Getting to Know the Area

Life in Medora has continued to meet and exceed our expectations. Or, at least my expectations; Susan doesn’t start working until this week. Life as a golf course groundskeeper is pretty nice. My job offers a satisfying mix of hard work and easy tasks, time alone and time with others. For an introvert like me, the hours that I get to spend alone on the equipment serve as fuel for those times that I have the opportunity to work alongside another to complete a project. This job is a near-perfect fit for who I am, and you couldn’t convince me that God didn’t have a role to play in it.

Aside from work, we have gotten to see a little more of the town. We walked around, reading the information signs that are scattered along the streets, and learned a good deal about the history of the town’s founding and of Theodore Roosevelt’s time here as a rancher. Although most stores and shops haven’t opened yet, the few we did get to explore had some very neat things to offer. After I had worked an 11 hour shift, we went out for dinner at one of the locally owned restaurants and I got to have my very first North Dakota beer – a decent stout from Fargo Brewing Company. We look forward to getting to know the rest of the town as things get into the swing for peak season.

Additionally, we have done some more exploration of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. All along and scenic loop are places to pull off and enjoy the view, and a few have short hikes. We have done them all. For my birthday, we took a walk through a prairie dog town to visit the original entrance station into the park. In case you were wondering, prairie dogs emit quite an annoying chirp when they think they are in danger. Friendly though we were, we could not communicate this to the prairie dogs; thus, we endured twenty minutes of incessant chirping, but it was worth it to reach the old stone structure. In addition to prairie dogs, we’ve seen mule deer, buffalo, feral horses, and numerous species of brightly colored birds.

Added to our work and our play, we have been busy getting to the business of ACMNP. We obtained our permits and did our first campground walk on Saturday. It was, admittedly, a little awkward. As I mentioned above, I am an introvert to the max, so talking to strangers is not my forte. Nevertheless, I pushed through and spoke to a fair number of people, almost all of whom were receptive. On Sunday, we held our first worship services of the summer, which the whole team agrees went swimmingly. Although there were only two ladies at our Cottonwood Campground service, they were eager to worship. Afterwards, they shared with us that they were both carrying some pretty heavy burdens, and it was apparent to us all that God brought our paths together. We are all excited to see what the rest of the summer has in store.

As our previous pictures have shown, the Badlands are an imposing place. From our perspective on a cliff side, the colors of brown, gray, and earth green dominate; it seems as if there is no room for color. Along our hikes, however, we regularly notice tiny, colorful flowers that bring joy to an otherwise angry landscape. I think, if we make ourselves pay attention, we can find the tiny, bright flowers in our lives. Although it is far easier to get overwhelmed by the darkness, it is far more important to find those places where God is present in our lives, those places where he is working to shed light into the dark.

 

Peace be with you all,

Lane & Susan

Our First Few Days

Well, we’ve been in Medora for almost a week now, and it still doesn’t seem quite real that we are going to be living here until the middle of September. After driving across over 300 miles of nothingness that is punctuated only by a few small cities, the first glimpse of North Dakota’s badlands makes it immediately obvious why it was deemed worthy of being a National Park. They are difficult to describe, and “Badlands” truly is the most adequate word. We find ourselves in landscape that is a strange mixture of harsh and dry, delicate and beautiful.

We’ve ventured into the park a few times, stopping at a few of the vistas. We’ve been by the Cottonwood Campground and begun to develop a strategy for campground walking. We’ve seen the amphitheater where we will weekly offer up our worship to the Lord. It is an exciting thing to know that we have months in this place to grow closer to God and to let his love flow through us into the lives of others.

I (Lane) have started my job as a member of the Bully Pulpit Golf Course grounds crew, and I can already tell a few things for certain. First, I will have a most excellent farmer’s tan and raccoon eyes by the end of the summer, for the North Dakota sun seems far closer than the one over North Carolina. Second, there is a lot of alcohol abuse; after only three days of work I’ve learned that being hungover is a common morning affliction. Third, and I think most important, I have learned that these are some very good people. Riding around a golf course together offers plenty of time to talk, and several good conversations have already been had. I expect that, as the springtime turns into summer, these conversations and relationships will only grow.

As I have been at work, Susan has been busy turning our RV into a home, and if you ask me, she’s done a fantastic job. All of the things that littered the floor as we were driving have been put away, decorations have been hung on the wall, and most things have been cleaned. Living in an RV is certainly a transition from living in a full-sized home, however. For example, clean dishes must be put away before one can use the stove. Also, we shouldn’t buy so much food the next time we go to the grocery store; the refrigerator and freezer are deceptively small. Nevertheless, it is just one more piece of excitement for our summer.

Finally, we will try to close our posts with something of the devotional nature. The other morning, I had to be at work at 5:00 (yes, AM) because the course was hosting a tournament. For those of you not fortunate enough to be in the North Dakota badlands at that hour, that is the time of day when the sun and the moon share the same sky. Off to the west, the nearly full moon, though it was setting, was still quite visible. To the east, the powerful sun was rising and casting brilliant hues of gold and orange on the rugged cliff sides. As I noticed these two heavenly bodies, I realized that they will never catch each other; they will always be as far from each other as the East is from the West. In the same way God has cast our sin so far from us that it shall never meet us again. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.

Grace & Peace,

Lane and Susan

ACMNP Training Conference

A few weeks ago, Susan and I took the first steps in our summer’s journey to North Dakota. We flew to Denver and then headed up the mountains that stood just to the West, to YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park, CO. I arrived two days early, on Wednesday, to participate in the Advanced Leadership Development Program (ALDP), which is a new addition to the ACMNP program. I was one of twelve seminarians selected to go through additional training in leadership, pastoral care, and preaching. In return, I will lead our team in the park and be responsible for ensuring that things are done.

It was not all classroom work, though; we also had the opportunity to explore the campus of the camp and even to take a little hike. On Wednesday and Thursday, the weather was incredible – the skies were sunny and the air was warm. From our perspective atop Bible Point, we could see for miles all around, and we were greeted on every side by snow covered mountain peaks that soared to over 10,000 feet. As beautiful and impressive as our Appalachians are, the Rockies were far more imposing.

By Friday, when Susan and the rest of the nearly 300 participants arrived, the skies had turned gray, the wind began to blow, and snow had begun to drift slowly down. Nevertheless, ACMNP Training Conference went on as scheduled, for Colorado is far more prepared for snow than North Carolina. That evening, we worshipped in the same way that we will lead worship this summer, and we began to learn about how ACMNP’s ministry is needed in our country’s national parks.

Susan and I knew that seasonal national park employees would be an eclectic group of people, but we had no idea the levels of hurt and pain that pervaded the dormitories and bunkhouses. Many are young people who feel that they are welcome nowhere else in the world – college students whose parents either cannot or will not have them home for the summer, twenty-somethings who took the only job they could find, and people who simply have no place else to go. As a result, alcohol and drug use have the potential to run rampant as these hurting people chase after anything they can to ease the pain.

Our jobs, then, are to build relationships with these people and to be witnesses to the ways that our faith has enabled us to come through the hurt and pain that we have experienced. Our goal is not a “turn or burn” evangelism; rather, it is to love them as Christ loves them, to listen to their stories, to share in laughter and in tears, to be a friend. Although we both came away with the realization that ministry to employees will be our main focus, we will also lead two worship services each Sunday – one in the Cottonwood Campground inside the park, and a second in the town of Medora.

The ACMNP Training Conference also allowed us the chance to meet the other members of the Theodore Roosevelt team. We will be doing ministry alongside three other people – Kileab & Amanda Ammons and Cade Blush, who are all students at John Brown University in Arkansas. We had the chance to plan a quick worship service, and despite the fact that our team is comprised of two liturgical Baptists, two nondenominational Christians, and one Eastern Orthodox believer, we were able to work together to lead a unified and meaningful service. One of our biggest anxieties about the summer had been put to rest.

Our time in Estes Park, however, was not all work and no play. On Saturday afternoon, with a foot of snow on the ground and more still falling from the skies, we hopped aboard a bus that would take us high into Rocky Mountain National Park. As we passed 8,000 feet of elevation, and then 9,000, the snow outside of the windows grew deeper and the road surface was at least partially covered. Finally, we reached the end of the road, an overlook at nearly 10,000 feet above sea level. Unfortunately, the spectacular views were veiled by the clouds. However, for a brief moment, the sun poked through and we were able to glance on the snow-covered valley below. It was stunning.

Even though it snowed more than we’d seen in several years, which should not be understood as a good thing, our time in Colorado was a success. We greatly appreciated the singular focus of ACMNP; they have not waded into the divisive controversies that are tearing the church apart. Instead, they have set their eyes on the Apostles’ Creed and they keep their eyes on it as a way to unify the different faith traditions of those that are going out to the parks this summer. We hope that you will keep us, our team, and all of ACMNP in your prayers this week and this whole summer.

Grace & Peace,

Susan & Lane