First of all we have to apologize for not being very consistent in updating our blog while we've been on our summer project. The internet has been very sparse and when we do happen to find a connection, it has a very weak signal. So, thanks for bearing with us as we experience technical difficulties :)

Wow! Time has truly flown as we look ahead and realize there are only 2 weeks left for us in Yellowstone. As staff, we leave the park after about a month while the students continue their summer jobs and ministry opportunities at Old Faithful. It has been great getting to know the students a little more as the days have gone by. We just got back from a team prayer time where the students share about different opportunities they've had to build relationships with their coworkers. Many of our students have really stepped out in faith as they have gotten to know the people they work with each day. The awesome thing is that many of their coworkers are from different places around the world. So, our team has the opportunity to impact the world with the Gospel (many of these out of country workers only stay in the US for the summer then travel back home when they are finished working here)!!! How cool is that?!?!...we're reaching the world without actually having to travel to a different country!

Last night was the first day of fishing season and we had an outreach opportunity centered around fishing at Pumice Point along Lake Yellowstone. The students asked a number of their coworkers to join us as we spent much of the day catching fish and hanging out. Right around dinner time, all the fish that were caught were gutted and cooked right along the shoreline. Everyone was able to eat some of the delicious trout that was caught just a few hours before! While all of this was happening students mingled with "non-project" friends and showed them what it was like to be a part of a community of Christians. It was a great opportunity to build those friendships so that perhaps in the coming weeks of summer the awesome news of Christ may be shared with them. Please be praying for all the "non-project" friendships that are being built each day!

Personally, we have been doing great! God has allowed us to stay healthy since we've been out here. Olivia has been a wonderful traveler! Since the day we left, she has been the most pleasant baby we could ask for. It's amazing to see how much she has grown even since being out here! She's just about 3 months already! We have also truly enjoyed the staff team we have...John and Laura (who is Emily's sister) Iamaio with their two kids Hayden and Hannah, and John and Bonnie Yelverton a young couple who are staff at Yale. We're going through a book as a staff team, "Emotionally Healthy Church," and it has been great getting to know everyone on a deeper level.

So, we hope to update a little more often! Stay tuned! :)

We arrived in Yellowstone on Wednesday to cool temperatures (30's & 40's) and lot's of rain. Today Emily, Olivia, and I went for a hike around Old Faithful to see all of the geysers and got soaked from a rain shower we couldn't escape. Olivia slept the whole time so she didn't seem to mind the rain!

Before arriving in Yellowstone we spent a week in Bozeman, MT with our 16 students for our orientation for the Summer Project. We had a wonderful week of getting to know everyone, casting vision for the summer, drawing close to God, and some fun hikes. We stayed at a beautiful camp in the mountains called Mountain Top Ministries. On Tuesday, the day before we entered the park, we spent the day at Montana State University to get to know what the campus is like and meet students. We also did some outreach and sharing and saw 2 students come to Christ! Praise God!

Today was the students' first day of work. 11 of them are working in Housekeeping and the other 5 are working in food and beverage. It has been great to walk around the Old Faithful Inn and see all the rooms Nate used to clean when he was a housekeeper here in 2004. Tomorrow all the guys are going on a big hike and fishing trip back to the Lewis River channel. Should be a lot of fun. This is the area where Nate was charged by an elk 3 times the last time he was here.

Tonight is our first meeting with all of our students since arriving in the park. We will be splitting the students up into 4 ministry teams. The faith group team, employee team, community team, and the prayer and worship team. We are so excited to begin ministry here and look forward to God doing great things!

Thanks for praying about the Fisher meeting we had with the leadership team this past Monday! It went very well, and we got a lot accomplished for this coming semester. We were able to talk about this past semester and what went well and what didn't go well/what we can improve upon. We also talked about different teams/committees that we can set up to help Fisher Cru function more efficiently, and we figured out small group and weekly meeting formats. We were also able to fill in the calendar for the whole semester! It was such a productive and beneficial meeting! To top it all off, we had them stay for dinner, and it was so much fun to just hang out with the students. Thanks again for praying!!