June 27th week

wow. Internet has been out in my dorm for over a week now, excuse number 1 for no new blog updates. And it's been a pretty busy week, excuse number 2. Fortunately, they recently put in some pretty fast wireless internet at the Old Faithful Snowlodge, roughly 5 minutes walk from my dorm and I usually go there to read anyway so problem mostly solved!
Hm... the past week. Well, I finally was able to work a full shift/day as a cook. I enjoy it quite a bit, especially the rush after Old Faithful goes off, I like to stay busy, and the more pressure the better!
Saturday I had off, and Dad stopped by, it was GREAT seeing him, and we watched part of the US-Ghana game online... tsk tsk. Seemed that most of his passengers were excited to see me too, I guess I'd gotten a lot of publicity in the past few days :) Thanks Dad, it was very encouraging, especially having everyone pray for me. Saturday night before we met as a group to discuss our services, I had my soccer ball with me in our Rec center. 2 guys that I guess work in my cafeteria (yup, getting possessive already) joined me for a little bit. One is from Columbia and the other is from Turkey. They told me that the park-wide 6v6 soccer tournament team for Old Faithful was full already :( heart breaker. BUT, I gave them my number and they said they would text me whenever they play over at our field. Not sure of the condition of said field but soccer is soccer right?
Sunday, I preache again. I didn't feel too nervous this time on Saturday night, but I still only got about 4 hours of sleep and I had what I would call a nightmare, even if I didn't wake up in a cold sweat. I was dreaming that it was Sunday, I was with a bunch of people that I know and I knew that I was supposed to preach but I was just talking with everyone. Finally it dawned on me that I wasn't at the right location (I'm not even sure where in my dream I was) - panic number 1. Second thing that I remember, I thought it was weird... Michael Gatlin was there and he sat down next to me and we just kinda chilled there for a bit and I think I was waiting for him to pray for me or to offer some kind of encouragement, but he just suddenly got up and left. I remember feeling really discouraged/disappointed - nothin against you Michael! Third thing I remember, I'm finally at my "location" and there are a few people that I know sitting in a half circle around me. I start preaching on something, no clue what but it wasn't what I had planned and I realize that I don't have my notes, I don't know what I'm preaching. My notes were just outside of the half circle so I explained myself and stepped out to grab them. By the time I get back someone else is talking/preaching from the half circle and I'm left standing up front waiting for them to finish. Then I woke up. It's weird for me to remember dreams, even more weird for me to remember this much detail.
Next morning I was preaching at Old Faithful. Nervous right up until I started, and God comes through again, taking over and really making the most of the scraps of paper and sermon I had thrown together the night before! Coolest story I had from it all. The scripture was from 1 Corinthians 9 about running the Christian Race (NOT the Christian WALK!!). So I got to talk about my old running days with Track. After the sermon, I had a couple an their son come up to me. We had been talking a bit before so I kinda knew them. They were very appreciative of the message I had to share because their son was in Junior high and has been in Track and cross country! I pretty much know that God had that message just for them! All 3 services went well, our third service, usually the one where most of the employees show up, we had about 4 show up. I was a little disappointed but, I'm still learning that this isn't about me at all or my performance! I'll be preaching again next week at the Madison campground on (hopefully!) what it means to be Kingdom citizens.
Sunday in between services, Staci, Sarah and I went for a drive. The Lamar Valley is on the north east side of the park and supposedly all the animals have been migrating there lately, particularly bears and wolves. So we were looking to see some bears and wolves! Traffic was pretty horrendous, although we were on the short side of a probably 3 hour long Bison jam, they were walking down the road and Rangers were trying to shoo them on. We were driving past cars for at least 10-20 minutes after seeing the Bison. We made it to Lamar Valley and saw 5 bears! I think 3 were grizzlies, sow and 2 cubs. The last 2 were black bears. One was a tiny guy just off the side of the road, I think we were pretty lucky to spot that one. Only a couple other cars were there when we got there, pretty early, for those grizzlies just driving past took about 10 minutes. It was a fun trip, we laughed a lot and my left arm got pretty well sunburned, but thankfully we made it back just in time to prep for our last service. We weren't sure if we would make it or not because of more Bison jams. A lone bull walking down the road. Monday and Tuesday I worked storekeeper again. I traded my Monday off for Saturday so that Chris would work Wednesday for our inventory day- last Wednesday of the month we take complete inventory going through all of our food items and recording, including EVERYTHING that is being prepared or has already been prepared. He'll be out maybe by 10pm tonight.
Ah, but back up a couple days. For some reason, every time I go back to store keeping we run out of foods. This isn't my fault, things should have been ordered the day before but they weren't. So I get left having to tell everyone that we're out of such and such. Someone was making a list, I think we ran out of at least 6 different items - all of which we frequently use. Butter, and BBQ pulled pork are just a couple examples. I was talking with Frank today because I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be working or not, and he was completely honest with me (as usual, probably more than necessary) in saying that he didn't give a flying *yup* if Chris never showed up again. Thank you God for helping me talk through that one! So things aren't getting any better for Chris. We've had trout going bad in our thaw box - one of our more expensive items- main reason for it is that our boxes haven't been marked and rotated out for the cooks and that's one of our main responsibilities. Once again, I don't think Chris will be around for long.
Weather has been great, lots of sun lately but mosquitoes have made a pretty big and nasty appearance. I'll have to get a bottle of spray for the services this weekend. Vince and Kristi Pinson did the services at the Madison campground this last weekend and they said they got eaten alive.
I finished reading White, time to start working on Green. And I've also got Wild at Heart and now Crazy Love on my reading list. I'm trying to not read through those last two so fast like I normally do. I think I blow through them so quickly I don't have time to think and absorb what they have to say as much as I should so I'm reading them at the same time, hopefully that will slow me down a bit.
Oh, I'm also planning on doing a Bible/book study on Wild at Heart next semester for the guys in Antioch so be praying for that.
A couple weeks ago I ran into a verse in 1 Corinthians. I was reading in the Message version and it said something along the lines of be content with where you are right now because you are exactly where God wants you to be. That REALLY hit home for me and was a huge encouragement. I still can't WAIT to be home, I really miss having friends and family around. But I still know that I'm right where God wants me right now, and I'm going to stick it out.
2 Corinthians 4:8-10 "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body"