It has been a while since we have written so hope to update you on our present assignment. We are once again in West Yellowstone, Montana serving as “house parents” to the Yellowstone Christian Innovators. This year we have 19 college students from six different states, most from the southeast with the exception of OK and IN. They are a great bunch of young people with hearts full of desire to serve God and have really started off with much enthusiasm and devotion in their first two weeks here. Their orientation weekend was May 29th thru June 2nd and it didn’t take long to find out that we have another group who really enjoy home cooking. It is very gratifying to know they are not hard to please, just be sure you have plenty when you prepare the food!! The pictures below were taken during and following the commissioning service. The DOM and other state missionaries were there and the church was wonderful to participate and come forward and pray for each student and staff member during this time.
We had to be here earlier than the students in order for Butch to fill in for the pastor on May 15th. That gave us a little time to make a brief tour of some of the areas in the park and God rewarded us with more wildlife sightings than we saw the entire summer before. We saw a mountain lion and later discovered that people who have lived here for years have never seen a mountain lion at Yellowstone. The lion was at Tower Falls and was enjoying one of the few sunny days we have seen since we have been here. There was a crowd in the area most of the day but we were able to get a picture. We also saw Rosie and her cub playing together. She is a tagged black bear who apparently is often sighted in the same area and they keep a close record of her cubs. We saw another black bear, a cinnamon black bear, an altercation between a grizzly, a bull elk, a wolf, and a cow elk. The cow had apparently dropped a calf the night before and was standing guard over the injured bull elk (injured by the grizzly) to keep the predators away from her calf. Rangers had never before seen a cow defend a bull. We also saw an eagle make a kill, several pronghorn sheep, and many bison with their red dogs (babies), trumpeter swans and Canadian geese. What a wonderful day that was!! Hope you enjoy the pictures.
Jean and Liz Page are here as the second set of house parents this year. It is great to have good friends here to share this mission . Jean has been giving us a hard time though. The weather has been pretty cold most of the time we have been here plus we have had day after day of rain/snow/sleet/cold/ and Jean has been really cold. He keeps saying we have to straighten this weather out!! I told him I keep sending emails asking people to pray for a little more sunshine for us but we don’t want it to dry out completely, we certainly don’t want to be in danger of forest fires all summer. We also know that many areas have had a lot of rain and that with a tropical storm in the Gulf it isn’t going to be too pleasant in the southeast for a while. We are praying God will dissolve that one before it makes landfall anywhere and does any more damage. The last hurricane season is still fresh on most minds.
Please continue to keep Yellowstone Baptist Church and the Innovators in prayer. We are really excited to be here and to see what God is going to do here this Summer. The church has been so warm and receptive to the students this year and many are “adopting” an innovator so we are having to share them which is truly a God thing. It is so important that these students feel a part of this church which is a very small church taking on a big mission to house these students on weekends and provide a place for us to prepare meals and furnish as much food as they can. They have a very limited budget and are primarily a tourist congregation in the summer and small in membership the rest of the time. They also sponsor another church in Gardner which is at the original entrance to Yellowstone.
Please know that we are praying for you, our friends and family, our church, and our military. Know that we love and miss you and thank you all for your prayers and support and that you are always a part of everything we do as we seek to serve Christ and be a vessel He can use in the building of His kingdom. To God be all glory.
In His Service, Vi and Butch
YELLOWSTONE CHRISTIAN INNOVATORS MISSION STATEMENT
We exist as ambassadors for Jesus Christ to share God's message of salvation and redemption. Our goal is to live, work, play and minister among the employees of this premier national park called Yellowstone. Our intentional focus is to rescue others with God's truth and love through lifestyle relationships that others might see Christ through us, sharing in God's beautiful creation of Yellowstone National Park
