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Montana Mission Trip

So I know it has been a long time coming because we went to Montana a few weeks ago but this is our update!




When we first arrived, after many long hours on airplanes, we had a chance to explore the camp that we were going to be staying at for the next week.  It was absolutely beautiful.  The weather was perfect and different from what we were expecting considering we were so close to Canada.  It was in the upper 60s to the low 70s.   The trees were different than NC trees.  I thought that they were the most beautiful trees I had ever seen with the way that the branches separated exactly symmetrically and shaped the tree is such a way that it was perfectly conical.  They captured my interest most about the woodsy atmosphere.  Secondly, as seen in the above photo, was the rapidly flowing river that was bordering the camp. Most of our first hours were spent sitting or walking along the river and marveling in its beauty and majesty.  God creates the most amazing works of art through the nature that is all around us and we only merely ever fully appreciate it.
When the campers finally started showing up the entire peaceful atmosphere changed.  If you asked Matthew and I how our weeks with our campers were you would get two totally different answers.  For me, my campers did not want to be at camp at all.  I was lucky enough to have a great friend, Rachel Kitchens, as a co-counselor and so we were able to bare the burden of handling our four ruthlessly disregarding teenage girls.  It would start off everyday the same; our girls would ignore us unless they needed something and as the day went on they would slowly open up to us more until it was time for lights out and they didn't want to stop talking to us (of course).  It was like they were on reset each and every morning.  Crazy.  I had a hard time with it because I had to be the rule enforcer and the 'strict' aka 'mean' one of their two counselors. 
Matthew would tell you a completely different story about his campers.  He had four teenage boys that were relatively compliant and respectful to him.  They woke up and went to bed when they were told and they listened to whatever he said to them.



The camp was run perfectly; the games were fun.  I was on the blue team and Matthew was on red team.  We played against each other most of the week.  But as for the over-all winner for the week...it was the BLUE TEAM!  Hahaha!  The end of the week was ushered in with a bang, literally, because we were all smoldered with over 3,000 water balloons!  It was counselors versus campers at first but then it turned into a free-for-all balloon war.
After the campers were gone the rest of our crew got a chance to relax and enjoy a little more of what Montana had to offer.  Some of us went up to the Hungry Horse Dam and stumbled upon the above waterfall.  We also went to Glacier National Park and walked a very scenic trail that led us through more of the amazing beauty that God created.  I have to say the most fun of the 'non-camp' experiences was when we went white-water rafting!  It was so much fun getting all geared up and prepared to face the potentially freezing waters.  Luckily for us we never had to bare the cold for too long because we were only splashed every once in a while.  Matthew on the other hand decided that he was going to be super brave and macho and jump into the freezing cold water just to experience that part of the adventure. Yeah, we all thought he was pretty crazy. 

Overall, we know that God did some pretty marvelous things during the week that we were there.  That is what were praying for and all of the other wonderful things that happened while were there was just an added bonus!  

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