My summer with ACMNP in Medora was the best summer of my life. It was a life changing experience and I still think about Medora every single day.

Medora is the kind of place that you don’t expect to be so amazing. North Dakota has a reputation for being an oil state with nothing but rolling plains and cattle pastures, and I think that’s part of what makes the watercolor canyons and pink sunsets over the junipers of Theodore Roosevelt National Park so incredible. The whole summer felt like a fairy tale, from the beauty of the wilderness around me to the beauty of the incredibly kind and loving souls who I lived alongside. Never in my life have I been so instantly accepted as family by a whole town of complete strangers.

Medora is so unique from the other parks in how accepting they are of Christian groups and how they truly support our growth and mission.

I went into my summer with ACMNP knowing that it was my job to minister to others but not knowing how, fearful I would make little impact, but feeling like this would help me grow in my faith. I was wrong. For the first time in my life people were actively turning to me for wisdom and deep spiritual questions and I began to watch the attendance at services grow. I watched people who were shaky in their faith to the point that I was scared to even mention ACMNP to them join me at Bible study and show me their favorite highlighted verses in the Bible I gave them. Those experiences gave me the confidence boost I needed to take my ministry to the next level and bring my knowledge of the Word to people in my home community and university.

My experiences with ACMNP and the deep fellowship I felt in TRNP have inspired me to take a deeper step into faith in Christ and bring the knowledge of His love to more people. I have never felt as powerfully sure that I was doing God’s work and living out His mission for me than I did when I was serving in Medora. I want to relive this experience every day for the rest of my life!

-Elizabeth A., Theodore Roosevelt National Park, 2017