i think i'll start this up again

so ally needs me to update this so she can stalk me and i decided i'd do it. i dont know who'll read it anymore since i am no longer on some big journey hundreds of miles from home, but nonetheless i'll write whats on my heart and mind every once in a while.

so i guess the main thing is school...i dont really care to be in school right now, i'd rather be doing something else, but i'll make it through. i think its so bad because i still dont feel completely at peace as to what i am going to do with myself once i graduate. thats totally my fault because i haven't actively and completely sought God in that area of my life. i just seem to turn to him when i need a quick answer to satisfy the person who asks me, "so what are you going to be when you grow up?" most of the time i confidently lie just to pacify their curiousity...but deep down i always say...i dont know, i feel torn. this week i will make time to call some physical therapy clinics to try and schedule some observation hours...i have to decide this because i need peace about it. other than the nagging, "what shall i be when i grow up" question that is constantly in my thoughts, school is ok...its school. its harder this year and its going to take a lot more effort than i normally like to give, but i'll do it...somehow, some way. i have to do a senior design project with a group and we have chosen to build a robot that mimics certain characteristics of a bug...it should be interesting considering none of us have ever built a robot. i pray we end up with something that works come april when we have to present this thing!

this year so far has been a little hard...besides the school stuff, my world is slowly changing. my life will never be the same after what i experienced this summer, but i am now also having to deal with the loss of someone very dear to me. this is the first time i've lost someone so close and it hurts...bad, to be honest.

my great-uncle percy left us 8 days ago. though he is better off where he is now, the world is a little less brighter without him. i don't even know where to begin because its still so hard to believe that i'll never see his little black truck parked in that parking spot behind my grandparents house again, the chair at the head of the table next to my grandfather wont be the throne of the most loving guy ever anymore cause someone else will take it, i wont ever look out our window on a saturday afternoon and see he and uncle brent spinning in circles in the pond in his new boat cause they couldn't figure out how to work it, i wont ever hear his loud "AAAHHH" with that deep sounding grunt that he always did when he had worked too hard and then sat down too long and was too stiff to get up, i wont ever get to give him that huge hug he always liked and walk away smelling like his cologne, i'll miss seeing him mow yards...he loved that more than anything and he always wanted to mow our yard with his new lawn mower, i'll miss his stories...all 4 million of them, i'll miss hunting with him and hearing him yell at uncle brent over the cb, i'll miss the way he introduced me to his friends....and more than anything i'll miss hearing him say "i love you, kristi"...especially the way he looked at me all teary eyed when he told me the last couple of times that i saw him. there is no doubt in my mind that he loved me and my family...gosh, Kale was his favorite...he thought kale hung the moon. when i think about the fact that he was my great-uncle and most people can't even tell you who their great-uncles are, i feel so blessed to have been able to have the kind of relationship i had with him. he never held anything back...he told you often he loved you and he told us more times than i can count how proud he was of us. he was one of a kind...there will never be anyone like him. it still doesn't seem real that he's gone...he was never supposed to leave this earth.

i cant help but think how comforting it is in the midst of our loss for every member of the family to know what they had meant to him...he made sure he told all of us before he left us. my resolution is to be the kind of person he was in that respect...to tell those you care about most that you love them, that you are there for them no matter what and that you are so proud of them. what a lasting impression the conversations between my uncle percy and i have left on me. those conversations when he shared with me how much he loved me, and how very proud he was of me will never be forgotten.

make it a point to share with the ones you care about most how much you love them...if that big ole manly man could break down crying while telling his great niece how much he loved her...then i think we can all do it. we owe it to ourselves and to others.

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!