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Religion

Travelers are Earth friendly, God loving

Two Gibbs and St. Petersburg high grads help others as they wander the nation in a bus run by vegetable oil.

By WAVENEY ANN MOORE
Published August 21, 2005

ST. PETERSBURG - Two young men crisscrossing the country in a refurbished school bus don't have a care as gas prices rise.

Rather than being on the lookout for the cheapest gas, Royd Whedon, 19, and Peter Stonecipher, 20, scan the horizons for Chinese restaurants. They top off the tank with used vegetable oil.

It's that resourcefulness and desire to spread goodwill and their Christian faith across the United States that stirred support from family, friends and the congregation at Northeast Presbyterian Church.

"In some way, they felt called by God to make themselves servants of God in a very unusual way," Pastor William J. Martin said.

The two friends left St. Petersburg on June 25 and this week are heading to the Northwest. In the next couple of months or so, they'll head back east, stopping in Philadelphia to work with a youth pastor acquaintance. Then they'll come home.

So far, the self-appointed missionaries have shuttled homeless people to a picnic lunch in Arizona, done yard work in New Mexico, painted in Kansas City and completed other projects.

In a telephone interview from Salt Lake City last week, they spoke of fun and adventure and a yearning to serve. They also were forthright about the challenges they've faced and talked earnestly about being buttressed by faith. And, despite the close confines of their converted school bus, with its cots, bicycles, tools, kitchen and emergency toilet, their friendship remains strong.

"I've never lived with anybody other than my immediate family. It's like if something happens and you get frustrated with each other, you can't go to another room," Stonecipher said.

One of the difficult aspects of the trip has been ridding himself of preconceptions, Whedon said. "It's adjusting to what reality is and just figuring out what we should be doing. It's just been like feeling our way through what we're doing. It's just pretty much praying. We're definitely getting to do exciting things. We're not like suffering huge hardships or anything, but it's definitely different. Both of us growing up in St. Pete, it's like all new."

It was a year ago that Whedon, a graduate of the Gibbs High School Business, Economics and Technology Academy, came up with the idea for the mission trip. Stonecipher, a St. Petersburg High School graduate, jumped at what he viewed as a divinely inspired opportunity to "break away from everyday life" to serve God and "grow in a relationship with him."

Their bus, a 1990 Ford, cost $3,000. With help from friends and family, they spent hours completing electrical, plumbing, welding and other projects to convert the vehicle to a workshop for their ministry and a comfortable, if rather cramped, home on wheels.

They also had to convert the diesel fuel bus to run on vegetable oil.

Bruce Wilber, a member of Northeast Presbyterian Church - where the friends have worshiped since they were young children - welded two 45-gallon tanks on one side of the bus.

"On the other side is a 60-gallon diesel tank," Whedon said. "I built like these valves inside the bus and we can switch from tank to tank."

There was more to accomplish. "We had to have bigger fuel filters. You have to heat the oil before it goes into the fuel injectors, so we built the heater out of parts from Home Depot and parts from other hardware stores and stuff," said Whedon, who ran his ancient Mercedes on vegetable oil for the past year.

Mostly, they've been depending on Chinese restaurants for vegetable oil as they travel, but just across the Colorado border, a clogged filter forced them to buy diesel fuel. The sticker shock was severe.

The friends have been chronicling their adventures on their Web site, www.drivenjoy.com Popups, accessed by moving the computer mouse around, entertain and inform. Whedon's specialties, the site tells visitors, include mechanics, vegetable oil science, plumbing, electrical systems, Web design and primitive forest dwelling.

Stonecipher says he is a master map reader, "wanderlustee," disciplined pacesetter, bookaholic and seat warmer.

The site gives an account of the Sunday the two drove a group of homeless people to a picnic lunch in a city park.

"At one point there were 20 people in the bus. On beds, counter top, cooler, chairs, on a bike and a white dog roamed the bus amongst the masses," it says.

"For both of us, it was like a real fun opportunity," Stonecipher said. "Just the idea of packing the bus up with people was just fun for us. . . . It was real neat, because opportunities like that have presented themselves. It was not like we went into Flagstaff searching for a homeless ministry."

That also was the day their bus got stuck in several feet of mud in a church parking lot. Describing their predicament on the Web site, the bemused Floridians wrote, "Some people from church came over and gave us some type of plastic thing used to get out of snow."

Their parents and congregation are proud of the friends' efforts.

"They are just deeply, deeply committed to their faith," said Martin, their pastor. "On their own, they decided that they wanted to go without an agenda, without any prospect of funding."

But the church provided financial aid from its missions fund. Individual members of the congregation also helped, as did co-workers, friends and family.

"I'm really happy that they are doing this," Whedon's mother, Alison, said. "First of all, I'm happy because they're following the lead of the Lord."

"They've got the whole back end full of tools," said Stonecipher's mother, Sharon. "They're ready, willing and able. They want to help people, encourage people."

Whedon said deeds are nice, but their mission goes beyond that. "We want to help people, but that's only secondary to what we want people to know," he said. "We want people to know about God's grace and what God has provided for us and why he created us."

Follow Royd Whedon and Peter Stonecipher as they travel across the United States. Their Web site is www.drivenjoy.com

[Last modified August 21, 2005, 00:50:20]