The Adventures of Buster Rector

Enjoy the heart warming and humorous stories of America’s favorite Bus Director as he learns ministry lessons that only come from working with kids.

Our latest story is entitled “Buster Rector and the Helicopter Ride.” Updated April 25, 2010.

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Buster Rector and the Helicopter

Buster Rector was as excited as he had been in years. Here it was the last Sunday morning of the big campaign and the bus attendance was just over 300 and Children’s Church had been full all five Sundays this month. Things hadn’t been this thrilling at Victory Baptist Church in ages.

Up until a couple of months ago, he had about given up on promotions to get boys and girls to ride the bus or to attend church. It seems that no matter what he did, the kids just didn’t respond. But this promotion was different. It was simple, fairly inexpensive and, best of all; it got the kids excited!

Brother B got the idea when Whirly Byrd, a long time member of the National Guard, ask Brother B if he would like to let some of the kids ride in his big cargo helicopter. Whirly Byrd had already gotten permission from the colonel to fly twelve kids around the church for a few minutes. All Brother B would have to do is come up with some way to choose the fortunate boys and girls who would get to fly with him.He decided to have a month long contest for the children to bring visitors. May would be ideal since it was the end of school and had five Sundays. The boy and girl on each route bringing the most visitors that month would get to ride in the helicopter. Since he had five routes, that would be ten kids. He would get the other two by having the same contest for the drive-in kids in Children’s Church.

As Buster Rector thought about having a helicopter at his disposal, he realized it would be better if he could somehow come up with a way to involve all the kids with the huge flying machine, not just the dozen kids who earn the right to ride.

Then, one day it hit him as he was paying for gas at a local convenience store and looking over the candy rack for a quick snack - Tootsie Rolls! That’s it! Kids like Tootsie Rolls!

He would get a couple of thousand . . . no 10,000. Yeah, 10,000 miniature Tootsie Rolls. And he would let the kids who brought the most visitors drop the Tootsie Rolls out of the huge cargo windows on the sides of the helicopter to all the other kids waiting below.

It was perfect. It made earning a ride on the helicopter even more desirable. It gave the kids who didn’t get to ride something special. It was just a great idea . . . no, it was better than great, it was pure genius!

It turned out better than Buster Rector could have imagined.

Since the first week of April, he had been telling the kids about the big contest and about the chance to fly in a real National Guard helicopter. Then on the last Sunday of the month, he had Whirly Byrd come to Children’s Church decked out in his flight suit and told the kids that next Sunday he would have his helicopter there for them to look at.

That did it. When the kids saw the mammoth machine up close, they went crazy! They got busy and brought 87 first time visitors that month, many of them bus parents who came to help their child earn the helicopter ride. And, many of the visitors had been saved - which makes any promotion a success.

Now the big day was here - you could feel the electricity in the air.

Brother B had parked the buses in a circle (he had used the spare bus to make it an even six buses for the circle). All the kids who earned the helicopter ride were loaded on the helicopter with all the Tootsie Rolls and all the other kids were herded into the large circle the buses had made.

The idea was that Whirly Byrd would hover the helicopter 30 or so feet above the circle. His crew would then assist the children in the cargo bay in throwing the 10,000 Tootsie Rolls to the kids below.

Everything was in place as the helicopter flew overhead and appeared to stop in mid-air. Then it begun to slowly lower into the middle of the circle of buses.

Brother B noticed that the closer the immense machine got to the ground, the harder the wind coming from the enormous blades grew. In fact, it was beginning to blow terribly hard.

The smaller kids in the circle were starting to get blown over and up against the buses. Kids shirts looked like balloons and he had never realized so many of the girls wore dresses to church.

Most of them seemed to be enjoying it but Buster Rector thought it might be best to have Whirly Byrd move up another 10 or 20 feet, just to be safe.

Before Brother B could get Whirly Byrd’s attention, the kids start tossing out the Tootsie Rolls.

The wind from the blades started catching the small candy and hurled them at the children below like miniature missiles. It looked like a Tootsie Roll hailstorm! The kids were not only being blown down, now they were be pelted from above.

The kids started screaming and trying to get under the buses and the Tootsie Rolls just kept coming.

Buster Rector cupped his hands over his month and shouted as loudly as he could, “No more! No more! Please, no more!”

One of the helicopter crew waved to Brother B and gave him the thumbs up.

Brother B breathed a sigh of relief.

“OK, kids,” the guard member said, “you heard the man. More Tootsie Rolls!”

Buster Rector had no idea that it could take so long to dump 10,000 Tootsie Rolls to the ground. He had yelled until he was hoarse and now he was just trying to figure out what to say to all the kids and all their parents.

Finally, the helicopter pulled up and made its way back to the field behind the church. Brother B and the other workers watched as children begin to crawl out from under the buses. They looked as if they had been in a tornado.

To Brother B’s amazement, they started to smile and then to laugh and to give each other high-fives. And to pick up Tootsie Rolls. Even the girls were acting as if this entire thing had been fun.

Brother B looked to the other workers for some sort of explanation, but they didn’t understand it either. The kids had really delighted in the whole process. Even the workers started to laugh.

As the workers started trying to get the buses loaded and the drive-in kids back their parents, Whirly Byrd, his crew and the winning kids were walking toward them.

The pilot and crew seemed to have no idea of what happened and the kids in the helicopter were smiling from ear-to-ear. In fact, the only complaint Buster Rector had heard was from one of the helicopter riders who said that next time he wanted to be on the ground for all the fun.

When the last bus pulled out, Brother B made his way back to his office. He just could not believe that no one was hurt, mad or suing the church. The promotion was a tremendous success and what could have been a disaster, ended up remarkably well.

“I can’t believe I got so lucky after that stupid stunt,” Brother B thought.

“It worked great but who would have thought no one got hurt or even mad, for that matter. Yes, sir, I sure got a break. I really pulled the whole thing off without any hitches in the midst of that mess our there.”

As he fell into his chair, the open Bible caught his eye.

“Must have fallen open when I tossed it on the desk after church.” he thought.

He started to close it, but an underlined portion of scripture seem to stand out.

It was Psalms 73: So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee. Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever.“OK Lord, I get the message,” Brother B said aloud to himself.

“I was foolish, but you held me by my hand. You took my stupidity and worked everything out for your glory - not for my benefit.”

He bowed his head, “Thank you for your protection today, for all the visitors this month, for those who have been saved. I am sorry that I am so prideful and forget how you . . .”

After his time of prayer, Brother B thought a nap sounded nice. It had been a long day. God had blessed and most importantly, he had made his wrong right with God.

He headed toward where the buses were parked when a small object hit him on the head.

“Ouch!”  Something must have fallen from the trees, Brother B thought.

He bent over to see what it was that had beaned him.

It was . . . a Tootsie Roll!

Brother B laughed out loud as he picked up the piece of candy.

“Don’t tell me God doesn’t have a sense of humor,” he said as he put the Tootsie Roll in his month and begin to chew.