#2 Lose the superintendent's daughter's sax on the way to an honor band audition

Once again I was taking my band on a field trip, this time to an honor band audition in Enid, Oklahoma.  We loaded up the bus, took roll, counted heads, and drove off into the sunrise.  We arrived at our destination, unpacked, and headed inside to warm-up.  All was well until a saxophone student came up to me and said, "I can't find my instrument."  Now, this student was very responsible, so I knew she hadn't forgotten it.  But I had to ask, "Are you sure you brought it?"  She responded, "yes of course I did," while she rolled her eyes at me, "I put it under the bus myself."  I asked her not to call her Dad yet (who happened to be the superintendent of my school district), we were going to search everywhere for it first.

Next stop, the bus.  We search in it, underneath it, around it, and all the while I had a sinking feeling that something very bad had happened.  I started to wonder who else was missing an instrument and just hadn't told me yet. Finally, I ask the bus driver, "did you check to make sure all the luggage doors were latched before we left?"  He answered, "I think I did.  Besides isn't it your job to make sure the equipment is secure?"  Ouch!  So my saxophone student called her Dad and I was lamenting the conversation I knew was coming.  Fortunately, the superintendent was more angry with the bus driver than me, because it turns out that it IS the driver's job to make sure all the luggage latches are secure before he drives off. However this story does have a happy ending.

First of all, my sax student told me, "I didn't really want to audition anyway," and she meant it, she looked relieved.  Second, an nice elderly couple were driving from Woodward to Enid and saw a saxophone case by the side of the road.  They stopped, picked it up, and saw the information tag with phone number and address.  The got back into their car, turned around, and drove back to Mooreland to turn it in to my students Dad.  Wow!  There are still good Samaritans who consider anyone to be their neighbor...even a lonely lost saxophone on the side of a road.  The couple said their children had been in band and they know how expensive instruments are.   They just did what they wished anyone else would have done for them. 

"Do to others what you would have them do to you." Luke 6:31 
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.  And love your neighbor as yourself.  There is no other commandment greater than these."  Mark 12:30-31