Life in a Postcard

The past 48 hours of my life have been action-packed, excitement-filled, epically adventurous, and altogether beautiful. At our first service yesterday we had 30 people in attendance: our largest service yet. All three services went smoothly and it seemed like people were influenced in a good way. After our morning services Rachel, Kacie (our good friend/ adopted ministry team member), and I went to Old Faithful to use our employee discount at the gift shop there (40% off this week!). Then we skidaddled over to Moose Falls where we swam in the waterfalls and read good books on a rock in the sun. After dinner, ice cream, and our third service, Rachel and I embarked upon our epic adventure.

We left Grant at 8 pm to drive Northwest into a spectacular Yellowstone sunset towards Mammoth to go camp with some ACMNP support staff. We arrived at the Blacktail Creek trailhead around 10:00 pm. Although we could not find the trail head at first, we stopped and used a bathroom, and when we came out, a park ranger (who is also the father of the ACMNP staff we were going to meet) had magically appeared to lead us to the trail. We hiked 3.7 miles to a ranger cabin in the dark with flashlights, singing and shouting the entire way to fend off bears or other lurking night dangers. We arrived safely to a quaint cabin on the beach of the Yellowstone River, where we had a solid night's sleep. We had a breakfast of bloobs, bags, and pnutbut (blueberries, bagels, and peanut butter) on the shore of the river. Sufficiently fueled and raring for more adventure, we hiked 2 miles further to a waterfall, before turning back to hike out and return to Grant. It was a beautiful experience in so many ways.

Besides adventuring, other important things you should know about the past week are: Darcy (one of my ministry team members) returned home this week because of health problems. Please pray for her. I caught my first 2 fish (Cutthroat) this week at Riddle Lake. I am really very sunburned and my feet are blistered, but it is all worth it. Beautiful world, beautiful moments. Beautiful people, beautiful life.