kristi in the lions den

so well i'm in boulder now and i guess it has been a little bit since i've posted. i wanted to share a verse that i found actually the first night i was in montana and i just haven't shared it yet...the girls (which we are all referred to as in these churches) were talking the other day how we can read scripture over and over and then at certain times in our lives verses and passages just literally seem to jump out at us. this is one of those verses, i have read colossians 3 i know several times in my life but for some reason it seems this verse was never there until just this summer...isn't it neat how God's word is truly LIVING??!! this is the perfect motto for our summer, but i wanted to share it with you because i think its a great way for us as christians to humble ourselves as we start each day..

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart,

as working for the Lord, not for men, since

you know that you will receive an

inheritance from the Lord as a reward.

It is the Lord Christ you are serving."

-Colossians 3:23-24

maybe that'll give everyone a new way to look at our busy lives that so easily become entangled with so much. I know that i think of that verse many times throughout my days out here, because sometimes i need to double check my motives - am i trying to please the kids, pastor or church OR am i working to ultimately please my LORD and to serve him with every ounce of energy i can muster?

so i also wanted to share with you a story about little joel who was in my class at wolf creek last week...he's in the pictures on the previous post if you are like me and need to put a face with a name. i'll start off by giving you a little background on joel first...he lives with his mom and step-dad somewhere other than wolf creek...his step-dads mom is a member of wolf creek baptist church and was helping with the school during the week. theresa his grandmother told us on sunday before we started that joel had been talking about coming to bible school since january...the only catch is he thought that vbs stood for virtual bible stories so he thought he was going to be playing bible story video games. so monday morning rolls around and little joel who is a little shy when in a crowd is happy as could be but as the day wears on he starts feeling bad because apparently we weren't giving him enough attention...things got better with joel throughout the week and he made some new friends. each day even though he struggled greatly to learn his bible verse he always gave it his best shot and would even practice in the car with his grandmother as they drove down the mountain to vbs. one morning joel was convinced he had seen God answer his prayer...his grandmother shared with us that as they got in the car she mentioned something to joel and his younger cousin about not feeling well (you know moms the kind of thing you say when you are trying to hint to your little passengers to keep it down) so joel says well maybe we should pray, using the opportunity his grandmother prayed and as soon as she said amen joel piped up and said..."well, you feel any better?" his grandmother said "yeah joel i believe i do." and joel quickly shouted..."MAN!!! it really does work!!" so on friday as we were recapping our week and of course everyone was running their mouths telling of their favorite parts...joel chimes in just loud enough for amy and i to here and he says one thing i don't think i'll ever forget, or at least i pray that i don't because this is why God has me here. little joel says, "when i was at my dad's before i came to stay with my grandma and come to vbs i didn't know that God was really real...but now since i stayed with my grandma and i came here i know he is really real and i'm going to tell my dad." i know my mouth dropped open and amy has admitted that hers did too...all we could say to joel was "joel, we are so glad that you know God is really real and we hope that you always remember that and that you know God will always be there for you." i find it hard to believe that i might encounter anything this summer any better than showing someone that God is real.

so now on to boulder...boulder is a different kind of town. bigger than wolf creek but not the biggest we've been to. but the strangest thing about it is that in this town of less than 2000 i'm guessing, there is a girls prison for criminals 12-18, a meth rehab center for women criminals, a program that youth are court ordered to for a last chance kind of deal and a big complex for mentally retarded sex offenders. these people definitely don't roam around the town but it leaves a little bit of an awkward air in the town. the people in the church here though are very nice and have provided us with everything we need. the house we are staying in is so nice...we are in the basement again, but have no fear we are in a very fun place...we have a pool table, ping pong table, pin ball machine and so much else. which brings me to the title for this post haha we walk in the basement and turn the corner and here is a HUGE mountain lion hanging on the wall!!! i feel honestly like i'm in the lions den because it just stares at us!!! their son is a taxidermist so they have so many mounted animals...bear, pheasants, fish, turkey and i'm sure more.

as for vbs...i taught all the bible stories last night and just helped with crafts tonight....i'll lead a class around one night, help in games one night and teach missions one night. last night there was 25 or so kids and tonight we had around 37 so it GROWING!!! today we went to a baseball field to try and get some kids to play ball with us but we only had 3 show up...everyone else stiffed us for the pool haha so thursday afternoon we are going back again to see if we can hang out with the kids again...

i have a couple of prayer requests: physical health for our team, amy went to the dr. today and was told she couldn't go anywhere, that she had to rest at home today. she is getting some antibiotics tomorrow so hopefully the cold will begin to go away. elizabeth has about the same thing, but won't go to the dr. and just because of the dryer climate my voice goes out if i talk alot such as during bible study and thats just not good. so just continue to pray for physical wellness and strength for us...we need to be healthy to function at our full potential!!

ok PICTURE TIME!!

wolf creek baptist church...doesn't have a bathroom in it...they had around 25 at church when we were there

Missouri river from a scenic overlook on the interstate near craig...big fly fishing river for tourists but its really up right now and pretty dangerous to fish in right now

scenic view from a mountain near craig...we went to eat with some people in wolf creek church that had a log cabin just a little below this level

and here is the infamous mountain lion that lords over the basement of the vossler home. AAAHHH!!!!