Destination Unknown

Last night at school, we did a cool event for our high school students called Destination Unknown: Christmas Adventure. It was a Christmas party on wheels. The coolest part was that our kids had to sign up without having any idea where we were going or what we were doing. It turned out to be a blast and they are already asking when the next one is!

Here is a recap of what all took place on the first ever NCCS Destination Unknown…

Friday Night, December 14th was our first ever NCCS Destination Unknown: Christmas Adventure. 36 Upper School students and 5 staff jumped in the bus to head out for a surprise adventure. The bus was decorated with Christmas lights inside and out…so we knew we were in for some fun! Before the bus headed out to each stop, we had a quick riddle to get a clue about where we were headed.

Stop #1: Just like Jolly ole St. Nick, this man spreads Christmas cheer all year round. You might think that he should be able to breathe underwater, but he can’t.

Our first stop was at the home of Mr. Gil Maddox. Mr. Gil is the beloved longtime custodian here at North Cobb Christian School. Back in the spring, Mr. Gil had some health issues and during his stay in the hospital, he received over 1,000 cards and pictures from our NCCS students. He says that all the cards and visits helped him realize he had to get well quickly so he could get back here to “his kids.”

We decided that it would be fun to give Mr. Gil a “singing Christmas present.” We invited him to come outside and we sang some Christmas carols for him. He requested “Silent Night”. We did a few songs and ended with “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”. After hugs and lots of smiles, we loaded back on the “Big Yellow Sleigh” headed off for Stop #2.

Stop #2: Hey Angus let’s eat, how about a sweet chilly treat?

Our next stop was Steak and Shake in Acworth. We figured that we would have a long wait on a Friday night at 6:30pm, but we were blessed to walk in and sit right down. We had 41 people in and out of Steak and Shake in 45 minutes! That is pretty impressive. Everyone in our crowd loves to eat so there were a lot of smiles as we loaded the bus for Stop #3.

Stop #3: Our “Big Yellow Sleigh” is rolling forward, but they are always rolling back.

Our next stop was the WalMart in Acworth. I shared with our students the story of Bikes or Bust. There is a new church, Freedom Church, that is getting ready to launch in Acworth after the first of the year. Even before this church gets started, they want to be known for serving the community. They have identified 100 children at Acworth Elementary and McCall Primary School that could use an extra blessing at Christmas. Their goal is to collect 100 brand new bikes for these kids to give them for Christmas. You can read all about the plans on the Bikes or Bust website.

I shared with our Destination Unknown crew that it would be pretty cool if we could donate some bikes from the Upper School at NCCS. Each student paid $5 to sign up for Destination Unknown. I put $120 of that money into a hat and told them that they would have a chance to give towards the bikes. Two of our guys ran in WalMart to see how much the bikes would cost and we decided they would be an average of $50 each. I told the students that after our next stop, we would have two guys with Santa hats at the door of the bus collecting any money they wanted to donate.

I didn’t tell them about this in advance, because I wanted them to have a chance to give sacrificially. This way they gave out of what they had on them rather than extra money from Mom and Dad. Everyone was pretty excited as we rolled out of the WalMart parking lot. Several of the students were trying to think up the best way to collect a lot of money!

Stop #4: We’ve sung some songs, rolled back prices, how about a cup full of spices?

This clue was pretty easy to figure out. We went to…Starbucks! As we were getting off the bus, we reminded the students about Bikes or Bust. Many of them were talking about not getting anything and just giving all their money to Bikes or Bust. Some were even talking about just getting a tall instead of a venti to save some $$. It was cool to hear them thinking through those decisions.

As everyone was getting back on the bus, many of them put their change and leftover money into the hats. After a few minutes, the guys holding the hats asked me if they could go back into Starbucks and tell some strangers about the bike project and ask them for money. After about 5 minutes…they collected $15 more dollars!

We loaded up in the bus to head for Stop #5 and I started counting money with one of our junior boys.

Stop #5: Now we sit, comfy in our “Big Yellow Sleigh”, now all we need is a Winter Wonderland. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the ______.”

Our last stop of the evening was the Lights of Life. We went through the light display in Marietta down at Life College. It was pretty cool and everyone enjoyed drinking their Starbucks and checking out the lights. Once again, we were blessed because the traffic was really light and we didn’t have to rush through the displays.

Oh yeah…the most important part. We announced the total that we raised for Bikes or Bust. Our total donation will be $367.66!!! Can you believe that? They started with the $120 from the registration fees and then 41 people (mostly high schoolers) gave sacrificially over $240!! How amazing is that? We will be able to give at least 7 brand new bikes and possibly even more because WalMart is offering a Bikes or Bust discount! What a great opportunity to reach kids for Christ.  **UPDATE ON SATURDAY...We just found out that WalMart is selling the bikes for $30 each.  That means we will be purchasing at least 12 bikes on behalf of North Cobb Christian!!

We arrived back at school about 10 minutes before 10pm. We joined together in a time of prayer for the kids that would be receiving the bikes we were going to purchase for them. We will purchase the bikes this Tuesday at WalMart to take to the Bikes or Bust event.

Overall, the first Destination Unknown was a great event and we are looking forward to the next one. For now…all our students have to get to work studying for their finals this week. Merry Christmas to all and to all a GOOD NIGHT!