I work as a bus monitor for a bus company that is contracted to provide services for the Head Start program. The Head Start program is a government run preschool, so we shuttle small children to school. Most of the children are four or five years old, but we do have some three year olds. Youngsters that age need some active adult supervision, someone to keep peace between the children, interact with the kids. and ensure they are properly sercured in their seat belts and safety harnesses. The monitor takes care of the children so the driver can drive the bus without worrying about what’s going on behind him.
The first few weeks of school, I was a floater. I spent two weeks on bus 16 until a new monitor had been trained and could take over. As soon as bus 16 had a permanent monitor, I was moved to bus 8. I was on bus 8 for seven weeks waiting for the permanent monitor to be able to start. When she started, I was then sent to bus 19 as a permanent monitor. By now we were starting the second quarter of school, and 19 had so many children on their morning preschool route that they required a second monitor.
I got along just fine with the other monitor on 19 until I was put on her bus. Then I became the enemy. If I so much as double-checked the children’s seat belts or interacted with the kids in any way, she accused me of taking over her bus. And because I double checked their safety straps the first day I rode with them, she started crying. I tried not to step on her toes by interfering with her, but everything I did offended her – buckling in a child, singing a song with some of the children, doing my job. So I went home and prayed about it. I said, “Lord, what should I do? How do I handle this?” Well, I wasn’t handling it too well because the next morning I offended her by showing up for work.
I thought, Maybe I should talk to her about the Lord. I knew she wasn’t saved. So I grabbed two Gospel tracts, one for her and one for Robert, the bus driver. I wanted to talk to him, too. So that morning on the bus before we’d picked up any children I said to Mandie, “May I ask you a question?”
“Yeah, go ahead.”
I asked, “Mandie, have you ever thought about eternity?” I fully expected her to say no and close the subject, but she didn’t hear my question. What she heard was, “You dirty rotten sinner. You’re going to die and go to hell because you’re a horrible person.” I know that’s what she heard because of her response. For the next three minutes she yelled at me, repeatedly exclaiming how she was a good person and that she wasn’t going to hell. “Have you thought about eternity?” she cried. “Well, have you?” Mandie was good about demanding I answer her questions while she yelled at me to keep me from answering. She didn’t say another word to me after that.
I only had to tolerate Mandie for four days, and she quit. I was ever so glad that I had obeyed the prompting of the Holy Spirit and asked her about her salvation because I never got another opportunity. This one thing I know: her blood will not be on my hands. However, Robert was another matter. After dealing with Mandie’s response, I was a little reluctant to talk to Robert – at least right away. I wanted to give it a few days for things to cool down.
When I returned to work on Monday, Robert wasn’t there. He was home sick. He missed the entire week of work. Come to find out, he landed in the hospital with blood poisoning that almost killed him. It was nothing short of a miracle that he survived. He could have gone out into eternity before I talked to him. And yet, when I grabbed a tract for Mandie, I thought of Robert right then. I just didn’t know that this might be my only opportunity to talk to him. However, the Lord gave me another chance to talk to him when he returned to work. I also invited him to church and gave him a Gospel tract. Pray for Robert. He needs the Lord and he doesn’t know it. I expect to be on his bus for the rest of the school year. I would love to see him come to know the Lord as his Savior before summer vacation.