Walking with God in Broken Places  •  Chapter 12  •  HEC-012

God’s Plans:
Obey, Don’t Evaluate

1974–1976  —  Nashville, Tennessee • Atlanta, Georgia • Topeka, Kansas

Dossier HEC-012
Date 1974–1976
Location Nashville & Topeka
Status Review
Executive Summary

From “Blunderbus” to a Convention’s First Disaster Unit

Between approximately 1974 and 1976, a 1949 GMC city bus that had served San Diego, California for twenty-five years before a stint in a junkyard — and had then been extensively re-engineered into a motor home by an unnamed Casper, Wyoming machine-shop owner — was donated by his widow to Dr. John LaNoue’s friend and spiritual mentor, Dr. James “Jimmy” Mahoney. When the bus arrived in Nashville far uglier than the highway coach LaNoue expected, he nearly gave up on it; his wife then independently sensed they should trade their own stylish, debt-free 23-foot motor home for it. They did. LaNoue named the traded-away rig “Blunderbus,” then discovered its brilliant hidden engineering and renamed it “Barney Bus.”

LaNoue and his family converted Barney Bus into a disaster-relief unit, with a companion workshop trailer built largely for free through an Atlanta company owned by LaNoue’s childhood friend, Merwyn Lee Majors. On a subsequent BSSB business trip to the Kansas-Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists, LaNoue mentioned the unit almost in passing — and discovered the convention had just voted to start a disaster relief program with exactly the $10,000 he felt led to ask. The sale launched KNBC’s disaster relief ministry, joining Texas as one of four state conventions with mobile disaster-relief units by 1976. Notably, Amigos Internacionales is not an institutional party to any transaction in this chapter — the pattern of faith-funded, prayer-saturated, give-it-away ministry appears here as LaNoue’s personal practice, formed by years of Amigos-trained discipline.

1949 Year GMC Bus Built for San Diego Transit
$10,000 Sale Price to Kansas-Nebraska Convention
$23,000 Total LaNoue Investment in the Unit
2,500 Attendees at Ridgecrest Recreation Week Shakedown
4 State Conventions with DR Mobile Units by 1976

Why This Chapter Matters

Chapter 12 documents the institutional founding moment of disaster relief in the Kansas-Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists — one of four state Baptist conventions to follow Texas (1972) in establishing a disaster-relief mobile unit by 1976. The chapter is also the central empirical demonstration of what may be called the Amigos-trained institutional discipline operating in personal practice: faith-funding outside the corporate Amigos ledger, prayer-saturated build outside a chartered project, and give-it-away methodology applied even to a personal-family asset.

The chapter’s pedagogical center — “when God puts something in your hand, do not let it get in your heart. Always be ready to pass the blessing to others when He directs you” — is the explicit articulation of the Amigos-behind-the-scenes operating discipline at the level of personal possession, not just institutional position.

Historical Timeline

Sequence of Events

  • 1949–c.1973 A new GMC bus enters San Diego Transit System service following the city’s April 1949 conversion from streetcars; serves roughly 25 years before retirement to a junkyard.
  • c. 1973–74 An unnamed Casper, Wyoming machine-shop owner acquires the bus and rebuilds it into a motor home with a rear-mounted International V6 truck engine, five-speed automatic transmission, V-drive shafts, two-speed axle, and rebuilt steering and air brakes.
  • c. 1974 The machine-shop owner dies; his widow later donates the converted bus to Dr. James “Jimmy” Mahoney, an old friend of LaNoue’s, while Mahoney is leading a Bible conference in Casper.
  • c. 1974–75 The bus arrives at LaNoue’s Nashville home — flaking oxidized blue paint, chipped wheels, a cracked windshield — far from the Silver Eagle coach LaNoue expected. He considers spray-painting it bronze as "a monument to 'Ugly.'"
  • c. 1974–75 LaNoue’s wife independently senses, over the course of a week, that the family should trade their own 3-year-old, 23-foot motor home for Mahoney’s bus, before LaNoue raises the idea with her. The trade is executed. LaNoue names the bus “Blunderbus.”
  • c. 1974–75 Using the bus as a backyard writing office, LaNoue discovers its sophisticated rebuilt drivetrain and renames it “Barney Bus,” after Barnabas, “Son of Consolation.”
  • c. 1974–75 Barney Bus hauls the BSSB Church Recreation Department’s equipment, with a U-Haul trailer attached, to the 2,500-person Recreation Week at Ridgecrest Baptist Assembly, North Carolina, cruising mountain grades with power to spare.
  • c. 1975 LaNoue’s conviction grows that Barney Bus is the foundation for a disaster-relief unit. He and his teenage son handle plumbing, wiring, and structural work; his wife and daughter do interior beautification.
  • c. 1975–76 On a BSSB trip to Atlanta, LaNoue reconnects with childhood friend Merwyn Lee Majors, whose portable-buildings company builds the companion workshop trailer — assembly-line workers donate a Saturday and the manager donates factory time, reducing LaNoue’s cost to roughly $7,500.
  • c. 1975–76 LaNoue senses he should ask $10,000 for the completed unit. On a BSSB trip to study Kansas-Nebraska Convention camp facilities, he tells his KNBC host, "I feel like Noah... I am building a disaster unit in my back yard and I have no idea who it is for!"
  • c. 1975–76 The KNBC representative reveals the convention has just voted to start a disaster relief unit with exactly $10,000 in its budget, and reserves the purchase pending his supervisor’s approval.
  • c. 1975–76 A KNBC crew picks up Barney Bus and the workshop trailer from LaNoue’s Nashville home, launching the convention’s disaster relief program.
  • By 1976 The Kansas-Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists is institutionally documented as one of four state conventions (joining Texas, 1972) to have established a disaster-relief mobile unit.
Key People

Principals in the Record

Dr. John LaNoue — Bus modifier and renamer; motor-home trade originator; disaster-unit builder with his family; broker of the sale to the Kansas-Nebraska Convention.

Mrs. LaNoue — Held a master’s degree in education; home-schooled the LaNoue children through a 46-state motor-home tour; independently sensed the motor-home trade a week before her husband raised it; authored the chapter’s closing reflection on God’s provision.

Dr. James “Jimmy” Mahoney — LaNoue’s spiritual mentor since their days together at Stephen F. Austin State University; a Bible-conference and evangelistic-meetings leader whose Casper, Wyoming conference led to the bus donation.

Betty Mahoney — Dr. Mahoney’s wife; held a master’s degree in education; home-schooled the Mahoney daughters, who traveled with the family as a music team.

Merwyn Lee Majors — LaNoue’s high-school coon-hunting friend from southeast Texas; owner of an Atlanta-area portable-buildings company that built the workshop trailer at a fraction of its wholesale value through donated labor and factory time.

Edgar Kelly and Ralph Gillam — LaNoue’s Stephen F. Austin football teammates who helped him start a prayer group in the athletic dormitory, where Mahoney and LaNoue’s friendship began.

Unnamed Casper, Wyoming machine-shop owner and widow — The owner re-engineered the bus’s drivetrain before his death; his widow’s donation to Mahoney initiated the entire chain of events.

Unnamed Kansas-Nebraska Convention representative and supervisor — The convention staff member who recognized the providential timing of LaNoue’s offer and secured supervisor approval for the $10,000 purchase.

Primary Sources

Source Record

Voice 2 — Primary Narrative Source

  • LaNoue, J.L. Sr. Walking with God in Broken Places. WestBow Press, 2010, Chapter 12: “God’s Plans: Obey Don’t Evaluate.” First-person eyewitness account.

External Corroboration