The Plan

In late 1992, as I began to try and finalize the details of our Floridays 1993 trip, my ideas were becoming more grandiose by the day.  I knew I wanted us to stay on Disney property.  At the time, there was only one hotel on-site that we could possibly afford- Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort (pictured).  Marilyn and I (and my Mom and Dad) had stayed there a couple of times and loved it.  But even this "value" resort would be twice as expensive as the motels we has used on previous Florida trips.  Plus, the company I had used for those trips, Destination: Orlando, did not work with Disney directly, so I would have to find a new travel company to work with.  I also wanted to find some way to include some nice meals at the amazing restaurants of WDW in the cost, knowing that the students would eat only fast food if they were paying out of pocket.  I wanted to do six day park-hopper passes that would allow us to enjoy the water parks as well as the three main parks.  Put simply, I wanted it all!

A little research and a few phone calls led me to the Walt Disney Travel Company.  This Orlando based business was not officially associated with Disney, but they did all of their work for groups who were coming to see Mickey.  When I told them what all I wanted to do, they became very excited.  Very few groups came to them with leaders who knew as much about WDW as I did.  They had not booked many groups into the Caribbean Beach Resort, but they could.  They could offer us meal coupons good for ANY restaurant on Disney property, including appetizer, entree, dessert, beverage, tax and tip.  Our youth could eat like royalty once a day!  They could get us the passes I wanted.  They might even be able to get us into the almost impossible to get Hoop-de-doo Musical Revue!  They could get us discounts for all of this, plus they showed me how we would be saving money by staying on property by not using gas or paying for parking.  When we finally got down to the bottom line, the price per person was much less than I had originally thought.  I met with some of our parents and students, prayed about it, and signed on the dotted line.  The Magic Tour was really going to happen!  I suddenly began to feel just a little sorry for all of the youth who had been on the first two Disney trips and would miss this one...

Why was it so important to me to make the 1993 trip so special?  Looking back, part of it was ego.  I just wanted to do this amazing trip to make people say "WOW!"  Part of it was having been at Springfield Friends Meeting for six years and feeling like we needed something to really get us jazzed again.  Like it or not, student ministry is often an ongoing battle to hold the attention of your youth against all of the options they have in our world.  We entertain so we can educate.  Our ministry was all about Jesus; this was simply another way to keep the kids connected to each other and to Him.  These types of events also helped us share the lesson that our faith is a part of our entire lives; not a little box we let Jesus out of on Sundays or at church.  This entire trip was going to be a teaching moment; Jesus was going to Walt Disney World!  Now I just needed some youth and adults to go with Him...

Because of Jesus,