A lot has happened since I last updated. Sorry for the delay, but things have gotten really busy since I was last able sit down and process all that God has been teaching me, and the different parts of my life that He has been working in.
July 8-10 we went hiking and camping near Estes Park. We had legit tents and sleeping bags and split up between about 10 small camping areas. Friday night we got everything set up and our staff team spoiled us with a steak dinner. Steak, baked potatoes, grilled vegetables and dessert. It was delicious. The next morning we woke up and went to the Rocky Mountain National Park and went hiking. We hiked to Alberta Falls and then a little bit past that before my knee started to act up so one girl, Ashley and I turned around and hiked back to the central meeting spot. I calculate that we went about 2.4 miles total. After we got back we rode a bus to Bear Lake. It was a beautiful setting. Truly God placed and there was snow up there! A lot of people who hiked farther than I did had to cross huge snow piles before reaching their final destination. I've seen pictures and they are awesome. After we got back from hiking we had dinner at the camp site. A bit more camping food, hamburgers and hot dogs and chips. It was still delicious. After dinner we had a ceremony where the adult staff handed over project responsibilities to students. So some of my peers are now my leaders. We have new project directors and a new bible study leader. My bible study leader is Lauren. She is an amazing child of God. He has blessed her with many words to say and a truly loving and caring heart. Our bible study is still the same. We laugh and cry and have a blast together. I am definitely going to miss them in 2 weeks. After Lauren became the fearless leader of the Pinkie Peinie Winkie Weinies she washed all of our feet, like in the bible. It was an awesome bonding experience, especially since she touched my feet. The next morning we got up and had our own small church service. It was amazing to be observant of God's beauty and just talk to Him. After our church service we had to clean up the camp site. My car was one of the last to leave and on our way out we saw 2 elk just grazing where we next too earlier that morning.
After we got some awesome pictures of the elk we went into Estes Park. The plan was to only spend a couple (like maybe 2 hours) there shopping and possibly lunch. Well we were shown that our plan is not always God's plan. As we were shopping a friend of mine found me and asked if I could take him to the car parts store. He had been having car problems all weekend. Well I decided I wanted to wait for his car to be done in case something happened and it didn't get fixed, or I would follow him back to make sure he didn't have any more car problems on the way home. So we ended up getting his car to a mechanic who told us it would be about 3-4 hours before it was ready. Since we had been camping all weekend most of our cell phones had no battery life left, so it was similar to the times before we had phones trying to find everyone in our group. Luckily a couple people had battery life left and we were able to make a connection. We met up with our groups again and told them what was going on. A few car shufflings happened and the rest of us where in town until the car got fixed. One of the groups found a place called the Riverfront Community Living Room. We found out that is a church in the area who has volunteers go sit and they try to build relationships with people before they share the gospel. It was an awesome place to hang out and the people where so inviting and loving to us. We hung out there until we heard about Alek's car. Needless to say that the car was not fixed and all of us had to get home. We piled into my car and headed back to FoCo. The next day I took Alek back to Estes Park to get his car because it was fixed. It was a crazy 2 day adventure, but definitely a memory forever.
That week at work I only had 6 kids in my class. It was nice but bad all at the same time. It was not a good preparer for this coming week, when I will get 20 kids. Nothing really major happened that week. That Friday night we decided to go to the 16th Avenue Mall in Denver. We got stuck in traffic on the way and one car yelled at us and said it must have sucked to drive all the way from Indiana like we were (6 people in my car). The guy in my car, from Oregon, yelled back that he didn't ride that far. But I'm not sure the other car understood what he said. We made it to Denver and got dinner at Johnny Rockets. After that we investigated the mall, but most of the stores were closed. We found a guy who was there to help people find where they were going. He told us that we should check out the Brown Stone hotel. It is the 2nd most famous hotel in Denver. It was a block down the road so we went. It was beautiful on the inside. I don't have any pictures yet, but will hopefully get some up soon. After we left the hotel, we went to the capitol building. It has a step that says we were one mile above sea level. We took some pictures there and then walked back to 16th Avenue. There was also a giant blue bear at the convention center so we walked there and got some pictures. After that we went back to the car and headed for home.
The next morning, Saturday, we had a pancake breakfast at the house. The social team put together a huge breakfast for everyone. It was delicious and right before it started my momma and Janell got to the house!! It was so awesome to be able to see them. After breakfast, the Morale team decided they wanted to wash and clean out all the cars that were project students. It was awesome. My car has never been cleaner. After my car was washed, I showed mom and Janell around FoCo. I showed them where I work and different places that have meaning to us on Project. We ate lunch at Beau Jo's. After lunch I showed them where their hotel was and then took them back to the house. They went to check-in, take a nap and headed to Estes Park to see Troy. That night we had a sacrificial poet outreach at the Wild Boar Cafe. It was a great night hanging out at the coffee shop.
Sunday was church day! Mom and Janell went with us to Timberline. After church we went to lunch at a little hole in the wall place called the Mountain Cafe. It was a breakfast joint and very delicious. After lunch, mom, Janell and I went to the Bible Superstore and then to the Budweiser factory. We saw the Clydesdale's and opted out of a tour, because it was an hour and a half of walking. When we left the factory, we started to drive a random road to get back to FoCo. It ended up being a pretty awesome drive. We saw a road on one of the foothills and decided to find our way there. We stopped at a lemonade stand in the middle of a housing edition. We finally found out way to the road we wanted and when we got to one spot there was a lake on one side and the entire town of Fort Collins on the other. We kept driving and eventually made it back to the house in time for dinner. After dinner we had Bible Study and a great night.
Today we have the day off of work. We are doing an evangelism thing in Old Town where we just have signs that say, "I will listen" "Need Prayer?" and one other sign. We are going to sit there in shifts of an hour and just wait on people to come to us. After that, mom, Janell and I are going to go to the Swetsville Zoo. And after that there is a County Fair for the staff conference. Project people are going to be working the games and things like that, and there are rides and all sorts of fun things happening. It will be a long day, and tomorrow we start work with 20 kids in my class. It will be fun and I'm excited.
If you feel like writing a letter or card I would love to receive it! I only have 2 weeks left here!
Stacy Baute
412 W Laurel St
Fort Collins, CO 80521
Peace, Love, FoCo!!!
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