ski trip returning home...hopefully

We are in the bus. We have BEEN in the bus for a little over 3 hours. It has taken us that long to travel about 1.5 hours distance...

We woke up to blizzard type conditions (at least by Alabama standards!).f Several inches of snow had fallen over night with more coming down every second. After some careful maneuvers, and ALL of the boys in the back of Onas' truck, we managed to get out of our lodge driveway. Getting to the interstate was a different story.

The bus and the van were slipping and sliding a bit, but managed. Onas was bringing up the rear in his truck, which is also towing the trailer with all of our supplies and luggage. He got stuck... There is a pretty significant hill just as we turned out of the lodge area. We turned around and again sent all of the boys out into the snow to stand in the back of the truck. No luck... The Beckley, WV police showed up... (I wish you could have seen his face when he rounded the trailer, only to look into the eyes of 10 teenage boys STANDING PERFECTLY STILL in the truck). Priceless moment! After several attempts, it was decided that the bus and van would go ahead and leave Barbara, Onas, and luggage behind. They were going to wait for the scrapers and salters to clear the roads a little, then try it...

That was all about 3 hours ago. They are still sitting there. The decision was finally made to call a tow truck to tow them about 7 miles to the interstate (or until they can be under their own power) ...whichever comes first.

Please pray for safety for us. It has been really dicey. We are almost to TN. The snow has stopped falling, but the roads and surroundings still have snow and ice on them. A tense driving situation to say the least.

We have had a wonderful trip. It snowed the first day of skiing. The kids loved that! They stayed up most of the night, every night, then slept till about 9, then started again. We had some really good kids with us, minimal trouble, and great skiing weather. The kids really bonded well. They also received well the lessons that were presented.

We had kids from Randolph County High School, Woodland High School, and Wadley High School. All of which are active members of our youth group. We also had a couple of kids from First Methodist. All in all - a great time was had by all!

Thank you to all of the chaperones who were willing to use their work vacation times to come and supervise this trip. We couldn't have done it without any one of you. Thanks to Brian and Jill Phillips for all of their pre-planning prep work and all around youth supervision/instigation =]. David and Leisa Benefield for driving and helping with meal prep and crowd control. Onas and Barbara Brand for driving, meal prep and lesson planning/presentation. Mark and Robin Prestridge for driving, meal prep, and crowd control. And Robby and Donna Phillips for driving, meal prep, and crowd control. Thanks also to all of the fabulous youth for being such great human beings and inspiring all of us chaperones to want to be better grown-ups.

The plan of salvation was shared every night through the Bible study. Should one of your youth have questions, please feel free to call any one of us. The ultimate goal is for all of us to be shredding the slopes together in heaven one day! =]

Thanks again for all of the prayers, we will need it! It's snowing again...

Blessings!

(P.S. As I finished typing we got the call that Barbara and Onas are on the interstate! Yay! Not sure how much that cost, but at least they are rolling now. They're about 3.5 hours behind us. We have also crossed over into TN!)