GOD IS ON THE MOVE...4th Installment......6/14/17 (With Shelly and Scott Keith

Good Morning 

Today we are continuing our series called GOD IS ON THE MOVE. It is the forth episode which is covering testimonies of people telling their stories of how "God is on the move" in their lives. We are thinking that many of our readers have such stories. We will begin with the story of Scott and Shelly Keith. For several weeks they have been travelling and sharing what they are finding as they travel. They started on a journey of exploration and sharing what God is doing for them. They have visited three different churches since they began their journey. You will find their stories fascinating and receive a blessing from their sharing. Today is the fourth church they have visited.

We are sharing Scott and Shelly's story as they experience how God is on the move as they travel. If any of you have a story to share please let me know in the comment section.

Your short testimony will be used. 

God bless
Corinne
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We stayed in Glacier Montana for a couple of days after church.  Scotty booked us on a zip line tour, which took us 85 ft into the air.  We jumped and zipped our way thru the Glacier forest getting up to speeds of 35 mph across the tops of the trees, there were 7 different stands that we had to hook up to and unhook and stood on a stand 20 ft in the air, hugging the tree, or at least I was.  

We had 2 guides, Justin and Michael. They were great and so professional.  They had to talk a few of us down, encouraging us with “YOU can do it!”  We made it back to the ground and we all stood around, the 2 guides, 3 other people, and Scotty and me. They asked us to choose one word that described the adventure.  Many said Awesome and Fun.

When it came to my turn… my word was "FAITH."  We are all born with faith, we trust on the roads we drive, that everyone is going in the right direction.  We have faith that the couch we sit on will hold us and not collapse.  We have faith that our bank is taking care of our money and so on.  My faith was that the cable I was swinging on would hold me, that the harness I was wearing was going to protect me from falling, and that the guides knew how to catch us and hook us in when we swung out of the trees.  The same thing goes for us and our faith…the bible tells us everything we need to know. We need to believe that everything it says is true, all the promises, all the prophet’s words, all of Jesus’ messages. Do we believe?

Oh and for the fishermen out there, you are probably wondering about all the fish we caught, right? Well there are a few problems.  The season does not open till the first weekend in June.  There is still snow on the ground, and the water is VERY HIGH with no bank to fish from. In a lake we need to be able to get down to 140 feet, because that is where the fish are.  We need a Montana fishing license, and the out of state licenses are not cheap. 

There are also inspection stations everywhere.  They are on the lookout for an “Invasive Mussel” that has ruined the lakes and streams. They are even checking your boots and your gear for any kinds of contamination. We also learned that in Glacier National Park if you catch a rainbow or lake trout you cannot throw it back. It too has taken over, and you must kill it.  Most of the lakes and streams are fly fishing ONLY.  We will get to do some fishing when we get to South Dakota. We will also be making our way back to Washington the first of July, so we will be within the season then.

We drove to Helena, MT on Tuesday May 30th and stayed there a couple of days...a BEAUTIFUL drive.  We went to the capital building (Helena is the capital of Montana) and to the Historical Museum.  What a wonderful day at the museum! We learned so much about Lewis and Clark. I don’t think I paid much attention in my history classes. 

The Lord continues to put people in our path that we can talk with about our faith and encourage. There are so many opportunities to reach out.

We spent 3 days in West Yellowstone. "WOW!" is all I can say.  We saw buffalo...lots of them and babies!  We saw elk and geese and ducks.  You will be happy to learn that "Old Faithful "is still faithful!!  

Church #5 

Harvest Church

Cody Wyoming

Sunday 11 am service

In attendance 70+

Pastor Vern Streeter

Churches in Bozeman, Butte,
Billings, (Montana) and Cody, WY

They just started a new series called Harvest University, today was BLESS next week is LISTEN, then EAT, SEND and STORY.

The band was awesome, they played songs I had never heard, one I really liked it said “Let me light up the world-light a fire in me.”  Pastor Vern who was on video, as he lives in Bozeman, Montana he was a funny very spirited Teaching Pastor he had a lot of knowledge. 

The church was blessed with missionary work, lots of involvement. They recently built at Water Park.

Pastor Vern started off asking everyone to raise their hand if they agreed that being a Christian is about evangelizing.  Of course many raised their hands, then he asked if being an evangelist is your gift? Not many raised their hands.  Only a few of us are good at evangelizing.  But did you know that we ARE already evangelical: we believe the bible to be true, we believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven, and we believe that people should know about Jesus.  He quoted 2 Timothy 4:5 where is says “we are to DO the work of an evangelist…”  Not all of us are Billy Graham. Then he he read Col 4:3-6 “…walk in wisdom and let your speech always be in grace, seasoned with salt…”

He shared a Facebook story, in the very small print when you accept a Facebook account it says that they can alter your news and story feed.  They did a study in 2012 because they were trying to prove that we are all emotionally contagient .  They selected unknowing folks and altered the Feed, in one group they made all the news and feeds positive and uplifting, in the other group the feed was negative and edgy.  They wanted to see if the posts from these folks went along with the positive and negative environment and it did…the positive feed and news resulted in positive and encouraging posts and the negative resulted in arguments and debates and down-right ugliness.  Interesting uh? 

He said that every church person can do the work of an evangelist simply by blessing others.

He then got real and he talked about some sad statistics.  Montana and Wyoming have the highest rate of suicide in the U.S.  He had some really interesting reasons why:

      1.      Wide Open space - people get lonely

      2.      The wind is an aggravation, it bothers people (The wind is a big deal!)

      3.      Long winters and short days without sunlight

      4.      Easy access to Guns- FYI you can get ammo at the Starbucks drive thru.

      5.      Alcohol abuse

      6.      The wild west tough-rugged people mentality

      7.      The stigma that if you need counseling or medication that it is looked
                     upon as  shameful and weak.

   

              

He shared a story of a recent suicide off the Golden Gate Bridge, and the suicide note read: “If one person smiles at me, I won’t jump” We all need a smile and words of affirmation, kindness, a compliment, a smile, a friendly gesture. Affirmation and Acts of kindness ARE evangelism.  

Pastor Vern gave everyone an assignment: to bless 3 non church people this week.  Smile more, give more, lift-up more. 

Speaking of lifting up, we sure could use some prayer...we are tired.  6 states, 9 campgrounds and 5 weeks of navigating, traveling with the dogs, getting our mail delivered to the UPS store, finding the Post office,  paying bills, finding secure WIFI, doing laundry.  I know we are seeing some of the most beautiful countryside and we feel humbled and blessed.  Thank you!!  Hugs

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

LET US ALL CONTINUE TO PRAY 

FOR SHELLY AND SCOTT

​