God taught me a lot about commitment through my summer with ACMNP. If not for the ministry, I probably would have left early because of the challenges in the park. But being in a place where I was committed for three months made me push through the hard times and look for joy and purpose in what I was doing.

I knew I didn’t want to spend the summer wishing I were home, so I would pray that God would help me serve others, find reasons to be joyful, and appreciate the beautiful place I was in.

Despite challenges, there were a multitude of good times and happy moments with my team members and coworkers. When leaving is not an option, I think God shows us that He is enough in any situation and we need only focus on Him to find our joy.

On our second-to-last Sunday, we sat waiting for the second service to begin. The service started at 10:30 am, so at 10:29 am we were getting a little excited, hoping we might be able to leave early if no one showed. All three of us on the team were tired and about ready for the summer to be over so we were only a little disappointed when two of our regular attendees showed up right at 10:30.

We decided to do more of a discussion, since we had never had a service that small before. As it turns out, God must have planned that service to encourage us in our last few weeks because we all agreed it was the best service we had. We stayed longer than usual since we were so engaged with the couple who came to support us and worship with us. The conversation was encouraging and uplifting and left us feeling that we had indeed made a difference that summer despite challenges. We were all very thankful that this couple had decided to come that Sunday.

Hannah H., Rocky Mountain National Park, 2017