June 4th

First full day working my new job. I'm still following Chris around, but Tuesday and Wednesday I'll be flying solo as Chris has Tuesdays and Wednesdays off. I started at 12:30, great start time by the way, and had to wait around for maybe 2 hours for our delivery truck to show up. There isn't a whole lot for us to do before then. As soon as that comes in, the delivery guys unload the truck for us, which is great because our dolly is severely crippled. We then pull out our inventory list and make sure we got everything that we ordered. After that we get to stack the new stuff, rotating the old out as we go. We have to label everything as it comes in with the date which is why we rotate our items, new goes in the back and old moves to the front to be used as soon as possible- one of the complexities I've realized of this job. As soon as everything is put away we go through all the inventory again (everything from basil leaves to spare rib-which costs $1000 a box!), and make sure that we have enough of each item. If something is low, we make a note of how many we need for "par", just like golf we have a set number of each item that we try to keep items at. Since the Cafeteria has a set menu our item pars don't change much, but we still have to check in with the chefs in case demands change. Once our list is completed we take it to our archaic computer and input the orders for tomorrow. All the items that we need to bring everything back up to par. I basically make a several thousand dollar shopping list. I'm beginning to look forward to things warming up around here. Sitting around doing nothing waiting for the truck got pretty old and very cold. Quite a change from the dish pit where we had to step out to cool off, now I go over there to warm up hahaha!
So, the first day went well. I still really enjoy this work and I'm sure as soon as I get things down I'll enjoy it even more. We finished off the day doing prep work for tomorrow. I got to "make" lasagna. I was pretty excited until I realized that I'm pretty much pulling frozen lasagna out of a box, stuffing it into a pan, and throwing it into the thaw box. Not much for cooking yet, but that still goes under store keep pay which is higher than cook pay :) And, on the days that Chris will be working store keep, I'll be working cook crew, so I'll get cooking someday soon. At this point however, I wouldn't mind keeping this store keep job at all. Only thing is, it is a pretty high responsibility job. As I said earlier, I'm ordering thousands of dollars worth of food, and if something goes bad because it wasn't used up in time, it quite possibly will be my fault. But on the bright side, since the Old Faithful Cafeteria has been open for roughly a month, our numbers are pretty solid, as long as I keep to the list and stay informed and in communication with the Chefs things will be fine.
I should mention, the Old Faithful Cafeteria isn't for employees, but for guests. It's set up cafeteria style, you get a tray and walk through, choose your food and pay at the end. Food is still much higher quality than what we get in our employee dining rooms.
After work, Staci and I met and set up our services for Sunday. As much as we had to at least. We were warned but its much more obvious now, Rev. Bill Young, Yellowstone's resident preacher, is rather particular with how we run our services. In going through our regional training last month, they gave us several different orders of service that we could choose from. We have our entire service laid out already by Rev. Young. The nice part is that we don't have to worry about printing out bulletins. The only thing we have to do is choose songs and the sermon. While it's nice not having a lot of that to do, Staci and I agreed that we would rather be more flexible with our services. Maybe on Sunday I'll post our bulletin, it's extremely structured and has a slight Catholic feel to it in that way. I must say, I already miss the Vineyard churches and I can't wait to get back!
Whoa, more big news I almost forgot about. Today I got a text from Amber, one of the girls from ACMNP, and she told me that Ben, the other young guy with ACMNP who I have yet to meet, is leaving next week. We're now down to 4 student ministers and Rod and Linda. It's hard to say that I'll miss him... simply because I don't know what things would be like WITH him around. But I do hope that it doesn't put too much strain on the rest of us. I'm pretty sure we will be able to handle things just fine. We also have another couple who worked with ACMNP last year who will help us with our services. In addition, Staci had a couple new roommates move in and turns out they're with Campus Crusade! Amber also knows of another Christian ministries group of about 8-10 who may be interested in helping us out as well. At the very least, we'll have an audience for our services!
A couple more things. Chris today told me a little bit about his past. I guess he grew up in a Mormon church and wanted to study Theology (not just Christianity but all world religions) but abandoned that. I bet we might have some interesting conversations. Also, I had to ask one of our Sous Chefs, Niki, (she's pretty awesome, great to work with) if I could leave early. I told her that I was with ACMNP and that I had to get some things settled for Sunday. She was all for it and was telling me how she used to go to those services a couple years back. It might have been the CRU services, I'm not entirely sure, but its really encouraging knowing that the people I work with won't be hindering what I'm here to do, and in many cases even supportive. God has been so great!
Lastly, thank you all so much everyone who has been following this blog so far. It blesses me and encourages me so much having your prayers and support and reading your comments. If you ever have any questions feel free to ask and I'll be more than happy to answer! Again, I can't wait to be back with you all again, I want to be home so badly but... not yet! (Gladiator- mom that one was for you!)