I was introduced to ACMNP while working in Yosemite National Park, in Tuolumne Meadows, during the summers of 1975, 1976, and 1977. In the summer of ’77, I stepped in to preach one Sunday for the student minister who had a scheduling conflict. 

The next year, my senior year of college, I applied to ACMNP to serve as a Student Minister for the summer of 1978. I wanted to go to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. ACMNP hoped I would return to Yosemite, where I had a guaranteed job, then suggested Big Bend National Park, and finally agreed to send me to “the Smokies” — though it was to a small campground with an average attendance of six to twelve campers. 

I briefly roomed with the student minister at the large Smokemont Campground. He was a student at Princeton Theological Seminary, but he became homesick and left after a few days. Warren Ost then contacted me and asked if I would lead the two large Sunday services at Smokemont. 

During my first or second service there, Warren showed up unannounced in the middle of the service. Afterward, I carpooled him to Gatlinburg at the west entrance of the park, and during that drive he asked me to continue covering the services for the rest of the summer. It was such a great experience. 

During the week, I worked at a Cherokee Indian souvenir factory on the Cherokee Reservation and lived in Park Service housing in exchange for volunteer work to secure housing in the park. Each Saturday night, I spent more than three hours walking through the large campground, inviting campers to Sunday services. 

It was such a great and full experience — one I would never trade.

Bruce B., Yosemite National Park, 1975-1977