I considder myself the most blessed man to have married a wonderful daughter of Zion who prays a LOT! The woman prays endlessly especially for me. Little did I know that this would prove vital a few short years back when I encountered a man with a gun. Here is the full story. Buckle up because this is tense. I was a metro bus operater in a very large state capital metroplex that is famously known for the entertainment industry. I was driving a 40 foot long metro bus along what we refer to commonly as a fixed route. I would drive along on a set schedule of bus stops. My job was to safely transport passengers all along this fixed-route.
Each day before I would leave for work, my lovely wife would stop me and pray Psalms 91 over me. She paraphraised it by saying this prayer; "I pray safety, provision, and protection over my husband in Jesus mighty name. Amen." Short and sweet and well she did that without fail. She also prayed through out the whole shift at home while I drove my assigned routes.
I am not a true "city man" by nature and prefer small town life. So I was always concerned about safety in urbanized areas. My drive into work was about an hour long because we refused to live in the dangerous big city. We much prefered the safety and comforting home feeling of the small town life. So we chose to stay out of the city and live away.
So, one day while I was driving I had what seemed like an unusually crowded bus. I thought maybe there was a big event happening as folks were traveling through the city. At one point I had stopped and picked up a large crowd and the next stop let a few folks off as I continued on.
While moving along between bus stops my MDT beeps. The MDT is the device that metro busses use to communicate with our dispatch authorities and metro police. I look up and on the screen it reads; "Pick up handset". A handset is basically a black landline phone receiver with a mic buton on it in the drivers compartment. So I reached up with my left arm and grabbed it. I placed it up to my ear and keyed the mic. "Bus 2233, go ahead dispatch."
Dispatch - "2233 do you have this person on board your bus?"
and then they descrived this individual.
Me- "Dispatch that is affirmative. The individual is seated near the rear of my bus over."
Dispatch - "2233 where are you currently located and headed."
I explained the place I was at road wise and the nearest cross streets and what direction I was heading.
Disptach - "Pull over at the next bus stop. The local police department is on the way!".
Me - "Dispatch may I ask what is going on."
Dispatch - "ok do not make a scene but someone called in that this man was a loaded weapon on him. Remain calm and act like this is a time point.
OK so time points are certain scheduled points or stops we are to be at specific points of time durring our shift. Passengers rely on us to be at these time points, "stops" on time so they can be where they need to go such as their places of work or a doctors appointment and so on.
So, I stopped at the next bus stop and opened the front doors leaving the side doors closed. I held up the schedule as to appear as if we were at the next scheduled stop. So everything seemed pretty much just normal.
Then it happened!
Suddenly a PD squad cruiser shows up and two officers pull their weapons and rush inside of the bus screaming; "Where is HE!!!"
In about 20 seconds I hear, "There he is, we got him! Driver open these rear doors!"
I complied. as they placed the cuffs on the man, they litterally DRUG him out of my bus and with him he had a black small gym bag.
I watched in horror as they opened the bag to reviel what looked like a silver 45 pistol with a loaded magazine of rounds. Plus there were at least 2 or 3 more magazines full of rounds.
Then my head started spinning with all of the "What if's". I looked back at the seat and pondered; "Ok if he would have shot sideways he would have possibly shot someone in a car or in a home or local business. Or even that elementary school we passed."
"If he would have shot forward he would have shot other passengers or at an angle forward he would have shot myself!"
The possibilities had me realling.
Then ALL of a sudden I hear the Lord in my own heart speak to me.
He said; "Son, I just protected you and NOW you're worried?"
That hit me like a ton of bricks. It totally interrupted my whole train of thought and I quickly repented for worrying.
Each day before I would leave for work, my lovely wife would stop me and pray Psalms 91 over me. She paraphraised it by saying this prayer; "I pray safety, provision, and protection over my husband in Jesus mighty name. Amen." Short and sweet and well she did that without fail. She also prayed through out the whole shift at home while I drove my assigned routes.
I am not a true "city man" by nature and prefer small town life. So I was always concerned about safety in urbanized areas. My drive into work was about an hour long because we refused to live in the dangerous big city. We much prefered the safety and comforting home feeling of the small town life. So we chose to stay out of the city and live away.
So, one day while I was driving I had what seemed like an unusually crowded bus. I thought maybe there was a big event happening as folks were traveling through the city. At one point I had stopped and picked up a large crowd and the next stop let a few folks off as I continued on.
While moving along between bus stops my MDT beeps. The MDT is the device that metro busses use to communicate with our dispatch authorities and metro police. I look up and on the screen it reads; "Pick up handset". A handset is basically a black landline phone receiver with a mic buton on it in the drivers compartment. So I reached up with my left arm and grabbed it. I placed it up to my ear and keyed the mic. "Bus 2233, go ahead dispatch."
Dispatch - "2233 do you have this person on board your bus?"
and then they descrived this individual.
Me- "Dispatch that is affirmative. The individual is seated near the rear of my bus over."
Dispatch - "2233 where are you currently located and headed."
I explained the place I was at road wise and the nearest cross streets and what direction I was heading.
Disptach - "Pull over at the next bus stop. The local police department is on the way!".
Me - "Dispatch may I ask what is going on."
Dispatch - "ok do not make a scene but someone called in that this man was a loaded weapon on him. Remain calm and act like this is a time point.
OK so time points are certain scheduled points or stops we are to be at specific points of time durring our shift. Passengers rely on us to be at these time points, "stops" on time so they can be where they need to go such as their places of work or a doctors appointment and so on.
So, I stopped at the next bus stop and opened the front doors leaving the side doors closed. I held up the schedule as to appear as if we were at the next scheduled stop. So everything seemed pretty much just normal.
Then it happened!
Suddenly a PD squad cruiser shows up and two officers pull their weapons and rush inside of the bus screaming; "Where is HE!!!"
In about 20 seconds I hear, "There he is, we got him! Driver open these rear doors!"
I complied. as they placed the cuffs on the man, they litterally DRUG him out of my bus and with him he had a black small gym bag.
I watched in horror as they opened the bag to reviel what looked like a silver 45 pistol with a loaded magazine of rounds. Plus there were at least 2 or 3 more magazines full of rounds.
Then my head started spinning with all of the "What if's". I looked back at the seat and pondered; "Ok if he would have shot sideways he would have possibly shot someone in a car or in a home or local business. Or even that elementary school we passed."
"If he would have shot forward he would have shot other passengers or at an angle forward he would have shot myself!"
The possibilities had me realling.
Then ALL of a sudden I hear the Lord in my own heart speak to me.
He said; "Son, I just protected you and NOW you're worried?"
That hit me like a ton of bricks. It totally interrupted my whole train of thought and I quickly repented for worrying.
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