700 miles in 48 hours

st. mary lake - start of "going to the sun road"

so i think, actually i am positive that i have just returned from the most beautiful place on earth!!!!!!!!!!! it was awesome!!!! i rented a car for friday and saturday and the girls and i headed out on a little road trip. we left great falls around 9:30 am on friday and drove up interstate 15 to shelby and then over to the coldest place in the us, cut bank montana. we ate lunch there with the preacher at cut bank and then headed for our ultimate destination...glacier national park. the whole way we drove through wheat fields and then once we got out of cut bank the majestic mountains appeared...snow capped ones, you know the rally rocky and big ones that you see in pictures...they just popped up on the horizon. it was amazing just to keep getting closer and closer to them. God really put an extra touch on this country up here...like even as i am typing this i am still thinking about how utterly speechless it leaves me. i can't even find words to describe it. as soon as we drove into the park we drove along side a lake...and y'all i swear, that thing was bright blue and you could see straight through it. every little bit of water in that place was that color...just crystal clear. we drove the going to the sun road that afternoon, saw a big horn sheep in the distance and then had an up close and personal encounter with a mountain goat. wildlife is not so much of a big thing in glacier...its more about the scenic views whereas yellowstone is all about the wildlife. in my opinion, the two should not even be compared, they are both majestic in their own respect. we stopped at a waterfall and hung out there for a while and just took it all in. we also took a walk through a majestic cedar forest...those things were huge!! we made the 100+ mile drive back to cut bank to the church we were staying the night at, making it back before it ever even got dark.

saturday morning we left about 9 am in the worst thunderstorm we've seem out here (they told us at orientation that it never rains in july...we have experienced otherwise for sure) so anyway we headed to "many glacier" with the idea of going on a hike. since the "many glacier" entrance is only about 14 miles from the canadian border we decided that it would be best if we just went on up there to take a picture near the canadian border. casey was born in canada so she was all for it and so was i, but since they didn't have passports or anything we couldn't go through. so anyway we got there and found a sign and took lots of pictures with it. well then we saw another big sign up closer to the actual border and decided that we should get a picture with it so here i go driving up there....turns out there was no where to turn around because that little parking lot was where they sent all the cars coming out of canada. so when i figured that out, it was too late...the border patrol lady had already seen us and was motioning for us to come up there. so trying to stay out of trouble i drove up there...we pull in and she goes, "i need a passport for everyone or a license and birth certificate." so i tried to explain to her that we had just been taking pictures by the sign and couldn't find anywhere to turn around...she was like, "i cant believe that...give me your stuff." so casey decides she needs to document this with a picture and then the lady started screaming at her about not taking pictures there and she had to get casey's camera and check her pictures to make sure it didn't show anything..after that we started getting together our ids and since my passport was in the trunk i asked her if i could get out and get it...she said yes so i got it and was waiting for her to hand it back to me so i could put it back up and she starts screaming at me to close the trunk and get back in the car. so i got back in and handed her the other ids...then she asks, "are you from idaho?" (since our rental car had an idaho plate) and we told her know that we were summer missionaries from the south and once we explained all that, she kinda started going easy on us...i guess she decided we were to stupid and young to be doing anything anymore serious than taking pictures by a canadian sign. she let us go and was in a better mood when she did thank goodness...cause for a second we thought we would all be spending the day in the canadian border patrol jail or whatever they have. GAH it was CRAZY!!!! just one more thing to add to the memory books! haha (its funny now...not so much at the moment it was happening) so then we went to "many glacier' and ate our lunchables at a picnic table...we were seriously legit tourists that day. after lunch we went on our hike to redrock lake and falls....4 mile round trip. it was so awesome to be walking in the glacier back country looking at God's awesome creation...one of the best experiences i've ever ever had!!! when we got to the water falls we got all brave and started climbing on all the rocks into the middle of all of it and then we just sat....we were still and we just took in the beauty around us. there was so much beauty that it was hard to even take it all in....MY GOD IS AWESOME!!!! and its displayed in glacier national park just how awesome he is! on our hike we even got to see a moose...not a big ole daddy moose like i wanted to see but it was a big ole momma moose standing on top of a ledge just watching us walk the trail.

if i haven't said it enough....IT WAS AWESOME!!!! and if you ever think about going, don't think twice...get in the car and go and do everything you can possibly do...hike, sit by a waterfall and take in all the beauty...you'll never regret it!

ok...there is no way i am not putting pictures on here so here they are!

at the logan pass visitor center on the "going to the sun road"

right before all the drama went down...canada looks the same as montana...nothing special!!! haha

"many glacier" - first sight we saw when we went in

our rental car at one of the pull offs in "many glacier"

redrock falls that we hiked to in "many glacier"

casey, amy and elizabeth on the trail right as we were coming up to redrock lake

end of our hike by a cute little creek

the four of us at redrock lake...the water fall that you can see behind us is where we hiked to

youth camp in agusta

So I just arrived back to civilization once again! We were out in the complete wilderness from Monday morning to this morning at a camp. We were counselors at the youth camp they had there. It was such a nice break from VBS that we almost weren’t sure how to act haha but the coolest thing about the week was the fact that there were a lot of kids there that we had met throughout the summer. Many of those kids we had ministered to at Butte, Boulder or Helena. Because we had known them previously and especially since we had spent the week with them, today was probably the hardest goodbye of the summer. I can’t imagine next week’s goodbye being even close to the one today. Not only did we say goodbye to the kids but there were several folks our age from Butte that we also had to say goodbye to. They had kinda been a staple in our summer, every time we went through Butte we hung out with them and every time we talked to Jason something was said about them. I am going to miss Bernie, Kari and Rachel’s influence. All three are awesome and are doing some awesome things with the youth in Butte. It was a little bittersweet to see them go today; knowing that unless something out of the ordinary happens we won’t be seeing them again. At any rate I guess that’s how this part of the summer is supposed to work…I mean it is the end and I am fixing to have to get ready to say goodbye to the most beautiful country I’ve ever seen. Again it’s bittersweet…if you could have spent the summer out here you would understand why it’s hard to leave.

This week I was in the cabin with three middle school girls from Ally Pace’s youth group. We all had lots of fun and as usual middle schoolers do, I am not sure how many of them showered during the week. I know for a fact that a couple of them kept their bathing suits on the entire time…even slept in them haha you just have to appreciate those girls. To them boys still have cooties and all they want to do is have fun. That group definitely did it…they were an awesome group to be in charge of…never gave us any trouble. The first night one of the girls on the top bunk rolled off at about 2 in the morning…scared me half to death but she was fine. Sure gave us all a laugh!

The theme of the camp was “Saturate” which basically boiled down to letting Christ completely saturate our lives so that our lives are a living testimony to Him. We study a lot about witnessing and learning how to share Christ with friends and family and to truly live our lives for Christ. I thought the curriculum was awesome, but the sessions got a little long for the younger ones. Ally and Amy taught the sessions for the middle school girls. During free time the 5 of us summer missionaries were in charge of tubing on the river that flowed next to the camp. Basically the kids would get on inner tubes and go around the bend, down a rapid and then we stood down river and caught them and helped them out of the river. Monday afternoon, the water in the river was freezing!!! But once we stood waist deep in the water for about 20 minutes, the bottom half of our bodies went numb and we were good for the rest of the afternoon. The kids had a lot of fun doing it, but they were mad we wouldn’t let them go further down the river. Tuesday, however, was a different story. It was overcast and raining and Mr. BJ still made us go down to the river and let the kids tube. When we got in the water we could hardly stand, it had to be at least 10 degrees colder than the day before! Even the nurse came down and told us that we needed to get out every once in awhile to make sure that we didn’t get hypothermia. Ally and I got to where it felt like our legs were being poked with thousands of needles so we make all the kids go up the hill and called off tubing for the day. It took a good 40 minutes before I could completely feel my legs, feet and toes!! That mountain water is sure enough cold!!!!!!!! Wednesday was a much better day for tubing, the water, although still cold, was nice and the sun was out and all the kids had lots of fun! They had fixed water balloons so all the kids left the river early for a water balloon fight. The 5 of us hung around for a little while picking everything up and decided that we hadn’t gotten to tube and that we should do it, so we spent 30 minutes at the river by ourselves having one of the best times we’ve had all summer! It was hilarious to watch us get stuck on the rocks, fall off the tubes, slip down trying to catch ourselves and just laughing so hard because our tubes got turned backwards going down the river. I think that was one of the best moments we have had as a team…it was just like we were grade school buddies having fun on the river. It was definitely one for the memory books! That’s what this whole summer has been about, making memories and serving God and his children…we’ve done it and I don’t think any of us would have traded it for the world!

Every night during camp fire time one of the missionaries gave their testimony. Monday was Ally, Tuesday was Casey and last night I was asked to do it. I told Mr. BJ I wouldn’t mind giving it but there wasn’t a whole lot to it…he just looked at me and said, if you’re a Christian, you gotta a lot to tell about. So I spent all day Wednesday just praying about what to say and how to say it. I haven’t ever been given many opportunities to share my testimony so I just felt so inadequate doing it. But while I was on the river, laying in a tube on the bank catching some rays, waiting for the kids to come down, it all just hit me. Earlier in the week we had talked about the story of the blind man that Jesus healed. The verse where Jesus told the people that neither the man nor his parents had sinned for him to be born blind, but that he had been born blind so that God could be glorified through him just all the sudden hit me like a ton of bricks. Not many people have a story like mine…not many people have been diagnosed with a rare disease, been put in an experimental study, given an experimental treatment that was randomly drawn out of 3 treatments, been completely healed with no symptoms and continue to live a life that doctors pretty much promised would not ever be an option for them. It all hit me yesterday…my story is huge…I am a walking miracle, two-fold. First, I was once a sinner who deserved eternal death but Christ chose to die for me so that I could be saved by grace to live eternally with him and second I have been physically healed in a miraculous way by the same God so that he could be glorified in my life. So last night I gave my testimony, in front of nearly 80 people, yeah it was scary…I won’t lie! I was shaking so bad I could hardly see straight, but I told them my story and I told them that I had seen God work miracles…that I stood in front of them as a walking miracle, but that they also were the same…if they had accepted Christ as their savior they too were a walking miracle and they should never forget it. I think last night was one of the best experiences I have had this summer. It was such a blessing to see God use me in a way that I was almost positive I couldn’t be used in. So many people stopped me this morning and told me thanks for sharing…I just thanked God that he spoke through me, because I sure didn’t have the words to speak myself.

Tomorrow morning around 9, the girls and I will be heading out for a little road trip to Glacier National Park…we are super excited about it and I just hope you will keep us in your prayers as we travel there and back this weekend. Also, next week is my last week!! There was a little change in plans and we aren’t going to children’s camp, but instead we will be in Helena at Canyon Ferry Baptist helping them prepare for their VBS the week after we leave. SEE Y’ALL SOON!!!!!!!

the girls from HelenaValley Baptist Church...three of them were in my room and the other three were in the room across the hall with ally. nicole in back, then left to right adrianna, alora, elise, keah, and courtney

all the middle school girls with amy and elizabeth...how many girls can you fit on one couch?

us at our station in the river getting ready to catch the tubers

me and ally catchin a break on the river

view of the mountains from the river

catastrophe in the making - me and casey

sucessful solo ride down the river


intense game of speed scrabble, this is what we played during the rain

radersburg...the place where i saw the BIG MOOSE!

so i just finished up the last vbs of the summer...and it was definitely the best yet. we stayed in a camper in one of the church members yards. boy was that quite the adventure!! we had at least one major problem everyday...we ran out of water, propane (which meant no hot water) and even electricity. but the experience was one of a kind. the first night we stayed in boulder at the pastors house and since we had to get to radersburg by 9 sunday morning we left from boulder at 6:30...the only good thing about that was the fact that we got to eat breakfast on the road at wheat montana. its a huge bakery and they serve the most awesome cinnamon rolls that are as big as a plate. they also grow all their own wheat and then sale flour, bread and all that good stuff. the cool thing about them is that all the wheat is grown without any chemicals...so i guess it would be organic?? organic or not that thing was stinkin good!!

while in radersburg we got to search for fools gold, and we went back into the "forest" where lots of people hunt and we saw a HUGE bull moose on the side of the mountain...pretty up close cause it was drinking out of the creek. according to my teammates i got a little excited about it...but i mean, there were a couple of goals i had when i came out here:

1. go fly fishing (still working on that)

2. see a big bull elk (saw a little one in yellowstone, but im still searching)

3. see a big bull moose - CHECK!

last monday after vbs we went to the lewis and clark caverns...had to hike up a hill to get to the entrance some i am counting that as a mountain haha it was so cool in there!! both cold and neat haha it was a beautiful view of the jefferson river from the top. wednesday we took pastor richard's boat out on the missouri river to see the gates of the mountains that lewis and clark discovered on their expedition. it was breath-taking-ly beautiful!! we even got within about 30 feet of a herd of mountain goats. they just stared at us haha they are ugly little fellows. also got to see somebody pulling a fish out of the river....the thing was HUGE!!! thursday night we went to two of the kids' that were in vbs art show in a town about 20 mins away. they were so excited that we came...they were some fun little boys. on the last day, the youngest one gave me a cactus he had made and said that he wanted me to have it so i would never forget him...he even said "maybe you could put it right next to the picture we took together?" i told him definitely, i wouldn't ever forget him. there were only 8 kids that came...7 that were regular and they were so sweet. all of them needed so much love and we really got to hang out with them a lot. if we were at the camper we always had visitors, either the kids or people from the church. they were all so welcoming and it was so nice to be "away from civilization" and just be able to focus on the kids, the people and our mission there. I LOVE RADERSBURG!!!

so this next week is youth camp...super excited about that and the change we are finally getting from vbs! its only from monday morning till thursday morning and so on friday and saturday the girls and i are taking a road trip to see glacier national park...the pictures we have seen are beautiful so we decided we needed to check it out ourselves!!! so that will be the last big adventure of the summer!! we will then go back to helena to do prep work for canyon ferry's vbs and then saturday, august 2nd.....i am homeward bound!!!!

ok sorry this post was kinda rushed and i left lots of stuff out but i didn't have much time...here are some pics!

radersburg baptist church...there was no indoor plumbing in the 100+ year old building hence the porta-potty on the side haha

our home for the week! you should have seen the bathroom...my guess is that it was 4 foot by 4 foot and encompassed the toilet and shower all in that one space

us with the kids and some of their families behind.

me and little joe...he was 3. everyday i would ask him to be my little buddy and he would say no, he would only be my friend.

me and nathan...the cowboy

us on the missouri river boat ride

me in crow creek. its in the helena national forest where lots of people hunt. my feet were red and in pain for like 30 minutes after this little excursion!

3 weeks left!!! but outta touch with civilization for 2 weeks

well today marks the last three weeks of my journey out here. and boy has it been a journey!! i am not sure, but i kinda wish i could be out here just a little longer...although at the same time it would be nice to be home!! Everything is still going fine, but we are probably fixing to get in some areas where i will not have cell phone service or internet access. I know for certain that while I am at youth camp not this week but the next, i wont have cell service. In a way it might be nice to not have to worry about that but also it'll probably get kinda lonely not being able to hear from everyone. so i just wanted to give everyone fair warning that that was a big possibility for the next couple of weeks, however if i get the chance you know i'll post something!

yesterday we had quite an adventure and so i wanted to share it. We went with micah and some other folks to the "ringing rocks." the ringing rocks is this HUGE formation of red colored boulders that are piled up really high. you can climb all over them and there are caves and tunnels and stuff in the formation. the thing that makes them unique though is the way they sound when you hit them with a hammer. evidently the rocks have some sort of metal in them, because when you hit them with a hammer they make sounds!! there were several that we found that made sounds like bells, some just went "clunk" and others sounded like you were hitting a tin can. It was the coolest thing ever!!! who would have ever thought that rocks could make sounds like that!! the sound that they make is dependent on the size and shape of them and the placement in the pile. if the rock is removed from the pile then they will no longer ring. it was just one of the many things out here that to me, you cant look at and deny that God created this world...i mean how else could this huge pile of rocks just make noise??!! i couldn't help but think about the passage in luke where Jesus made his triumphant entry. As he came to the place where he approaches the road that goes down the mount of olives, the whole crowd of disciples began praising God for all the miracles and everything they had seen. The pharisees in the crowd told Jesus to rebuke his followers and in reply Jesus said:

"'I tell you,' he replied, 'if they keep quiet, the stones

will cry out.'"

-Luke 19:40

i'll tell you now, if we as his people don't start praising him as we should, I have found the stones that are going to do it for us!!!! ha it was awesome to see those things! there are not too many locations in the world to see this phenomenon, but i know there is one formation in pennsylvania. after the ringing rocks we went back to delmoe lake to try and swim again...NOT!!! that water was freezing and the wind was even colder!!! i opted not to swim because i didn't want to get sick my last little while here! we came back to butte and saw the state flower, the bitter root, watched a movie and ate supper, which micah grilled for us. We also went and listened to some folk music at the national folk festival which is being held in butte this weekend! great end to the week! of course i have pictures!!

at the bottom of ringing rocks

the formation had two peaks, and this is in the "valley" between them.

i climbed up on top of this.

ringing those rocks!!

on my way down the rocks!

4th outrigger island in the books

well so i just finished up my 4th outrigger island...i still have one more to go but thank goodness we get a break for just a little while at least!! next week we'll be in radersburg, doing vbs but thank goodness its going to be the cactus canyon version of it!! we are a little worn out on outrigger island as you can imagine! so i got you filled in up to saturday. sometimes i feel like i probably bore people with all my blogging but truth is i've got to write it all down somewhere so i wont forget what happens out here and believe me i am a way faster typer than i am writer so i do this partly to help me remember everything. haha days really start to run together out here!

so lets see saturday we started at floral park. we went to church there sunday and got to meet several people. we went out to lunch at a pizza place with several families from the church and met two college aged individuals...who just happened to be guys...there. one of the guys lives with the "youth person" and she loaned us her car and really tried to make our stay here fun before she had to go out of town. so sunday night after bible school we went and got something to eat at wednesdays. as soon as we walk in all 4 of us start cutting up so that we could barely talk. we had been standing in line for a while, or at least we were just standing around laughing with micah and jacob and finally we got around to getting up to the counter to order. as soon as i made eye contact with the cashier i blurted out "I know you!" and the girls just looked at me strangely...i had to tell them how i knew her because they were just thinking i was crazy. see the reason i recognized her is because while i was in the concession stand at the park street carnival she had come up and was talking to another girl who was helping me. she was really sweet and we got to talking about the seven love languages and which one we were. about that time i had to serve someone a snowcone so i turned around for a second and while i was doing that the girl, stephanie, just quietly asked, "does any one have a cell phone i could borrow?" without even thinking i turned around and handed her mine and then turned back around to make snowcones. about 5 minutes later i thought "oh gosh, that wasn't smart of me!! i only have a certain number of roaming minutes and who knows who she is calling!!" just a second after that she handed me the phone and said thanks and walked off...i never expected to see her again and never really thought twice about letting her use my phone...until i walked into wendy's sunday night and there she is taking my order!!! that was cool in itself to see her again but little did we know God had orchestrated a plan for us to be at those places at that time. We all ordered our food and sat down and began giggling again...about 15-20 minutes into our meal she walks over to our table and asks me, "so, what are yall out celebrating?" we just told her we were hungry after the bible school we had just finished at floral park so we decided to come there. out of no where amy says "can we pray for you about something?" and stephanie breaks down and gets teary eyed...she had just had one of the roughest days and was feeling completely alone, she told us she was really struggling with her relationship with God, she had just moved into an apartment by herself, and she had no car or phone and basically life had just been dealing her one bad card after another. I asked her if she went to park street baptist and she said she did but now because of where she lives she cant walk there and she has no ride...immediately i said "well, where do you live at?" and she told me and i asked micah how close that was and he said oh, just right over there. Floral park baptist has a van ministry that picks up kids from all over the neighborhood and so i asked him if he thought they would go over there and he said im sure they would. so stephanie wrote down her address and all so that someone could get in touch with her about going to church. we didn't get to talk to her long but she told us she worked every night this week except wednesday. so as a group we decided and told her that we would be back to see her before we left butte. tonight, we went back to wendy's...stephanie wasn't the one taking our orders and we couldn't see her in the back. so we asked one of the workers who came out to wipe off a table if she knew stephanie and she said yeah, shes kinda my neighbor. so we asked if she was working and she said "no, they fired her...she was one of our best workers but they let her go." we asked if she knew how she was doing and she said, "shes got it rough, she lives in a place thats not very nice cause she moved out of her mom's place." we asked her to just let her know that we came back to see her and that we are still praying for her. When stephanie came out to talk to us sunday night...you could almost feel her hurts...at so young she is fighting to fend for herself and its starting to get to her...please remember people like stephanie and especially her. Montana and especially butte seem to be full of those type of people.

after the wendys trip sunday night, the 4 of us, mrs. terri, micah and jacob all went to the park and just basically became kids at heart. we sung on the cowboy swings which are basically those swings that you sit on kinda like see-saws and you pull bars back and forth...it was so fun and we laughed like crazy! then the boys taught us a game called star tripping...you have one person stand with a flashlight and then another goes about 20 feet or more from them and spins until he is dizzy then when he starts the one with the light starts yelling at him to tell him which way to go and when he gets close to him the guy turns on the light and shines it in his eyes. you should she it cause as soon as the light hits the dizzy person, they fall over just as though they had been shot. it was absolutely hilarious!!!! monday we ate lunch with a newly married couple who are in their 40's and instantly fell in love with each other right after they had both decided God was not going to send them someone to marry...it was so fun to sit and hear their story. monday night after vbs we all, along with a bunch of youth went over to mrs. terri's (the youth person) house and had dessert and played rockband and guitar hero...yes i totally rocked out on the easy level haha tuesday we went back to their house for lunch then went up to another ghost town. this time it was a real ghost town, there was absolutely no one living in it...we took a half mile trail back in the woods and there were just old wooden buildings that had fallen in. A couple were still standing and sturdy enough to walk in, but this place was really pretty and so peaceful!! it was alot of fun. Last night we went over to our supervisor for the weeks house and had coke floats and played music. like guitar and fiddle and all that and sang songs...that was alot of fun. today we went and ate lunch with them and then did some shopping at some of the uptown shops. that was fun. after vbs, as i mentioned earlier we went to wendys then we went with rachel and micah and jacob to make an artillery bomb with fire crackers...that was alot of fun!! we didn't get caught by cops or anything although i think we might have woke up some people haha but it was a fun night.

I think probably the highlight of my week was leading two of my students to christ. after the gospel presentation night they offered an invitation in the closing rally and one of my little girls raised her hand. i got her and went and got my bible as we started heading out the door and she kept saying to me her mom was here and i just told her it would only take us a minute, but as soon as we walked past her mom she grabbed her and wouldn't let her go. Samara just kept looking at me so i walked up to her and told her it was ok, that we could talk about it tomorrow if she wanted. and she asked, "well can it be in the middle cause my mom will come at the end?" so i told her that as soon as she got there on wednesday we would go talk. so on wednesday she walks in the door looking at me and i walked up to her and asked her if she still wanted to talk and her response was, "well i didn't know last night but i kinda am already a christian." so i said "oh yeah, hows that?" and she says, "well im stopping making sins and i am starting to pray to God." (i loved how she said "making sins" haha children are so innocent so i told her we should probably just go talk to make sure she understood everything. we went into a room and i used a salvation bracelet to explain everything then i asked her if she admitted that she was a sinner and she said, "oh yeah" then i said "well do you believe jesus died on the cross?" and again she said "yes" and i asked "well just who did he die on the cross for?" and she pointed to herself and said "me, well everbody" so i asked one more question, " how much do you think jesus loves you?" and she just blurts out, "a whole lot if he died for me!" and so after i knew she understood what she was doing i told her we had to say a prayer to god to tell him just what she told me...that she was a sinner and she was sorry and that she knew he sent jesus to die for her sins and that by him doing that we could see just how much he loved us...so i asked her, "do you want me to help you say that prayer, like i say part of it and you repeat it or you want to do it yourself?" and she goes, "i think i can do it if thats all i have to say." so she starts out and this is kind of how her prayer went..."god i want to be a christian. and i know i have made sins but i dont want to make any more sins and i want you to make me clean. i know jesus died for me and i just thank you that you love me that much. and god, i dont want to live my way no more, i want to live your way...amen" that little girl has a ling road ahead of her, not only is she not churched but her family situation is not the best. i'll continue to pray for her because she has such great potential and i pray that she continues to grow in God. today while i waited with her because her mom was one of the last ones getting there, she said, "well we can look at it this way, at least i get to spend more time with you before you have to go back to mississippi." samara will have it going on if she can find someone to lead her in the right way...some one Godly to look up to.

Riley, a little boy in my class, raised his hand during the invitation on wednesday and when i talked to him it took him awhile before he would admit that he was a sinner...finally after using the "how many 10 commandments have you broke" method he realized he wasn't as good as he thought he was. i went through everything with him, but wasn't sure if it was his time since he had come in thinking he was not a sinner. i showed him an example of the prayer that he needed to pray and told him he could do it now or later. i was thinking he probably didn't quite get all of it, but he chimes in and says, "can i just say it now?" so why should i object...i told him just to tell God what he had just told me, and he did...just like samara he told God he was a sinner and that he knew he needed a savior and that he didn't want to live Riley's way anymore, but God's. Riley also is not churched and only came to vbs because he lives across the street from a member of the church. pray that these two kids and the other older girl, chanel, that made decisions this week would find a way to get to church and be discipled and taught God's word and truths.

samara out at games

some of the boys from floral park at games: johnny, derek, cade and noah

johnny and riley with their sailboats

whole group on the final night: sitting l to r: marlene, jade, bobby

standing l to r: mercedes, cade, noah, jasmine, samara and johnny and maria is hiding as usual

at the ghost town, coolidge. we think it was the school house. over the years the creek has shifted and now runs right through its remains.

the 4 of us in the ghost town

watching micah make the bomb while we all froze!

few facts about butte i forgot to mention: its the hometown of evil knievel; and they have this statue of mary on the mountain that overlooks the city and it just so happens to be only 20 feet shorter than the statue of liberty. at the turn of the century there were over 100,000 people living in butte, and thats only in the uptown area...personally i dont know how they all fit!

worn out in "beautiful butte"

so, i am pretty sure this is the tiredest i have been on this trip. actually i am dead sure it is. we have been at it non-stop since we arrived in butte around lunch on wednesday. from wednesday until this morning we were with Park Street baptist and our main job was helping them with a community wide block party/carnival that took place on Thursday night and also to help them with their float in the Butte 4th of July parade. Also, here to help them was a team of 15 people from a church called Crescent Valley in oklahoma. they have a 5 year partnership with park street and so they come out every summer to help the church with these two very large events. after we ate lunch and got to know everyone, we hit the street. Amy, Sierra (jason's daughter) and I passed out approximately 150 flyers containing information about the block party, and their upcoming vbs. I think overall there were nearly 3000 flyers passed out throughout the town of butte. wednesday night, again I was the person chosen to grill the hamburgers so I grilled for everyone while they were instructed on what they were doing for the next day. After supper, i went to the ladies bible study on genesis and I really enjoyed that. after church we headed back to the apartment that we are staying in until we leave butte. there are 3 college girls that live here but since its during the summer they have all gone back to live with their families, so we get it to ourselves! but when we walked in I promise with everything i have that it must have been 90 degrees in here! there is no air conditioning so it is a little less than comfortable. We have finally rounded up enough fans for each of us to have one to ourselves. I tell you what though, that first night was like going through katrina all over again!! it was so so so so hot in here!!!! Thursday morning we had a bible study together and then started the work on the carnival. That was an all day ordeal! they had three jumping things, a concession stand, prize games and a station where people could make the beaded salvation bracelets. the carnival started at 7 and went really well, there were lots of people coming in and they were really enjoying themselves. We gave out free "pop", snow cones and popcorn. Everything there was free and was used simply as a practical way for the church to show the community Jesus' love. At 8 a big thunderstorm came through and the carnival was shut down for nearly an hour but we moved all the people into the church and were able to mingle and talk to people in there. At 9 we went outside and set most everything back up and finished out the night. There were probably 30 to 40 people that showed up after the rain, and maybe 100 people that were there before the rain. there probably weren't as many folks there this year as in years past but overall things went very well!! there was one profession of faith that came from the salvation bead making table, and countless others who heard the gospel from that. About an hour before the event started, this really rough looking couple came with their one year old daughter. I walked up to them to explain that we weren't starting until 7 but that i could offer them some coke or snowcone or popcorn while they waited, so they wanted some coke. they sat down and i started talking to them. I found out that the lady was barely 19 and her husband, im not sure how old he was but had evidently been a drifter before they married. their daughter, mckale, was 1 and she was 7 weeks pregnant with their second. They actually sat and waited for the carnival to start and while she waited I offered to hold the baby so she could eat her snowcone. I held her child for about a half hour and just talked to her. i explained what i was doing there and why the church was doing this. she shared with me she was a stripper and a pagan, but didn't mind other religions as long as people didn't push anything on her. she said her sister was a christian and had attended park street some. i didn't push anything on her but we talked a lot about where my hope came from. her husband had left by that point but i was able to just show her the love that jesus christ has so lavished upon us. later from the concession stand i looked at the salvation bracelet table and she was sitting there making a bracelet while the gospel was being shared to her. I later asked the guy who was talking with her what her reaction was and he said that she said she was pagan, but didn't mind other religions as long as they didn't force it upon her. he asked if he could pray for her, and she said "sure, it can't hurt." who knows what will ever become of maria, her husband, daughter mckale and baby one the way. but if nothing else they were loved on by a lot of people that day and the gospel was shared with her. maybe the seed that was planted can continue to grow within her and spread to her family.

thursday night as soon as it got dark, well even a little before that, fireworks started going off all over the city. and not just rinky-dink ones, i am talking about HUGE ones...the ones that you buy the kit for that costs like $100 at the least. that went on until like 3 in the morning, but the point is I have never in my life seen people celebrate the way these folks do!! so the big fireworks done by the city were also thursday night. they didn't start until close to 11 and lasted probably 20 minutes, it was pretty and we had a perfect view of the mountain they were being shot off of.

friday morning we got up rolling. by 9:30 we were standing in our spot getting our instructions for the parade. several of us walked to the beginning of the parade route to watch it. we were only about 20-25 yards from the secure area where the obama's watched the parade. We were able to hear obama's opening speech and then the parade started. there were 160 entries into the parade and our float was dead last. most of the entries had something to do with politics in one way or another. overall i guess it was an ok parade. but the floats and stuff weren't much different than what you see in a wiggins parade, it was just more of them. about half way through the parade a bunch of police began going through the crowds with hand held metal detectors and checking people. then all the sudden we see these two big army units come out and the parade stops so that obama could go and shake their hands. he shook a lot of hands in his little secure area and then went back to his seat or left altogether. i was able to see him a couple of times, so i guess thats a cool memory to have...i dont know. then when the time got close we went back to our float and got our trash bags and began walking beside our trailer. out job was to walk down the parade route through the crowds yelling "trash" or "cans" depending on what color bag you had. the response was amazing, people would clap for us and whistle and stuff and when you would take their trash most couldn't say enough about how great of a thing it was. from years in the past, the church has received letters from business and individuals thanking them for their service to the community. they have even seen several families come to the church because they first saw the name on the back of the peoples shirts that picked up trash. for months down the road church members have run into people who can still recall what the church did during the parade. i will not say that walking nearly 2 miles with trash bags that sometimes got pretty heavy being sloshed with beer and who knows what else was fun, but it is definitely a huge way for christians to practically show christ's love to a community. As i walked through the crowds i stopped at a young girl with a cap on who was smiling ear to ear, just as i was getting ready to say "happy 4th" she raises her head so i could see her face...she was smiling big because she knew me...i had taught her last week at south hills vbs...i guess this was an opportunity for her to see me putting to practice what i preach. you see, she was only there 2 nights and i was only able to teach the last night, which was the lesson "let your actions match your passion" what an awesome way God worked that out, cause butte is an hour away from the church where i had met her.

we went to a bbq at a church members house and i got to have some grilled squash and watermelon so it made me feel a little more at home!! then we went with bernie the youth leader to a lake in the mountains to hang out. the weather was a little less than nice but it was a nice experience anyway. we also got to hang out with another one of the college girls in the church and we ended up going to walmart and getting stuff to make homemade mac and cheese...i tell you what if that didn't top off my 4th i dont know what did...it was awesome!! tasted almost as good as mema's!!

today we moved to a different church, but since it is also in butte we are staying at this apartment. I will be teaching 1st and 2nd grades so that should make for an interesting week!! it will start tomorrow night and run until thursday night. we will move to radersburg next saturday. just a heads up because i probably wont be posting any that week...the town/church are so small that we will be staying in campers because no one lives close enough for us to stay with...just look it up on a montana map...radersburg is literally the dead end of a road!!block party at park street just as it was getting started good
amy, me, casey and elizabeth before the parade

this years parade theme was "family businesses" so this was the signs on our float - or trash trailer if you wish to accurately describe it.

our trashy float!

park street baptist church - i think i mentioned this before but this is an old elementary school building that the city closed down, the church bought the building for $1 and no thats not a typo it was just one dollar! I also learned today that the part of town this is in is called uptown, it is butte's historic district, which is actually the second largest historic district in the US - new Orleans being the first. at the turn of the century butte was one of the largest towns west of the mississippi with over 100,000 people living there. the berkley pit, a mine that is no longer in use is the largest hole in the ground and can actually be seen from outer space...its just down the street from where we are staying. butte is also a mile high city which means the elevation is nearly 5700 feet, which also says that we are a mile closer to the sun...i can attest to the hottness of the sun after yesterday, cause i caught a few too many of its rays.

just call me a mountain goat

think i could make it to the top of those rocks??? i don't know?!

"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."

-Romans 8:37

well, i have accomplished one of my goals in montana, now i only have one left. what is the one i accomplished you may ask...well, none other than climbing to the tip top of a mountain!!! today we didn't have an afternoon activity planned so Liz, the pastors wife, suggested that we climb the mountain. she had done it several times last year while training to go on a big camping/hiking trip (15 miles uphill one way - not me!!) but so they trained on mount helena, hiking it up to three times a weekend sometimes. so anyway after sleeping in a bit this morning we headed up around 1:15. i am not sure what time we actually started hiking but i'd say by at least 1:45 we were on the mountain. we picked the long easy trail of course. it was called the prairie trail for a reason, if you know what i mean! close to the top of the mountain it got pretty steep but other than that it wasn't too bad. (remember i am writing this after i accomplished the feat...if i were writing it during the hike i would probably have said it was like going straight up a wall. at least it felt that way because of the altitude. just as soon as you'd get going you'd be panting like a dying dog. so i took it slow and ally and liz kinda hung in the back with me. we'd pick a spot out as our goal, walk to it and then stop for a breather. seemed to work very well and if i wouldn't have been able to do that i wouldn't have made it. i would have told them to pick me up on the way back haha. but after the long strenuous hike we made it to the top!!!!!!!! just in time to see the thunderstorm begin to roll in. after picture time, we headed down....my favorite part, well besides sitting on the rocks on the top. we went down one of the harder trails and it was straight down the entire way...there would have been no way we could have climbed it! we walked in the rain all the way down the mountain...and i think that took like 30-40 minutes, so we were soaked by the time we got back. plus rain up here is not warm, it is freezing cold!! we had all piled up in a car that a lady from south hills is letting us use...it has no air and is quite an interesting car to say the least!!! so i drove all the way back to the church with 6 wet and smelly people in a car with no air conditioner while the windows were all fogged up and no one could see anything!! we made it safely, dont fret!!

the entire day was an experience but i am so glad we were able to do it!! i am so proud of myself too, because it was definitely a big feat for me to be able to do that!! all i got to say is next summer i wont be this big or out of shape - i dont care what i am doing, i wont be panting like a dying dog!! so heres the pictures - it was an awesome view!

liz, ally, amy and me just getting started good on the hike

little buck that was grazing right beside the trail

summit picture!!! me, ally, amy, elizabeth and casey WE MADE IT!!!

little perch with the thunderstorm behind me! YIKES!!

i came, i saw and i conquered!!

i love this pictures of the flowers on the overhang