capitol city

well i've moved again!! this time to calvary baptist in helena. we are now staying with the pastor and his wife and little girl, Chesed (Kes-ed, its hebrew or greek) in their basement. its great because the house doesn't have central heat and air so its always at least 10 degrees cooler down here than it is on the first floor, so we try and get the basement anytime we can!! calvary baptist is the first southern baptist church established in helena and just celebrated its 50th anniversary. it was pretty neat because on sunday morning there were some visitors and we found out that they were from georgia and that their mother and father were some of the charter members of the church. so it was kinda fun to get to meet them. Calvary is an interesting church because about 5 years or so ago they went through a rough situation with a pastor and their doors nearly closed. I am not sure of the entire situation, but it had something to do with the childrens ministry and lack of supervision at certain times during their activities. the church drastically decreased and the children's ministry practically ceased to exist for a while. three years ago (the year before Mr. Mike became pastor) a team from tennessee came to do the vbs. they passed out over 500 flyers and not a single child showed up the entire week. the year after that there were 5 children in vbs. last year the number of kids doubled to 10. this year we had 13 come. I think it is great that the church is beginning to shows signs of growth, but they still have a long way to go. the community around them is very hard and unreceptive at times. today we were able to go out into the community to go door to door and pick up food for a food drive we were doing in partnership with the food bank in town. flyers had been previously passed out saying that the food could just be left on the porch and we would pick it up. as we went from house to house we found that very few had actually done that, so we knocked on their doors and if someone was home we asked them to donate and then if we could give them a copy of a new testament. There were a good many houses that had no one home, and several houses that were unwilling to donate. ally and i didn't experience it as much as some of the others but, there were a couple of instances where doors were slammed in their faces because they identified themselves as a being with a baptist church. last year they were only able to give out approximately 10 bibles, this year i gave out 7 and we totaled over 20. this year was successful in that respect and we pray that it won't be thrown away or left to collect dust, but that someone will pick it up searching for a hope that they have never had. I think overall it was a pleasant experience. I thank God for giving me a willing spirit to do the task today. going door to door asking for things is definitely not my favorite thing to do, but today i never thought twice about it. it never felt like a burden and i never felt scared of what the person on the other side of the door my ask or say to me. I thank God so much for giving me that peace and strength and for allowing me to serve with a joyful spirit.

last friday ally and i spent the day on the town. we ate lunch did a little shopping, went and saw a movie and even went to a johnny cash concert. it was a nice day to be able to see the sights of helena even though they were few and far between!

i wanted to share with you about the message we heard sunday morning. there was a missionary family, the cullens', who travel full-time around the US sharing the message of the sanctity of human life. they shared with us so many amazing facts. it just blows my mind how people can't understand what they allow to happen to these innocent babies. the abortion industry is focused solely on making money. most times they sell the aborted babies body parts to other companies, and they use them to make certain products. A lot of MMR shots are made using aborted baby tissue so they suggested speaking to your doctor to make sure your child isn't getting shots that are made in that manner. also a lot of cosmetic products will use collagen ingredients that are derived from aborted babies. it is such a money making market from all aspects. i never would have dreamed that the abortion "industry" is tied to so much and the average american doesn't realize it either. I challenge you to research these things about abortion and begin to take stands so that maybe we can impact those companies that side with this wicked act. sorry, it got a little gory but i think its horrible that we are still allowing this to happen in America. I know its not like there isn't anyone working on banning it, but why doesn't the average american really know what goes on with all of this???!!! maybe they do, and maybe its just me thats a little behind....but some of the things he said sunday made me flat out mad!!!!!

continue to pray for calvary baptist that they would see growth in the church as well as the softening of hearts in the community around them.

deer that stayed in the playground at south hills baptist all day long. thats the interstate behind them. the one closest to the front was a little buck.

south hills vbs family night

south hills baptist church in montana city. i am pretty sure that they said a team from mississippi came up to help them build this building.

craft time at calvary vbs

mural i helped put finishing touches on at calvary

calvary baptist church

air mattresses in the missions room

well contrary to what my schedule says, i am back at south hills baptist church in montana city, mt. this was the first stop we made as we started this summer, we did most of the decorations as well as some blitzing (passing out flyers door to door). canyon ferry road baptist, which is who we were scheduled to be with this week postponed their vbs and so south hills so graciously picked us up to work with them. we got here saturday morning at 10 and started decorating the church the moment we walked through the door! saturday night since i had finished what i was doing for the moment, i volunteered to cook the hotdogs for supper, not knowing what i was getting myself into for the rest of the week!! late saturday afternoon we were informed of our sleeping arrangements....on air mattresses that they just happened to find for us in the attic, in the nursery!! we put all our luggage in the library and we store all our mattresses in the missions room during the day...they do have a shower in the bathroom, as well as a washer and dryer and they gave us a car so that we could travel back and forth to helena to keep ourselves occupied during the days. the air mattresses are comfortable, i think...or either its just that i'm so worn out that i don't notice how uncomfortable they are haha

sunday morning at church during meet and greet time, this lady walks up to us and says, "which one of you is kristi" i raised my hand a little reluctantly, cause i mean doesn't that sound like something you hear when your in trouble?? so she proceeds to tell me that she heard i can grill really good and that she needs me to grill the hamburgers for everyone that is staying after church to help with the vbs set up. i did pretty good...only let one of the burgers slide through the crack...yikes!! so sunday night was the first night of vbs and the church feeds dinner at 5 every night before we start so about 4:15 she tells me that we should probably go and heat the grill up so that we can "bar-b-q" again (they never call it grilling - its bbq whether you put bbq sauce on the meat or not) so sunday night once again i grill hotdogs. Ally who was at orientation with us and is working with helena valley baptist church all summer is coming out to help so she and i got to catch up on everything while bbq-ed. i'm not sure how many kids we had sunday night but i would guess about 40-45. monday one of the ladies in the church took us out for lunch and ice cream. on our way back we stopped by her house to pray over her husband who has many health problems, including hepatitis C. it was an awesome privilege to be able to minister in that way!! we will be going to eat supper with them on friday night. monday night i found out that i had to grill once again. we had chicken for supper and the number of people that came was amazing, we cut all the chicken in half and actually ran out. i wasn't able to eat any so i whipped up some shells and cheese after everyone had left!! mmmmm good! luckily that was the last night we have to grill, so i get a little break from that!!

today we went out on the town. we picked up ally (she goes to ole miss, but is super duper cool) and we headed to a local montana eating establishment called the staggering ox. i ate one of the most interesting roast beef and turkey sandwiches i've ever seen in my life, (see picture below). after that i navigated around helena to try and find some places to shop...well obviously, they are few and far between!!! we went to the parrot, which is a bakery type deal. they make their one candies as well as have the really old fashioned ways of making fountain drinks where they put in the syrup then add carbonated water...now that was a sight to see. it kept us entertained for a while. then we went to the mall....well all four stores of it, it was pitiful!!! so we went to the other side of town and found target...we had more fun shopping in target than anywhere else haha it doesn't take much to amuse us!!

tonight there were 64 kids at vbs for the second night in a row!!! most of those kids are not members of this church, i'd actually venture to say that there are probably only 20-25 kids out of that number that attend church here. this is the biggest vbs we've seen! amy and elizabeth are teaching 1st and 2nd graders...on the first night they had 11 and last night they had 22!!!!!! HELLO!!! tonight was the night that the gospel was shared and out of amy and elizabeth's class there were 3 professions of faith...these are the first decisions we have seen, but we know that many seeds have been planted. One verse that i found the other day was

1 corinthians 3:7, it says:

"So neither he who plants, nor he who

waters is anything, but only

God, who makes things grow."

we realize it is nothing we are doing in montana that is bringing people to christ other than allowing him to work through us to accomplish his purposes. it is an awesome feeling to be that instrument. i hope you realize how much i covet your prayers. i appreciate so much all the encouragement that i have received from each of you and you will never know how much it has meant to me. please continue to pray for me as i am still seeking the Lord's will for my life...this summer is changing me and it is an awesome experience to see that in myself, but after this summer i'll be back to the same old routine and i want so badly for my life to be different. i think you all understand those feelings.

carousel...you can make up your own caption...we'd been in the mountains to long without contact with civilization that we acted a little crazy on it...doesn't take much to entertain us!

just doing my duty for the week...this was chicken night, they said it was good, but i wouldn't know...i braved the 100 mph wind to cook these little birds and i didn't even get to eat one!

i'm leading around the 3rd and 4th grade class this week and this is at the recreation rotation...from l to r: riyan (from california), grace, jewel, noa, olivia, hannah, mari (we stayed at her house the first time we were here) and seth. this was monday night and on tuesday night we had 14 kids in the class

the kids again - minus seth and hannah: mari, jewel, grace, noa, riyan, olivia

my canned sandwich from the staggering ox...quite interesting huh?? and notice the mason jar full of coke behind it haha i loved it

and y'all thought our energy was all natural...we frequently make elk shaped sugar cookies topped with cream cheese icing after vbs is over just to give us that extra boost! sorry i look so scary...yikes!!

- mom don't freak out, this is the first time we've done this...we usually eat fairly healthy, but the church at boulder gave us all cookie mix so we just had to make it so we won't have to carry it around everywhere :)

the shepherds have it

well just finished up the second vbs of the summer...pretty soon i think we'll be considered experts on the material and the songs! boy, do those songs get stuck in your head or what?! so let me explain the title, tonight after we finished cleaning up the church the 4 of us went ahead and got in the van using mrs. karens keys. so about 5 minutes later someone asks us if we have seen her keys and we tell them yes, that we have them in the van with us. well evidently the message didn't get to her because about 5 minutes later, she came out of the church and asked the group of people if they had seen her keys...little quinne who is 3 calmly replies, "yes, the shepherds have it," as she pointed to the van. so as of now we are no longer referred to as summer missionaries, but as shepherds. haha i thought it was pretty cute

Summer Shepherds: "Herding Kids as They Learn God's Truth"

i think it has a better ring to it than just "summer missionary girls," dont you??? well lets see, vbs went great, the week started out with around 25 kids and i think climaxed with around 37, tonight there weren't many kids at all but here in montana when the weekends roll around its hard to find people at home because most people go camping or something so fridays are always a hard day to get kids to come. tonight instead of having a big program, the kids brought their parents with them and the parents went through a typical vbs night with them. it was a really cool idea, and honestly i was so surprised to see the number of unchurched or at least parents who were members of other churches there. There is one family in particular that just really surprised me. earlier in the week the pastor had notified us that there were four kids who were brothers and sisters and that for the longest time the four kids have been coming to sunday school and church. one teacher said a lot of times they are the first ones to the church, but the thing is...they are the only ones who come. their parents don't come so the kids make the effort to get themselves to church each week. we were also told that their family situation is a bit rough, so i honestly did not expect to see anyone with them tonight. but as they slowly came in i realized that each of the four kids had an adult with them. their parents and grandparents were all there and were able to go through the entire night with them. its just so neat to see the little ones bring their parents to church and that is what this family of little ones did. the kids themselves are awesome, anthony is in 5th grade, ethan is in 4th, dakota is in 2nd and kennedy is in 1st. one amazing thing is that as we were walking back from the community ball park tuesday afternoon one of the kids in anthony's class told me that later monday night in the music class anthony repeated the story i had told about moses and the burning bush and crossing the red sea. she told me it was so weird because "he said like every word you said, he told the entire story and explained everything just like you did." the funny thing is, i had thought anthony didn't pay attention at all to my story, i guess thats just the way the word of the Lord works...it doesn't matter how many games we play or how good of a stroyteller we are, God has a specific word for everyone of us to hear and anthony heard exactly what he needed that night, whether he was into the games and story or not.

so today we did a little sight seeing. we rode up to the once booming mining town of Elkhorn. I say once, because its a ghost town now. it was quite interesting!! there are two historic buildings that are still standing from the late 1800's/early 1900's so we were able to go in them and look around. in the late 1800's there was a brain fever epidemic that swept through the town and killed lots of the people, mainly children. there is a cemetery above the town so we went up there and looked at all that. its a cemetery that they just happened to put on government land. the government wanted to exhume all the bodies and relocate the cemetery but just recently passed a law that will allow the cemetery to stay there since its been there for so long. it was pretty neat. we also learned though that its not completely a ghost town, there are several people that still live in it - you know the kind that are really weird and want to stay as far away from society as possible? yeah, those people are there. there is one house that is home to a hippie from california that grows pot - at least thats what pastor dan told us and i believe it from the way his house looked!! on the way up there we got caught in the middle of a herd of cattle as some cowgirls were trying to move them down the road to another field. kinda made me feel right at home!! they completely surrounded our church van as they just meandered on down the road haha i'm telling you, i dont see why people think mississippians are rednecks after some of the stuff i've seen up here!! on our way down the mountain we put the van in neutral and made it nearly all the way to the bottom without using the accelerator...it was pretty fun!

well i think that is all of my adventures for the day...got a couple more pictures to share!

heres for you, daddy...some nice angus cows that were being moved down the road near elkhorn (the ghost town) they were right in our way!!

up close - so you could see some true montanan cows, daddy...everyday there are probably close to 100 cattle trucks that go through downtown boulder on their route from alberta to denver

cuttin a rug at the dance hall and saloon in the ghost town of Elkhorn - me casey and elizabeth


front of the dance hall and saloon

walking across the coldest creek in the world...ok maybe its not really "the coldest creek in the world" but IT SURE FELT LIKE IT!!!!!!!!! oh yeah and its not a creek up here...its a "CRICK" got to learn to speak the language a little better, and also just for your FYI, trees dont have roots, they have RUTS (sounds like you are saying a sophisticated form of rut)

first baptist boulder

friday night at vbs

leaving comments

i just wanted to share again how to leave me comments. i had done that first thing but i wanted to share it again incase i had picked up any new and interested viewers...guess thats what i could call it.

well anyway for all those new to the blogging world, here is the best way to share your thoughts with me:

Below each post that I make there will be a small line that shows the number of comments on that particular post. If you click on that line it will open up a new screen and will have a box on the right where the comment can be typed out. The best way to let me know who left the comment is to select the "Name/URL" identity and then once it is selected you can type in your name. After doing that just hit publish comment and your done!!

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!!!!

i'm posting every chance i get cause its few and far between out here!

well day 3 of vbs at wolf creek!! and i'm still alive! things are going so great - the kids have been awesome and just the number we have had all week has been astonishing for the size of this community! i think we've been having 23 to 24 each day. we usually have 7 in our class (2nd-4th grades). it is so neat to see these kids each day as they learn more and more truths about our Savior. just simple facts like Jesus is God's son and God is real are big things to them. the weather has been slightly less than "nice" the past couple of days so its been hard trying to keep the kids entertained while they are inside the entire time, but after some schedule modifications today, i think this is the best day so far!

last night mrs. faye and mr. bill (the couple i'm staying with this week) fixed us an elk roast, which was phenomenal!! after dinner we rode up to rogers pass and were able to see the continental divide. i was really glad they took us over there because thats probably the only time we will get to see it. so i can officially say that i have been on the west side of the continental divide. this morning we woke up to once again see snow!!! ahhhhhh!! ok it was fun the first hour or so but now its a bit old!! the snow was up the mountain a little way and didn't stick down where we were but we had a nasty really cold icy mix all day long!! i really don't think that it ever got over 45 today, but don't take my word for it. but i mean its just ridiculous that it is june 11th and its still snowing up here! i'm about to wear out all the winter clothes i brought with me! (so don't be judgemental if i'm wearing the same outfits in most of my pictures, i don't have very many rotations that i can make haha!)

so some new facts about montana....in case i haven't told you before, there is no sales tax in montana ( a shoppers paradise!) lets see...some places do not even have electricity!!! WOW! i've actually met a family who doesn't have it, but don't fret, they have solar powered stuff. they just live so far up in the mountains that it would've cost them thousands of dollars to get electricity up to them so they used alternative energy. hmm well i guess thats about all i can think of right now....picture time!

mine and amy's class : merle, walker, jackson, joel, faith, reagan and colby

playing their favorite game...putting together a puzzle with the bible verse on it. reagan, walker, merle and joel

me and vesta...one of the youngest kids. she is so sweet, she calls every adult there "teacher" and its just so innocent and sweet!! she is one of the kids in the community that as far as we know doesn't have much of a church background.

at the continental divide...i think its at an elevation of about 5600 feet. it was freezing up there!

trying to learn our bible verse for the day!!

back to civilization!!

at one of the most beautiful waterfalls in the entire park!!

wow it feels like its been forever since i've been able to get on this! first let me just say that i so appreciate the comments that everyone has been leaving! i get sooooo excited to find an internet connection to be able to check the comments because they just make me smile so much!! i just love it so much!! anyway...anxious to see pictures of my snow filled days at yellowstone????? ok well i guess i'll fill you in!

lets see, thursday morning we left south hills baptist fellowship and went to work with first baptist boulder for the day. boulder is a very small and hardened town. in 4 hours we walked around the entire town at least twice and maybe more. we were hanging vbs signs in mainstreet businesses and passing out flyers to any children we could find. only one child did not take the flyer...when we asked if we could give her a flyer for vbs, she simply replied "NO! i don't want that" and she walked away. it was so sad to see because she couldn't be over 8 years old and had already been taught to have that attitude towards God. we left from boulder around 4:15 and got to butte around 5. we took just enough time to say hello to jason, debbie, noah, sierra and hezekiah (our supervisors and their 3 oldest kids) and load up our stuff then we were on the road once again. we drove all the way to gardiner thursday night. i can not even begin to describe the number of elk and deer we saw on that drive. it was unbelievable...all you guys would have had a hay day! since it doesn't get dark until 9:45 or 10 we could see everything! we stayed in the baptist church there in gardiner. they had two huge rooms that had about 15 bunk beds stacked in them so we were able to all pile into those.

friday morning we left at 7 am headed to the park! wow...i know everyone who has been there can understand but oh my goodness...God worked overtime on that place!! we've saw a couple of bears...one eating its lunch, tons of deer, tons of elk, antelope, goats, buffalos, and amanda...i was able to see 2 eagles!!!and 1 of them was flying over a river with the mountains in the background, i was trying to get a picture but it never happened. it sure was beautiful though!!!

friday afternoon on june 6th it started snowing and not just a little...a WHOLE LOT!!!!!!! you should have seen us southern girls...we went CRAZY!!! haha we were able to get out and play in it, although we got tired of it very quickly when all the clothes we had for the weekend got soaked!! we went to ole faithful but missed out on that because it was snowing so hard that we could not see it, so i guess i'll have to go back someday to see it.

right now i am in wolf creek for the week. i am staying with probably the greatest lady ever...she has a brand new house so amy and i get to have our own bedroom with a nice comfortable queen size bed...its so nice compared to the couch bed i had last week! lets see, we are just doing vbs this entire week. its an all day vbs that runs from 9:30 to 3 and it is being held in the pubic school in the town that maybe has 25 people living in it. the school usually only has about 15 students in it each year and they have only one class for grades 1-6th. i can't believe how small this town is! but without a doubt hands down this is the most beautiful town we've been in. its so rural and its nestled right between the mountains! well i guess i should post some pictures, cause you're probably bored reading all this haha

car that we made at south hills for vbs decorations - amy is holding it up

boulder city hall - this should help you to see how big the town of boulder is (this is the town i will be working in next week)

welcome to yellowstone!! me, noah, amy, sierra, casey, elizabeth and kiah

at yellowstone at one of the stops...me, amy, elizabeth and casey

a mountain goat and baby goat

after just a couple of hours of snow...it looks like a winter wonderland!!!

one of the one million cow elks we saw! this was in the middle of the town of mammoth hot springs just as you entered the park at gardiner.

flip-flops, pineapples, fishies and more!!

i am trying to type this quickly cause we are at the church and are ready to be home but just wanted to catch you up on the last couple of days while i could (i am probably going to have tons of spelling and grammar mistakes but know i am typing this as quickly as i can)

lets see sunday we worshiped at south hills baptist fellowship, the church we are working with this week. They are currently without a pastor, so please be in prayer as they search for one. we also got a vehicle from one of the church families so that has made it easy to get around. since no one else pays attention to directions i have been the driver. sunday and sunday night i was a bit sick with a cold and some stomach bug that elizabeth and i both had...we are hoping no one else will get it. we were supposed to meet the vbs director at 10 on monday to start on decorations but it ended up being like 1:30 before she ever got to the church...sounds like a woman with the same time management issues as me, huh?!!? well we worked on painting decorations...6 foot tall pineapples, 2 dozen giant flip-flops and such till probably 10 last night.

this morning we got out and hit up one of the neighborhoods with vbs flyers...door to door to every house in the neighborhood. we learned one important thing...montana has GIANT dogs!! every house we went in had like mastiffs and german shepherds or st bernards in them!! on one occasion, as we were pulling into a driveway this huge lab that was approx 4 times bigger than any i have ever seen comes charging at us and jumps on the side of the car and sticks its head into the window as i am trying to roll it up!! needless to say that house didn't get a vbs flyer!!! at one of the houses we were able to see an antelope grazing in their yard!! and it was in the middle of a subdivision...so fun!! they are such interesting animals!! so after we finished up that we came back to the church and painted more decorations...its 10:15 here and we just finished up for the night. We were able to eat supper tonight with the family that is letting us use the vehicle and i found out that she is from mccomb, ms and went to state for a couple of years!! what a relief to meet someone from back home!!!!!!!!!!!!

well, we are all good, just pray for our physical health, because i don't feel like feeling like that again this summer!! we will be passing out vbs flyers in boulder on thursday and if all goes as planned should be heading to yellowstone on thursday night or friday morning!! hopefully after that i should be able to get up some good pictures...i apologize for no pictures this time, but i haven't really taken many this week.

hope all is well wherever y'all are right now!! keep us in your prayers and thanks for all the prayers you have offered on my behalf thus far...they have been whats kept me going through all of this so far!!! goodnight!