Wild Weird and Wacky Stories of a Teenage Youth Group.

wacky adventures

The Lazarus Phantom

It was a bright and beautiful sunny day in the middle of summer. The teen group was all piled into Leta's small car. We had just finished an afternoon of ice blocking and were headed back to the church. For those who are curious ice blocking is sledding with a few exceptions, it is done in the summer and instead of using sleds you use a blocks of ice and towels. You fold a towel so that it covers the top of the ice block then sitting on the block of ice and leaning back you slide down a hill. The only hard parts about ice blocking are finding blocks of ice the right size, trying to stay on your block of ice and then having to push or carry the block back to the top of the hill. All in all it is a lot of exercise as well as fun. If you wish to try this make sure you do two things, wear old clothes and bring towels and a change of clothes with you. You will get very dirty and very wet thus the reason for doing this activity on warm days.

Anyway, we were all still excited and were listening to our favorite Christian singer Carmen. Felix now an old friend of the ground and once in a while chaperone was driving Leta's car and he had a Phantom of the Opera mask with him.  For some reason he put the mask on.  No sooner had he placed the mask on his face our favorite Carmen song, Lazarus started playing.  The song Lazarus deals with death and resurrection of Lazarus from the dead. Our favorite part of Lazarus is at the end when Jesus calls Lazarus from the grave.  With windows down and music blasting as was tradition when this song started playing we headed down the hill towards the church. At the end of the hill we came across some teens sitting on the sidewalk. It was at the point in the song when Jesus calls Lazarus to come forth out of the grave e. With mask side facing the teens Felix bellowed the chorus to Lazarus.  "Come Forth I command you to come forth as he did he stretched out his hand and reached towards the horrified teens sitting on the curb in a follow me motion.  The teen's jaws dropped to the ground as we drove off unable to contain our laughter.

OH No! Where's Cathy?

It was a cold December evening and the teen group was on our way back home from a Quiz meet in New Hampshire. For those who do not know what Quizzing is I will try to explain. The whole point of Quizzing is to answer five different types of questions based on one or two books of the New Testament (second half of the bible for those who don't know the Bible). These were the type of questions awaiting us at the quiz meet ,according to Mathew Chapter 4 verse  who lead Jesus into the desert to be tempted?, Situation questions like who said to whom and why, finish the verse and give the reference, General questions like Mary was engaged to whom, and Memory verse quotes. Each person sits on a sensor and when a member of your team thinks they know the answer to the question the Quiz Master is asking they move and the sensor goes off.  The challenge is to beat the other team by answering the questions first. An individual is also scored based on the answer they give if they answer 4 questions correctly then they have quizzed out and are no longer part of the completion for that round. At the end of the day the top teams are named and if it is a championship meet they receive trophies and so do the top quizzers in each age category however, not every Quiz meet is a Championship meet.  Anyway, because of the location of the Quiz Meet we decided to carpool with the Manchester Church of the Nazarene also located in CT. I was in the van with Ann-Marie, Luis (from Manchester) and Peter and Tammy and we were all exhausted. When we reached Manchester the car tanks were getting low and it was tradition to fill the borrowed vehicles up for their owners as a thank you so we stopped at a local gas station to fill the tank.

It was at this pit stop that I decided that I needed a bathroom break. I along with Luis got out and went into the stations store to use the restroom. It was around Christmas time and on the way out I spotted a beautiful rose that I thought would make a wonderful gift for my elderly next door neighbor. I told Luis that I was going to purchase a gift for a Christmas present and bid him "I shall not be long, make sure that you guys don't leave without me ok?" He shook his head and muttered ok with a sigh and walked out the door and I hurried to get in line. Unfortunately, another customer decided that he did not have time to wait and pushed his way to the fount of the line. So much for the Christmas sprit I sighed. A small voice in my head said perhaps you should just go to the car and forget the present. I shoved this thought from my mind. No way!  Besides I was the next one in line and it wasn't like they would leave without me after all, Luis knew that I was still in the store right? If only I had listened. I often find myself wondering if that still small voice was God trying to warn me of the impending danger. You see I did not have a cell phone at the time and had no way of contacting my group.

When I walked out of the station I looked both ways and immediately knew something was wrong. Where's the car? Where's the van? They were just here where could they be?  I almost dropped my bag as I stared in shock and realized in horror that the van and car were gone.  My first thought was nice going Luis! I ask you to do one simple thing. Then it hit me, now was not the time to be blaming Luis. I had to find the cars maybe they hadn't gotten very far. I immediately searched the exit hoping to see my transportation to no avail.  I looked down the road to see the car and van stopped at a red light a little ways down the street. In desperation I started to run as fast as I could waving my arms in hopes that perhaps someone in the back seat would see me but to no prevail.  I watched as the light turned green and the car and van disappeared down the street. At that point my heart was heavy not knowing what to do. Terrifying questions raced in my head. What if they got all the way back to Wallingford before realizing that I wasn't with them? How long would the store stay open? Would they let me wait inside? If not, what would I do then? How would I stay warm on such a cold night? How would I ever get home? I stood for what seemed like hours staring at the road ahead.  Desperately praying that my group would come back. That they would realize what had happened before it was too late.  Then it dawned on me perhaps I could walk to the church after all, hadn't they said that it was right around the corner? No, a voice said quietly that would not be wise. What do I do now I prayed? Go back to the store and wait came the quite still voice once again. As I turned back towards the gas station I could not stop the tears from falling.  Though the voice assured me that everything would be alright I couldn't help but cry.

Once safely back at the gas station I began asking people what to do but no one answered my pleas for help. No one cared to help a strange girl left alone on such a cold night. They all rushed past me as if I wasn't there. I felt like I was all alone in the world. I often wonder if that is how homeless people feel.

Back in the car close to the church Ann-Marie realized that something was wrong. She looked at the others in the car and asked where is Cathy? Everyone in the van looked around and realized that I was not in the van.  They couldn't remember if I had gotten in the other car at the gas station. Panicked Ann-Marie asked if I was in the car with Leta and Deborah. However, because the car was further ahead and had special glass no one could tell so they prayed that I was in the car. When the van parked Ann-Marie ordered everyone to see if I was in the car. When she realized that I was not in the car with the others the horrible truth was realized.

Someone has got to tell Leta! Now, it was somewhat of a teen class tradition to play small jokes on Leta. Peter specialized in this category and had come up with plan to fool her at our last teen class meeting a few months before. It was Halloween and Peter decided to tell Leta that if you spun around really fast and then was turned upside down that the room would not spin.  Peter convinced everyone to agree with him and say yeah I've heard that too. Of course Leta just had to try this unique trick.  So she was shocked when she realized that it was all a joke. So when Peter and Ann-Marie ran to tell her that they had left me behind she thought that we were pulling her leg.  I am told that she laughed and would not believe them. It was only after looking for me in the van and having Ann-Marie insist that this was no joke did she realize that they were telling the truth.

Shock met with horror and instant worry. Immediately Leta ran to tell the other adults and once everyone knew what was going on the group got together and prayed for my safety. I'm teased that the group got together and decided on whether to leave me where I was or go and rescue me. Too this day I laugh and tell them yah right! Like they would do something that evil, Peter sure but the rest I doubt their little Jiminy Crickets would let them rest if they had really even considered leaving me behind.   Not to mention that my mother would have a thing or two to say about it. Mom often jokes that she wouldn't have minded but I know better. The truth is that Leta and Deborah raced to the car and back to the station as fast as they could legally go.  

Meanwhile back at the gas station I was starting to worry. I did not have a cell phone or a watch and it was starting to get really cold. Would they be coming any time soon? They had to know by now that I wasn't with them right? How long should it take for them to come back and get me? Then a terrible thought crossed my mind, maybe they weren't coming back for me. Maybe they were so tired that no one had noticed my absence. Maybe, they were already almost home by now. The still small voice calmed my fears. Do not worry I am with you. I will never leave you or forsake you. You are my child and everything will be just fine.  No sooner had the voice finished assuring me that everything was going to fine did I see the car pulling into the station.