Few can argue with the need for transportation within youth ministry. It’s a staple of ministries large and small. Either a church car pools, rents vans, or if they have the means, takes their own bus or van. Many years ago a vision was birthed to reach the students of Wilmington at a church with a newly hired youth pastor. With lots of creative fundraising and looking, a bus was found at an auction site. The bus had a diesel engine, but the listing said gas and we walked away with TWO buses at great deals. These were prison buses, used to transport prisoners.

Imagine two beige prison buses, driving back to Wilmington, and pulling into the church parking lot. For one season the youth pastor (me) tortured the youth group with orange t-shirts—riding in a beige bus! Never saw too many wear those shirts. (!) We were able to give one bus away to a young youth ministry in the next county.

Even cooler, there happened to be a guy at our church that used to paint buses! We taped the bus up, and we painted it the beautiful Teal colors you see now, in honor of our local UNCW Seahawks. We placed custom seats in it. The old seats had scratched etchings I’m not sure how cuffed-up prisoners could manage to write on the backs of the seats. We put a custom sound system in it. It was a youth ministry’s dream bus, or so we thought. It was God’s bus. It was our bus.

The memories students created with that bus are amazing. Many can tell you stories of riding to assist families hit by Hurricane Katrina in Gulfport, MS, riding to snow covered mountains on treacherous winding mountain roads for unforgettable winter retreats, going to DNOW Conferences, Christian Music Concerts, Theme Parks, Caroling to Shut-Ins, or just a local trip to the beach to refresh tourists with a bottle of water and a conversation about Jesus.

All these memories were possible by God and by volunteers who gave of their blood, sweat and tears (and even a torn plantaris muscle) to get those crazy teenagers a little closer to Jesus (some quicker than others!) My drivers are the greatest in the world. They love Jesus, and they love students. All have contributed much to God’s purposes fulfilled in the lives of these students.

We are officially selling the bus. Going to miss this. In a way it’s transformational. This bus went from transporting captives as far as the law goes, to transporting those who were once captive to sin, and now set free in Jesus. Fittingly, the bus is being sold to an up and coming youth ministry a county away. Excited for them. They will rock that Bus for the kingdom! The legacy of the Green Bus will continue! I’m so glad such a resource was used and will continue to be used to point people to Jesus.