It’s not often that throughout the course of everyday life I have the occasion to need to use the word “billion” to describe something. I guess if I were an economist or an accountant or some kind of government worker, or person monitoring hits on google or something of the sort I might. But when you are laying under a clear South Dakota sky in the middle if the summer at night there’s an immediate necessity to grasp for descriptions, adjectives, words… anything to try to describe or even just take in the 360 panoramic sight that envelopes you. I’ve never counted to a billion, but the number seemed appropriate to describe the number of stars sprawled out before us…

As we were getting back from a sunset hike and getting ready to set out to our night time camping spots, we ran into a fellow hiker that commented on how spectacular the day had been and how much he was looking forward to the “light show.” What a light show it was, kicked off by a couple of shooting stars as we were heading out on our night time hike. What’s unfortunate is that this “light show” that points to the majesty and wonder of the Creator happens every night, but so often its missed. Often i don’t have the eyes to see… it just takes slowing down enough to be able to take it all in. In our group conversation last night Paige commented about how sometimes God uses the opportunities we are given to experience things that are out of our norm so that when we go back to the familiar we appreciate what we have all the more. May being at a loss for words be a reality that continues in the rhythm of everyday life more and more.

Yesterday we experienced the reality of the Badlands National Park in all of its 104 degree wonder. There has been plenty of awe inspiring scenery along with prairie dogs, mule deer and an ancient fossilized mini rhino! Everyone
braved the wilderness for solo night and sang praises to the God of the universe for a view of the milky way and shooting stars that was so bright that it illuminated the terrain despite a moonless night.

Today our journey takes us across the black hills and 9666 feet up and through the Big Horn mountain range and on to a camp just outside of Yellowstone. Our ears are popping and our eyes can hardly take in the majesty of all that surrounds us.

This evening we hiked into the Badlands & got to look out over the most gorgeous overlook in the area as we learned about Christ being taken to a high place. Along the way we found a really cool alcove in the rocks that we decided was our “cathedral.” We gathered in there & sang praises to the Lord! What an awesome experience! As if the creation around us wasn’t amazing enough, God showed us His power by letting us watch a storm roll in. We loved the beauty of it, but were less than excited about being pelted with hail as we ran back to the bus!
The rain put a little damper on our plans for tonight so we’re heading into Wyoming a little earlier than we planned but we’re excited to see what God has in store for us instead!

We’ve arrived!

We’re currently driving through South Dakota. It is 3 am Indianapolis time. We woke everyone up about 30 mins ago to take a picture with the SD sign. They were so very excited! We have made it through 5 states: Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and we’re working our way through South Dakota. The only people awake at this wonderful hour are Vicki and her right-hand woman me (Tina Turpen). No worries, we’ll be at Wall Drug in time for breakfast and nickel coffee. We’ll have more updates soon! 🙂

They’re off on their journey! Stay tuned and follow along as our graduates start their adventure out west.

Jake thought he’d order something “light.”