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.