Memorial Day Weekend

For those who may work in a National Park in the future, make sure you get Memorial Day weekend off as soon as possible. For those wanting to visit a national park, again I'd advise going on when there isn't a holiday. We've been crazy busy, there are people everywhere! The cafeteria closes at 9 and apparently a bus full of tourists showed up just then, and they were hungry. Surprisingly we still managed to finish everything by 10:45.
Saturday I got off work at 4 and went and sat in front of the fireplace at the Old Faithful Snowlodge hotel, those chairs are amazingly comfortable. Read for 4 hours, finished Obsessed by Ted Dekker and started working on Black.
Today at work, the manager Frank pulled me aside and told me that he is planning on changing my job. I guess you could call it a promotion. He said that I'll be working as an assistant store manager, keeping check on storage items probably will include some database work(he kept asking if I knew how to use a computer... HA!), AND he also said that I'd have a cooks position as well! He also told me that there would be a pay increase, which is GREAT, I wasn't really looking forward to making $7.50 an hour for the whole summer. He said that he was planning on all this happening, and I'm not entirely sure but it seems that when he wants something done, it gets done. I don't know when that's gonna hit, but I'm pretty excited!
I have Monday and Tuesday off, but tomorrow I'll be up at 8 and heading up to Mammoth Springs to meet up with the rest of the Yellowstone ACMNP staff for our orientation. They say its going to be an all day thing, no clue what they've got planned because I thought we had covered everything a month ago. They did tell us that we'll be meeting at a church later that night for a steak dinner... yup, I'm in.


Oh, one last thing. I didn't opt for renting a mailbox, but anything addressed with my name and General Delivery on I can pick up at our post office. So here is the address:
for mail:
Timothy Charles
General Delivery- Old Faithful
Yellowstone National Park WY 82190
for packages:
Timothy Charles
YNP Lodges- Old Faithful Personnel Office
Yellowstone National Park, WY 82190

May 27th

Yeah, I'm running out of title ideas.

One major point of encouragement today. I was at work cleaning pots and pans, scrubbing away and the new head chef that I met last week stops by. She asked me if I had any trouble getting Sunday off and to talk to her if I ever had trouble getting them off for my "ministry thing". So, by that you could figure that she knew I was working for ACMNP, pretty safe bet there. Well, I thought that was cool she was willing to help me out as much as possible there rather than hinder. Later that night, still scrubbing dishes and she's back there helping us out, kinda odd but appreciated of course. And she up and asks me what church I go to. So we got into a good conversation about the Vineyard church and churches in general. Almost without a doubt she is a Christian. From what I understood, she grew up in a Christian home, but it sounded like she had just come from a bad church experience. I don't know where she's at now, but oh man when I walked away from that conversation I had chills running down my spine. I was pretty excited after that, God just showed that He still knows what He's doing and He knows exactly what I need, and when! It will be really cool when we start our church services and I can see all of these people I've met all at once, together to praise God! Very exciting indeed!
I realized today that my having trouble with schedules and the whole social security card thing may actually play to some use. It seems that there are a lot of people in high places, managers and the personnel office mainly, who know me from it all. It'll be interesting how this one plays out.
Well, I can't really think of anything else to write. Worked from 11:30 this morning until 10:30pm, 45 minutes off for dinner. Hm. One of my roommates just got back. He's an interesting fellow. His name is Justin, (Jeremy is the other but he's moving to a different part of Yellowstone next week, a real shame cuz I get along with him better than Justin). Anyway, Justin kinda mumbles while he talks, I'm amazed that he's employed here as a server heheh. Oh yeah, and its hard to carry a conversation with him. Well, easy if you don't mind not saying anything. For example, he just now asked me a question and I get a few words out in answer and he goes on with a completely different topic haha. He's 27, has a degree in graphic design (go firgure!) and is a fairly respectful guy. Really, I could have a much worse roommate I'm thankful he's not very extreme at all.
Ok, now I'm done :) I miss you all a lot, I can't wait to see you all again friends and family (especially Ricaya!!)

One Week Later

So a week later, things are much much better. I still can't wait to be home but for the time being I'm pretty happy. Work has been pretty good, although I had couple more run ins with Frank, our lead Manager. He's a very interesting guy to say the least. Yesterday he wasn't very happy that I asked for next Sunday and Monday off, I needed them off for our ACMNP orientation. However, when he found out that I am with ACMNP he was a bit more favorable... just a bit. He's not a Christian by any means but he seems to appreciate, at least, our work. Other run in happened today, I guess there was a mixup/miscommunication with my work schedule and I wasn't supposed to work. Frank still had me work so I still got in 9 hours, not sure how it worked out but it was ok.
Ah, Sunday night I had a weird dream. It was one of those dreams where you're running away. In my case I was hiding/running away from groups of people. I vaguely remember one group and it was just a nice seeming family. Soon after I woke up and I wondered why I would be hiding from them. It might just be my overinterpretation but I've had dreams like these before and I believe they carry some meaning. In this case, it was showing how I have a hard time just being open to new people, they could be the nicest family and I'd avoid them just because its my personality. Well I didn't think that much of it until after a little event later that night. I had worked earlier on Monday and got off at 4:30. Showered and ran some errands, called home. By the time I'd gone through that it was 7pm. I was going to dinner and found out our employee dining room closes at 6:30. So I decided to try another spot, but they closed at 7. As I was walking out there was a family of 3 leaving as well and for some reason I struck up a conversation. The parents had an adorable little girl who was maybe 8. She asked me if I wanted to hear something really scary. She then proceeded to tell me about her 2 pet rats she has at home and how I shouldn't touch her if I'm scared of rats. All I could do was listen and laugh! That definitely made my night, that short 5 minute conversation with the family from Kansas City for some reason brought me so much joy.
God's been so faithful even in teaching me how to interact with people. Really, it isn't hard here since everyone is from somewhere different there is always something new to learn or a new story to hear.
I gotta say, I love working with international students. I don't know if living in Antioch had anything to do with it, but work is so much more interesting because of it. Lately, I've been working with a few gals from Thailand, I think I mentioned one of them earlier, Rainy. The other two I got to know a bit better today, Am and Toon, who have been best friends since High School. They all speak English fairly well, sometimes I have to concentrate to understand them but we get along great. Today I set myself to start learning some Thai. Am seemed to really enjoy that, and I think it opened up our relationships a lot more. Unfortunately, Am and Toon are leaving in a couple weeks.
Ahh what else. We've gotten snow the past couple days. It usually melts by the end of the day but its been really weird having snow coming down all day long.
Oh, big news, I got an email yesterday from one of the girls in our ACMNP group. She told us that her heart wasn't really in this ministry and that she was going home. Really unfortunate that she would give up on us, but it strengthened my resolve to stick things out here. I know things won't always be easy here, but I also know that God is stretching me and growing me to be more effective in serving Him. Our last 2 members showed up yesterday too, so next week is our ACMNP orientation and we'll begin our Sunday services. I'm still thinking I'm going to enjoy working more than doing those services but its all in God's hands.
Thats all for now I guess. More later!

I'll keep this one shorter. Not a whole lot happened today I suppose. Turns out, things weren't all fine with my social security card and I'm now suspended from working until I get that second form of ID in or within a week they'll be sending me home. Not real worried, mom is mailing my birth certificate which will do the trick. It's pretty tempting thinking of going home though. I like it here, but I guess I'm a little homesick.
Today at lunch I sat down and the gal next to me introduced herself, turns out she'll be the new head chef where I work come next week so hopefully she'll keep me in mind. At dinner I sat with another older couple and turns out they're from Minnesota. They were really nice and they've been added to the list of "people-I-hope-to-run-into-sometime." It was funny I had told them how people keep telling me that I won't be doing dishes for long and that was when they asked for my name... they wanted to keep an eye out for when it gets to the top of the list as Head Chef, hahaha!
Couple more items on the table tonight. First off, I cut my right hand pinky finger. Cut it while trying to get a butterknife unstuck from a dishwashing cup. Kinda a pain, but at least it was my pinky, hasn't really affected work at all. Second, I got off work at about 10:30 and it was dark and drizzling. About an hour later I ran out to my car to get something and there's a half inch or more of snow on the ground... still coming down too haha.
So, 2 days off, I think on Sunday I'll drive up to Bozeman maybe try and get a haircut and just take a look around. This week we're not doing a church service, we're still waiting on a few other members to show and I think it would have been a bad idea anyway since we're still getting used to the place. Otherwise, I'll probably do some reading and hoping my pinky will heal up!

First Day at Work

Wow. So, all the cool stuff that happened today actually begins before getting to work. I had a decent night's sleep, haven't done that in a while so that was very helpful. Made it to lunch and randomly sat with a couple older ladies, very sweet- I seem to enjoy hanging out with the older employees, they're awesome and not as weird as the younger ones. Anyway, I'll eventually get back to one of them, her name is Kathy. They shared some stories and I had to get movin to get ready for work. When I got to work, I clocked in, but had nowhere to go from there. I had a general idea where I was working but no clue who to report to, or what I was supposed to be doing. I ended up in a back office deep in the kitchen, and there was Kathy. She does database work and hops between buildings and just happened to be in the Old Faithful Lodge today. She wandered with me for a bit trying to find someone to dump me off on and finally settled with having me wait in the office. We got to talking a bit more and she asked how I ended up working in Yellowstone. (This has been my greatest chance to let people know I'm a Christian, I love that question!) When she found out that I was a Christian she shook my hand and said she was glad to meet "another one". She told me how hard it has been for some people here as Christians, in particular another guy she knows of who she wants to put in contact with our ACMNP group for support. She reminded me that this place is fairly full of darkness and that I'll have my share of rough times, and that our ACMNP group needs to be faithful in supporting each other. She also told me that she would definitely be praying for us. She reminded me that this is a mission field as much as any place overseas and that its not always going to be easy. As discouraging as that should have been, I wasn't discouraged in the least. Knowing that I have Kathy praying and supporting me, even that she is just there to talk with once in a while, was incredibly encouraging. I was also reminded of part of a Bible verse I memorized a few months ago. Looking back now I realized God put that on my heart for this very reason. The verse stood out to me when I read it and for some reason I wanted to memorize it. The end of Isaiah 7:9- "if you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all."
A couple minutes later, the lead manager, Frank, steps in (who Kathy described as an "impatient" man, very true, he seems to run a short temper and you can't really tell if he's joking or not-definitely best to just take him seriously) and he's a little put off that I hadn't been working for the past 10 minutes. I had met Frank the day before as well and kinda knew that I shouldn't be getting on his bad side. In addition, it was the lunchtime rush so he was a bit more impatient than usual I think. As he shows me to the dishwashing area he starts talking to me about moving up to a cook sometime soon, I didn't have to ask. Later on in the night he stops by again and tells me that I'll most likely be moved up in the next week or so since he had a couple open spaces. Very exciting! Especially since I didn't really ask for a different job. Thank you God!
Finally, things went really well at work. I definitely like the people that I'm working with, they're all very helpful. A couple notables, Rainy a girl from Thailand, I enjoyed talking with her, she's pretty awesome. Ye, a girl from China, trained me in for cleaning the larger pots and whatnot. John, totally reminds me of the Russian guy from Ironman2, they could be twins... anyway, I guess he was the supervisor, he showed me around a bit and showed me where to put things away etc.
So yeah, God's really been helping me to be more outgoing and open for conversations. Be praying that He would continue to bless those friendships and that I'll continue to stand strong as a Christian and that I can live as an example of Christ.

First Day

Whirlwind! Slept in my car got about 3-4 hours of sleep and got headed over to start up registration. Some paper work, photo for ID card which I will use for everything (including discounts!), and my uniform, chef's hat included! After that I had a little time before lunch and got to explore Mammoth Springs a little. Totally could have smacked an elk, but she had friends nearby and I didn't want to make a scene in the middle of the parking lot...
I was able to find our employee dining room(EDR) without too much hassle and actually without asking for directions... that only happened once. After that we had another training session, more like information on Xanterra, the company I work for, and Yellowstone National Park. 1 Hour drive from Mammoth Springs to Old Faithful and I had to figure out where to register. Xanterra is so thoughtful for their guests I think they forget about their employees, no signs or anything and they hide the important stuff in random places. I'm just complaining, but after "registering" at the wrong building and driving around the whole Old Faithful area twice, and then asking for directions...again, found it. My room is about the size of my bedroom at school. Except now I have to fit in 2 other roomates AND all of our stuff. Not to mention, 6 hours after checking in I have yet to meet them so I'm hardly settled in.
Ha, so for dinner I start wandering, I have a general idea where the EDR is and I end up following a couple guys who looked like they knew where they were going. Circled the outside of the building once. Front desk and asked for directions... circled the INSIDE of the building once. Finally, I end up in a gift shop and I ask one of the clerks there where the EDR is. Really nice older guy named Rick offered to show me, he had to go on break anyway. Turns out they hid this EDR in the basement of the building I crawled all over and around. Food was ok, but Rick was good company. Later I went over to the gift shop in the building I will be working in and met his wife, whom he told me to find. Nice people, I hope to see them around. Wandered around some more after dinner trying to find things before I needed to know where they were.
So far, it's been really hard for me to begin conversations with people but I've found that once that is started it's easy to be friendly. There are a lot more employees than I realized, and I know this isn't going to be easy on me at all. But God is still in control, I got nothin' to lose, and He HAS to have a reason for sending me here, cuz there is no way I would do this on my own.

Whats up

School is finished, cleaning finally completed, 3 hour drive home and I'm pretty much exhausted. This being my first blog I'm looking forward to what I can do with it all. Hopefully I'll get more down when I have more time.
For those who don't know what this is about, let me recap. Way back in January a friend of mine, Kristin T, suggested that I apply for a job working with A Christian Ministry in National Parks (ACMNP). ACMNP staffers can be found in many national parks all over the nation. If you're ever in a national park on a Sunday, we put on interdenominational church services for campers and visitors. On a whim I filled out the application, clearly drawn by the lure of working in a national park. Two weeks later I received a confirmation email saying my application had been accepted, and that I would be assigned to the Old Faithful area of Yellowstone National Park. I was very excited, still am, but I was certainly overlooking all the changes that this would bring to my life and what a huge step, leap more like, this would be.
So here we are now, I've met with other ACMNP staff workers for our Christian Ministry training, and as good as it was to know and experience a little of what I'll be doing very soon here, I couldn't help but realize just how far out of my comfort zone this will take me. For example, Saturday nights we'll be doing Campground Calls, walking through entire campgrounds talking with whoever we can find and passing on information of our Sunday church services and any other special events being put on by park Rangers. As an extreme introvert, I can certainly say this is going to be very challenging.
So, Sunday May 16th I will begin driving making a stop in Grand Forks to hang with my Nasty buddies! Really looking forward to that and seeing the recent grad (congrats Andy!). Monday morning I'll continue driving all day and hopefully get into Gardiner Montana later at night. I'll spend the night somewhere, most likely in my car just to save on money, and then early Tuesday we'll be meeting with our employers, ACMNP team and get settled into Yellowstone National Park! Every once in a while lately I stop and wonder how I got myself into this one. Sure National Park is awesome, I'm all over that, but ministry and jumping into the middle of a new situation with new people and more... that's not me. That's how I know that God has some awesome plans for this summer. I really want to be open to God changing my life this summer, I want to serve and live with no regrets. God is faithful no matter the situation and as long as I'm doing what He wants me to do, I hope that I'll have the courage and strength to jump without looking.
Thanks for taking time to read up, I might go daily with this blog, maybe weekly, it really all depends on how much God does everyday and how much time I have to write it all. I can't wait to see what God will do this summer, and I'm especially excited to be able to share it in this way.
Thanks for your prayers, and come visit sometime!!