Jackson Hole: Week One

Week one has officially ended here in Wyoming and I am already realizing it is going to be so hard to leave at the end of the project! Jackson Hole is absolutely beautiful and waking up every morning surrounded by the Grand Tetons has been such a sweet blessing. Our staff team of 13 arrived sporadically on Saturday and the group of 28 students arrived on Tuesday afternoon. How do you help a group of 41 people get to know each other really fast? Send them on a 6 mile hike up a mountain to "Inspiration Point" which sits at an elevation of about 7200 ft. Although we were a little mistaken and had thought the hike would be easier, it was a great day of hiking, sweating, & fellowship- not to mention the view was completely worth it!

Inspiration Point & Jenny Lake

Following our hike on Wednesday, we broke off into our small groups of the summer to share with each other our "life maps". Life maps are our stories- where we are coming from, struggles & growths from our life, how we have come to know Christ, and what we are seeing Him do in our lives today. If we didn't grow close to others during the hike, sharing our life maps and our vulnerabilities with others definitely did it! Elizabeth and I are co-leading our small group of 6 girls while Mitch is co-leading a small group of 4 guys with Harrision. I know I'm a little biased, but I LOVE my small group and I'm so thankful for the relationships that have already come out of it!

Small Group

We spend our mornings here in group meetings where we spend time in the Word, followed by a time for personal time with God, and ending with a "teaching" talk. Thursday morning, Kari shared with the students how to share their stories (testimonies) with others and how to share the Gospel through our stories. Following lunch, we spent time in discipleship groups working through our goals for the summer as well as working on sharing our stories. We finished up the day by meeting in our small groups again and finishing sharing our life maps.

Rocky Mountain Lodge- Home for the summer!

On Friday, we went horseback riding through the mountains (minus me and Levi!). The students and staff said it was such a fun day and beautiful views of Jackson Hole. After horseback riding, dinner, and a quick game of kickball, we met together in groups for our men's and women's time. In our women's time, we are reading through and studying a book called "Calm My Anxious Heart" by Linda Dillow (HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK FOR WOMEN!). The theme of the book is about learning to be content no matter what the circumstances and thankful no matter where we are. In men's time, they are studying "Thoughts for Young Men" by J.C. Ryle. Each week we will read through a couple chapters and discuss them during our weekly men's and women's time.

Saturday we went on another group hike around Phelps Lake. The weather was a perfect 75 degrees (sorry friends and family in the south!) and the hike was a little easier and a lot more relaxing than our first hike. Saturday night we piled all 41 people into our rental cars and headed downtown for some touristy activities, souvenir shopping and dinner. Although downtown Jackson isn't very large, there are a lot of fun things to see and do- like the nightly "shoot out" reenactment at the town square.

Group at Phelps Lake

We finished our first week by joining together Sunday morning to listen to a podcast sermon by David Platt (pastor of the Church of Brook Hills in Birmingham, AL). In addition, we will come together as a group every Sunday night for a night of worship and sharing of the things God is teaching us while we are here on project.

Please continue to pray for the staff and students alike this summer. We are loving serving out here in Jackson Hole and we look forward to sharing with you all what next week brings!