Finally Made It...and started working

Well, I made it!!! It only took me about 40 hours of driving over 5 days. It was a great trip and I am very grateful for family and friends that helped me along the way. Thank you Susan, Robert, John, and Debbie for opening your homes to me and for cooking 2 great dinners for me.

If you ever have the chance to drive from Denver, CO to Southern Utah, I would highly recommend it. It is the most beautiful part of the country in my opinion. Starting in the Rockies, I was able to drive across the continental divide which is breathtaking (literally, it was hard to breathe) and then after crossing the mountains drove through the canyons and mountains of Utah and Colorado. It was so amazing how the landscape would completely change about every 30 miles or so. Every area was so completely different and I have never been so amazed by the beauty of what God can do in my whole life. I will have pictures posted on facebook if you are interested. I only took about 570 pictures in two days of driving. I took a lot of them while I was driving (not very safe) so some of them didn't turn out, but you will be able to see the change in landscape in those albums.

Driving 2500 miles takes forever and I really enjoyed the drive and even though it sounds terrible I would do it again all over...and will in about 3 months. I could not ask for a better way to start my summer. I finished my audio book, "The Davinci Code" by the time I got to Denver so I was able to really enjoy the beauty of Colorado and Utah without distraction.

I arrived here in Bryce around 1:45 pm yesterday and immediately went to fill out paper work and then meet my manager. I was a little worried about this part because I will be working with this person all summer long and I could be really good or really bad. His name is Ken and is a great guy and one of the nicest people I have ever met. He knew that I was from A Christian Ministry in the National Parks and immediately opened up with the fact that he knew who I was and....was REALLY EXCITED FOR ME TO BE HERE!!! He said that there was no one here last year from the ministry and he was left to try and lead the bible studies himself, which is not his gift according to him. He said that he really missed have someone here last year and was excited to see what God has in store us and will do everything and anything he can. This was incredibly calming and just shows God's providence in our lives. Out of all the managers that I could have been working with, I ended up working with the one who loves our ministry and will come to everything with us and help lead the ministry. He said that he could probably name the 5 other people that will come to our services and bible studies, but is excited to get things started and see what kind of impact we can have.

I also received some other great news on Monday while driving through Kansas. While at a rest area with wireless internet (crazy, I know), I checked my email and received an email from another member of our ministry team who had been added on late, but was already here in the park. She is actually going to be our team leader, she graduated from Boston University with a Masters of Divinity a year ago. She is going to be a hostess in the dining room and is somewhere in her 60's maybe. I am really thankful to have one more person on our team and especially her because from what I can tell most of the staff that are going to be interested in our ministry are a little bit older and she may help us learn to relate more effectively.

God just keeps opening my eyes to more and more ways that he is working and has been working here in Bryce before I even arrived. I have been fairly stressed out about this summer, but have begun to realize that God has been in control of this situation way before I even thought about coming here.

I know this is long, but I'm almost finished. Today was my first day at work. I am working at the General Store, which mainly provides services for visitors camping in the park and those hiking, since it is very close to the main trail head. We sell everything from grocery items to beer to post cards and camping equipment. This job is going to be very low stress and I am very excited because I have been in a high stress job for about a year and will be going to grad school in the fall and this will be a nice break.

The only thing I ask is that you pray for me and the employees I am working along side. I feel like I have a target on me already since I am with the ministry and my manager made sure to tell everyone about me before I actually met them. This is a good thing though and when I met one of the guys, within the first 5 seconds he asked me about Duke and then about ministry. He then told me that he had a friend once that had gone to seminary and they had talked a little about God, but not much. He said that he has made a lot of dumb choices in life, has been to AA, and has never really found his higher calling, but really wants to talk to me about it and hear my thoughts. Crazy! I just met this guy. I know this post is random and I don't know when my internet will work again so I figure I would just get it all out as quickly as possible before I forgot everything.

Thanks for all the support and prayer