Day 2 Recap: The Grand Canyon

We begin our actual time at Arizona Reservation Ministries this Sunday.  We are spending the first few days here in Arizona preparing, sightseeing and team-building.  Today we dragged the team out of their sleeping bags at 5am and out the door at 6am to begin a very long day at the Grand Canyon. Today found us driving 11 hours in total. The drive took us from the desert floor to a top-out at 7000 feet above sea level.  The air was clean and thin. We were surprised to see the beauty of snow-capped mountains and the kitschy-ness of a thirty-foot Fred Flintstone. At first, some were wondering why we were going all this way to see a big hole in the ground.  But hearing the gasps at seeing the Canyon for the first time told us it was well worth the drive  We marveled at the unparalleled beauty that only God can create.  I remember my first though when we came to the Grand Canyon a few year ago: "My God! What have You done!"  We took in the Canyon at the South Rim Village and then took the bus out to Hermit's Rest.  Later we caught the bus back to the village, ate an early dinner at Bright Angel Lodge on the rim of the canyon and began the long drive home.

Our drive home took us through Cameron, AZ and a small Indian Reservation. Seeing the reservation conditions was an early reminder of what we have come all this way for. Oh and if the story gets told differently, the truth is we didn't leave Jordan behind at the Indian Market. We only moved the van thirty feet down the parking lot because he was taking too long shopping!!

It has been a  great blessing to see the team come together in a way that was not possible in the last year at school.  There is something about actually living in community with one another.  They are learning a lot about each other and learning to support and depend on one another and on God.  

Tomorrow we make a shorter drive to Tucson and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and then back home for an afternoon of ministry preparation.  Please continue to pray for us. If you are following in our team devotions, we studied Micah 6:6-8.  Tomorrow we will be in Ephesians 2:4-10, one of my all-time favorite passages. Think of the power implications of those first words "But God."  Blows me away every time I read it.

Well thats all for today.  Please comment and keep following our journey.  Its 1:45am and I'm a little tired now, so I'm hitting the sack. See ya.