaving home for the first time. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5213,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[806,1320,1283],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-5212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-congregational-life-ministries","tag-nyc","tag-youth-and-young-adults"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5212"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5219,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5212\/revisions\/5219"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5212"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=5212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}