052 - The Mountains Called and God Met Me There with Amos Smith

In this week's episode, Amos Smith, shares his journey from being a youth pastor in Florida to working with the Christian Ministry in the National Parks. Amos discusses the transformative power of outdoor ministry, his experiences in various national parks, and how nature has deepened his connection with God. He emphasizes the importance of relational ministry and the challenges faced in reaching people from diverse backgrounds.  In this conversation, Amos Smith shares his journey of self-discovery and healing through nature, personal struggles, and the impact of divorce on his ministry. He emphasizes the importance of observing beauty in nature as a reflection of the intricacies of human relationships. Amos recounts his wilderness experience during 2020, where he faced deep personal challenges but ultimately found hope and purpose through faith and community support. He discusses how his experiences have shaped his ministry and his ability to empathize with others facing similar struggles.


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Chapters

• 17:08 [Ad] The Balance of Gray
• 17:58 (Cont.) 052 - The Mountains Called and God Met Me There with Amos Smith
• 27:49 [Ad] The Signpost Inn Podcast
• 28:35 (Cont.) 052 - The Mountains Called and God Met Me There with Amos Smith

Transcript

McKenzie Smith (00:01)
On today's episode of My Valley, His Victory, we have Amos Smith. Amos is originally from Florida, where he served as a youth pastor for 14 years before joining a nonprofit called A Christian Ministry in the National Parks. He spent a year living in Glacier National Park and Death Valley National Park, engaging in relational ministry with workers and guests. He then moved to the main office in Colorado to take on the role of program coordinator.

for ACMNP in 2022. He lives in Loveland, Colorado and is married to his wife, Elizabeth. He is passionate about connecting people with Jesus in the beautiful places found in the national parks. His hobbies include hiking and playing board games with his friends. Thanks so much for being with us today, Amos.

Amos Smith (00:49)
Yeah, thanks for letting me be a part of this. This is really cool experience, really cool opportunity.

McKenzie Smith (00:54)
Yeah, absolutely. So I

know I just read your bio, but why don't you go ahead and just share a little bit more with our listeners about who you are.

Amos Smith (01:01)
Yeah. Like I said, born and raised in Florida, so a Florida boy, which as we get through this conversation, it's going to be kind of ironic because of the kind of work I do working with the national parks. In Florida, you don't really spend a lot of time outside if you can avoid it because it's so hot, so humid most of the year. Camping is kind of out of the picture for most people. So I grew up just kind of a homebody kind of a person.

not really engaging in the outdoors. But I did love, I love people, I love Jesus, and that was something I was passionate about even in high school. And started in high school doing youth ministry type things, like leading the youth group on trips and things like that, even while I was still in high school, just because my church didn't have a youth pastor. Went to a ministry school, Florida Christian College in Orlando, and studied ministry. And during that whole time I was doing part-time youth ministry.

And after I graduated, I worked for the college, but I was also doing volunteer work with youth ministry. So I just love working with students. Eventually just became a part-time youth pastor, then a full-time youth pastor over the years there in Orlando, Florida. Just love that experience. I think for me, the key aspect that I enjoy the most about that was the life-to-life discipleship aspect of youth ministry. But.

where I really saw it have a deep impact was anytime I took my students on some type of trip or retreat, we'd go to a conference or go to a camp or whatever it was. And I saw like how powerful getting away from the normal and getting in somewhere else, whatever the different context was, especially taking a group of students from Orlando, Florida up to like Tennessee and seeing like, you know, know, the Smoky Mountains, you know, all their minds are blown. And I was just like, okay, there's something powerful about getting away from normal, getting away from, you know, the city

and stepping out into nature, that's something about that triggers inside of people's brains. So I love that aspect of student ministry the most. But yeah, so that was kind of the youth pastor years of my life. Loved doing that, enjoyed it. then kind of life took a huge turn in 2020 and COVID, you know, because obviously COVID happened, I had some

crazy life stuff we'll get into later that happened to me. And then through that whole year, just everything got flipped upside down. My life just kind of hit this roadblock. And I really had to kind of start over with who I am as a person and who God is calling me to be. And in the midst of that, I went on a vacation, just a personal vacation, towards the end of COVID when we could travel again. And I visited Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park

the first time. And I was totally blown away. was blown away by what I was seeing. And God spoke to me in a really deep way during that experience. And literally just a couple days after I got back from that trip, I talked to one of my old professors from college and just tell him like, man, you should go to Zion. It's so cool. You know, it's really awesome. You know, you gotta get out of Florida. He was like, you know what, Amos, you love ministry. You love student ministry. And apparently now you've got some type of love for

the

outdoors. heard about this organization, this nonprofit called the Christian Ministry in the National Parks. You should check it out. you know, light bulb went off for me and I was like, all right, Christian Ministry in the National Parks. Is that even a thing? Do people do that? That's nuts.

McKenzie Smith (04:33)
Thank

Amos Smith (04:48)
And I checked it out, looked it up, and I was like, this is legit, this is a real thing. And through some wrestling and praying and considering, should I do this? Should I leave Florida? Should I leave what I've known? Should I do something crazy? And I had a friend that basically just said, you know what, Amos, just try, apply for it. If you get it, that's what God wants. If not, then stay here in Florida. And so I was like, all right, I guess this is a win-win either way.

and got open the door. I ended up getting into the program and saw that I resigned from my full-time job, packed up my car, sold off everything else and drove from Orlando, Florida. A long road trip, visiting a lot of places along the way, but ended up in Glacier National Park and was there for the whole summer of 2021. Loved it so much, I re-upped and then in November I went to Death Valley National Park and I lived there up until April and in that process the organization that I

was

with and we'll talk more about what that looks like but they essentially said hey we have a full-time position Denver do you want to take that position so I applied for that got accepted so I left Death Valley and literally drove straight to Colorado and started the next day in the full-time position as program coordinator.

McKenzie Smith (06:03)
Yeah, wow. What a wild journey. And it's interesting that you have such a love for the outdoors, not being someone who grew up in the outdoors. I think that you saw, you know, you noticed, I'll say not saw, you noticed that spark and that change and...

whenever you change environments with the people that you were doing ministry with. And I think there is so much value in that. there's there's a reason why outdoor ministry is so powerful and so life changing. You know, not to say that those things can't happen inside of a church, but there is something really powerful. And I've seen it like you've seen it that whenever you get out of your comfort zone, whenever you get into a new place, whenever you get into a place that maybe is a little bit uncomfortable, some things start to start to, you know, stir up. And so

I think that's just amazing that you noticed that and then kind of took action on that and kind of capitalized, not the right word, but know, capitalized on that in a way. So how many national parks have you been to now at this point?

Amos Smith (07:13)
At this point, this year I hit 42 national parks. I've been to all but the dry tortugas, just because that's a beast to try to get to. Yeah.

McKenzie Smith (07:17)
Okay, have you been to the ones in Florida?

Okay.

Yeah, you gotta like take a plane or take a ferry.

So which one is your favorite if you had to choose?

Amos Smith (07:35)
Favorite national park? I would say, of all time, I'd say Glacier National Park. It's a little unfair because I got to live there for three and a half months. I mean, I've really got to experience it see it, but still it's just outrageous. It's so incredible.

McKenzie Smith (07:50)
Yeah, it is. It is definitely a special place. So talk to us a little bit about this ministry in national parks and what you guys do, because I know I was just like you. Whenever I found it on Instagram, I was like, this is a thing. Like, how did I not know about this? Why did I not know about this sooner? I would have totally went and worked, you know, and like, sign me up. This is, you know, kind of like you, the culmination of the outdoors and national parks and.

Amos Smith (08:05)
Yeah.

Yeah.

McKenzie Smith (08:19)
ministry like so much goodness in that. So talk to us about what y'all do.

Amos Smith (08:24)
Yeah, so the organization has been around since 1951. So that's like 72 years 73 years It started with a group of seminary students from princeton and they had the summer off So they went to yellowstone national park to work. They just there's there's opportunities for jobs So they just went to work when they got there. They realized there's no church within 100 miles of here and they were all christians So they were like, all right, guess we're just gonna do it And so at the bar at the old faithful inn on sundays, they just started doing a worship service

McKenzie Smith (08:30)
Wow.

Amos Smith (08:55)
And they invited their other employees and any guests that happened to be in the park at the time. And it just became a thing. They just did it every week and loved it so much they decided, hey, next summer, let's go do it again and bring some of our friends. And from there it just kind of expanded. And one of those guys from that original group started a nonprofit after he graduated. And that's what he's been doing. That's what he started doing was just recruiting people from different colleges to, go spend your summer. And primarily it started with seminary students to practice what does it look like to do ministry. But over the time,

It's expanded to be pretty much anybody that follows Jesus can be a part of this program And so the kind of the main branch of our program is what we call Park life and that's kind of what we've been Describing so far as people find out they apply they go through the application process and if they're accepted then they get placed in a part and so they go for either like a summer season or a winter season whatever they're available for and then we help partner them with the concessionaires that operate in

of the parks. the companies that run all the hotels and lodges and stores and restaurants and stuff, they need employees. And so we have a good relationship with those concessionaires. And so we get our applicants partnered with them, get them jobs there so that when they go to the park, they actually have a place to live. They have employee housing. They're on the food plan. So that's all taken care of that allows them to live there for the whole season. They have a job, so they're making money. You know, so they walk away usually

They make $2,500 to $3,500 a summer, sometimes more, depending on the job. And while they're there, they get to do relational ministry, lived in day-to-day, life-to-life ministry with all of their coworkers, the other people that are living there all season long, and interacting with guests and building relationships there. And then we train them to actually provide a worship service on Sundays inside the National Park. We reserve different campsite locations

or amphitheaters for our groups to actually hold a worship service. it's both kind of a formal worship service kind of ministry, but mostly it's a relational life to life discipleship kind of ministry. And the crazy part though, and this is the part that I think people coming into the program struggled to see at first, is like, this is like real cross-cultural kind of ministry. You're going into a place where

Most of the people come from wildly different backgrounds, both American and around the world. And there are so many people that are running away from life, who are lost, who are hurting, who are broken, who break other things around them. And so a lot of times it's a really tough ministry because you're working with and talking with people that are extremely broken, extremely lost. So it's not a ministry for the faint of heart.

because you know you've got to be there to like love people in dark places. And so that's why I loved it so much when I was there was like my gosh like I went from working like in this kind of church safe bubble kind of thing and then suddenly I was like thrust into the middle of like all the people and I was just like this is amazing this is like the ministry that I've been longing for because I don't have to try to convince people to come to this church building. I just get to be with them all the time and just love them like Jesus and so many

amazing conversations and interactions and some people that were like you're a Christian and I hate you because you're a Christian and I was like all right cool I love you anyway and working to like reshape people's idea and people's story of who Jesus is because so many people in the parks are coming from places of church hurt

McKenzie Smith (12:40)
Mm.

Amos Smith (12:45)
So there's a ton, a ton of people that are like, you're a Christian. That means you're a bigot and you hate me because I'm different. And then, you know, me and my teams and all the teams that go out there have to like kind of reset that expectation by just loving them consistently over time. So amazing ministry, difficult, difficult ministry, not for the faint of hearts, not for, it's not an easy thing to do, but.

The kind of the really cool element that's kind of mixed into all of it is where we get to do this ministry. Living in a national park, living in some of the most beautiful places in the world. And like when I was in Glacier, I worked at Swift Current Inn, which is in the mini glacier valley on the east side of the park. So look it up, Google it mini glacier valley in Glacier National Park. I got to wake up to paradise every single day.

You know, I'd go work in the camp store, do my eight hours, I'd clock out, and then I'd look around and grab some people and say, hey, you wanna go on a hike? You wanna go on a hike? We'd go change, you'd go do a 10-mile hike, almost every day. Like, it was incredible.

McKenzie Smith (13:45)
you

Yeah, so is this ministry active in all the national parks?

Amos Smith (14:02)
great question and the answer is no. You and your listeners probably know that there's a wide range of national parks and types of national parks and accessibility of national parks.

So we're actually probably only in about 25 to 30 parks a year because those are the ones that have the jobs, that have the concessionaires, that have the infrastructure. Some parks are so remote or so small that you really, there's no opportunity for a job there.

McKenzie Smith (14:34)
Yeah, yeah, no, that totally makes sense. I figured it wasn't in totality of the national parks, but you never know. I'm learning. I'm learning too. So you've talked about your experience in the outdoors and, you know, taking youth ministry and.

Amos Smith (14:41)
That's a great question.

McKenzie Smith (14:53)
kind of serving in ministry in these national parks, but let's take the ministry away. What is your, what's your thing in the outdoors? Are you a hiker? Are you a backpacker? Are you a mountain biker? You know, kind of what's your thing that you do to get out and kind of, you know, enjoy?

Amos Smith (15:09)
Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, I guess you could say I'm pretty simple. I just like to hike. I learned a long time ago that I struggle with any sort of athletics that requires too much hand-eye coordination or too much lateral movement. So if it's a straight line and I can move forward, I'm pretty good. So yeah, so I love to hike. That's part of my thing. And obviously the reason being is just like,

you

You know, the physical challenge is great, but it's what you get to feel, sense, see and experience along the way. I mean, some of the most profound conversations with God have happened when I'm just walking along a trail because for me, the way my brain thinks, I'm always thinking in like pictures and images and analogies. And so when I'm walking in the outdoors, it's like God is constantly showing me things. Hey, your life is like this or this situation is like this thing over here.

like the connections are so easy for me to see in that setting that I feel deeply connected to God. And so that's what I love is being able to be there, see it, experience it, but really, you know, take in like, all right, God, what is it that I need to hear or understand for me based on what I'm seeing and experiencing right now?

McKenzie Smith (16:33)
Yeah, yeah, that's so good. I think we think a lot alike because I am the same way. I get out in nature and I'm like, see this, you know, river running and somehow like God's like kind of speaking to me through just seeing that. it's usually I see something and it's like you said, an analogy for my life and what I'm dealing with. And it's such cool pictures and imagery of of just lessons that I feel like he's trying to teach us. And so I think that's really cool.

Do you mind sharing a story or maybe a specific instance in a way in which God has revealed himself or spoken to you through being in the outdoors?

Amos Smith (17:12)
Yeah, man.

Wow, there's a number of different ones. think one that comes to my mind is while I was living in Glacier National Park.

myself and two of my teammates, Quinn and Molly, one day had an afternoon free. We were all off work at the same time. So like, hey, let's go do this hike. There's a hike nearby that none of us have done yet. So let's go check it out. It's a place called Apokooni Falls. So, you we hiked down, it was maybe like two miles away from where we lived and worked. So wasn't too far away. So we hiked to the trailhead and then you hike uphill and you're going through the woods and it's just really beautiful. And it gets to a waterfall.

not

a huge massive waterfall, it's really tall. it's just like cascading down. It's really pretty, really beautiful. And so we're getting close to the water, taking some pictures, having a good time. then Quinn's like, Hey, let's this the steep cliff right next to us. Let's climb up the top of that. And I'm like, that's dangerous. Let's go. And so we start scrambling up like this loose rock. mean, super, super steep and you know, just trying to keep our balance and scrambling all the way up. And we

get up there up with a high ledge I'm almost equal with where the waterfall starts and you know we're looking down and immediately after we look down we see that there's a goat trail that we could have followed if we had just backed up a few steps but you know whatever is what it is so we get up there and we come around we find this ledge and I mean you're just looking out at the valley

and I mean it's my it's it's incredible it's just so beautiful so green the lake is there you're up high you have the mountains all around you you're looking out the valley

You know, I have I set up my camera so we could get some cool pictures and all the all fun stuff But we're sitting there on the edge and literally our feet are hanging over the edge And we're just all sitting there and as we're sitting there Suddenly I had this sense from God and I'm just kind of listening and guys like Do you remember what you prayed five years ago?

And I was like, you know, I just got kind of, what the heck? Why didn't I think about that? And so I like just kind of processed and thought and tried to remember it. And then it hit me. And I remember like five years previous, I was visiting my parents' house on a weekend to see them and I was out on their patio and I was praying and journaling. I remember in that moment having an honest prayer with God and just asking him five years ago, God, if it's possible, can I live a life where I get to be in beautiful places?

with incredible people and have that as a career. And I prayed it one time and kind of put it away and just thought, you know, it's not, it's never gonna happen. And I remembered that moment and I'm sitting there looking out at this valley and I've seen my friends sitting next to me and God says, you're welcome.

And it's just like this, like the love that God has where you could pray one prayer and just think like, that's nothing, it's no big deal. But God's like, that's a big deal to me. And your life is interesting enough for me to do that kind of thing.

McKenzie Smith (20:29)
Mm.

Yeah. Wow. It's, it makes me think about just, you know, all the prayers that I've maybe only prayed once that I'm just like, God wasn't listening or, you know, I didn't have the, I didn't have the faith to continue praying, you know, the same thing or.

That was just a season of my life where I prayed for, you know, a certain thing and it's like, no, I God knows the desires of our hearts and like also knows why he has put those certain things in our lives. And, you know, it's interesting that there are so many.

iterations, you know, kind of of the same of the same thing where it's like you you maybe had this thought of wanting to do that, but you didn't even have an idea of what that was going to look like. It was just like, I just want to be in the outdoors with beautiful people, you know. And then it's like he's taken that tiny little seed and blossomed it into this amazing thing that was probably beyond comprehension of what that prayer even even meant, you know, or that you even had the idea for in your mind at that time. And so.

Amos Smith (21:46)
That

exactly, it like all season long, I just kept saying to God, was like, I just had these moments of like, you knew what I wanted before I knew I wanted it.

McKenzie Smith (21:55)
Hmm. Yeah. That's so good. It's yeah, I'm thinking about my own personal life and just I remember seven years ago before I was even a Christian, like I had an idea to want to do a retreat like to host retreats. And now, you know, I've shared with you that you me and my friend Audrey are doing those but it it was like that.

That want to do retreats wasn't even like the final play and it was just like that tiny little seed of like that is something that might be in the future. And now God has worked through so many different seasons of what that would even look like. And that was even before I was a Christian, like, you know? And so yeah, that's wild. Wild to think about and wild to think about the prayers that we, you know, asked just even one time like

God hears. If that's not proof enough that God hears, then man, thank you so much for sharing that. So I know that you live in Denver, Colorado, or kind of that general area. So you live in a really beautiful place, easy access to the mountains and some really, really amazing hikes and outdoor activities. But I you also grew up in Florida. You said you didn't spend a lot of time outside. So for someone who maybe lives in a place like Florida,

What are some ways, practical ways that they can start connecting with God through nature on an everyday basis without being in these super grand, outdoorsy places?

Amos Smith (23:27)
Yeah, think thinking through it, it's recognizing and understanding, you know, what are the, what are the specific beauties that exist in your area? Like in Florida.

You you're never you're looking for mountains that ain't gonna happen. I think the highest point in Florida is like 287 feet above sea level so it's not gonna be the the Grand Mountains or valleys but For a lot of people, know, it's something like the beach, you know going to the vastness of the ocean or for me it was I wasn't much of a beach person, but I did love going to like the natural springs that are all over Florida and Particularly to see the diverse wildlife

And that's a unique thing that Florida has that a lot of other states in the nation don't is You you have all sorts of types of birds that exist in Florida that don't exist anywhere else you got I mean you got Alligators you got snake you got all sorts of just wild crazy animals that are actually pretty easy to see and find and experience and so Understanding like what is the what is the beauty of your place? You know, what is the beauty that's there? recognizing whether that is and then taking time to

rest in that and I think that's that's a key thing because with all of us no matter where we're at no matter where we grow up you can always become normalized to beauty and it's easy to just say you know the ocean's always there or all the mountains are always there and you just kind of like forget about it and then you know so putting yourself in a position to stop and actually observe and look and see and I think the practice that has helped me the most is you know anywhere I'm at in the outdoors

is taking a moment, taking a deep breath, looking around and observing and seeing, you know, one, you know, what is all of what I'm seeing, showing me and teaching me about myself and about God and about others and relationships. What is, what is, what am I seeing and observing there? But I think that's the step further is looking at something, you know, if you're looking at like a mountain, if you're looking at the ocean, if you're looking at, you know, beautiful field, whatever it is, and stopping and recognizing like there's detail here.

If I'm willing to look at it I could stare at a small little section and just keep looking and keep seeing more and more detail more and more detail and then I realized I could stand here all day and keep seeing one section after another just keep seeing more detail that could stand here for a weeks and still see new details and then stopping and realizing that what I'm looking at this outdoor beautiful inter-kit detailed beauty is a perfect analogy for another human

being that if I can see another person and recognize that there's intricacy there's depth there's so much there then I can understand that God sees so much in them and so much in me that most of us just glance by and get normalized to and forget about

McKenzie Smith (26:32)
Mm.

Amos Smith (26:35)
And so the practice of observing and looking at beauty in nature teaches us or teaches me at least to stop and look at the intricacy and the detailed beauty in other people too.

McKenzie Smith (26:46)
Mmm. That's so good. I have never thought about it like that. And that's so valuable. Because I think so often we don't give people the benefit of the doubt. And we're very quick to make judgments and very quick to not see the beauty in other human beings. And, mmm. Wow. I know that's convicting for me.

That's something to chew on for sure. Thank you for that. I appreciate that. That is, that's really helpful. And it, it's just so true. Like there, there's so much detail and so much steps to everything. If we just take the time to see it. And I think that's the problem is just so often we don't take the time. We're like, we don't like what you're doing. So let's, we'll just move on. And that's helpful.

So switching gears into the title of this podcast, My Valley, His Victory, would love for you to share a valley or a season of wilderness that you experienced and just what God maybe taught you or prepared you for in that season.

Amos Smith (28:01)
Yeah, no, that's good. Kind of rewinding on the story I told at beginning. So I went to the ministry school, doing youth pastor work. A little while after I graduated, I got married and was married for about seven years and it was...

It was in 2020, early 2020, February, when my wife at the time decided that she was done with our relationship, that she was done with the church, she was done with Jesus, she was kind of done with all of it. And she had her own stuff that she was working through. And despite, know...

long season of trying to make it work and trying to get help and counseling. It just wasn't going to happen. And so February 29th of 2020, she moved out and decided to leave. And so suddenly I was alone. And then, you know, it was just, you know, a couple of weeks later that the whole world shut down for COVID. And so I found myself at this just really dark, dark, empty space where I was literally

trapped at home staring at walls trying to contemplate like who am I what's going on what is what is my life what is what's happening God why why did you let this happen you know why didn't why didn't you save this marriage why didn't you change change her or change me or change both of us to make it work you know why why do I have to go through this so yeah literally just sitting there and

staring at walls and just wondering what in the world do I even do with myself with my life? You know, so it got down to like, you know, the bottom level where all I could manage to do each day to keep sane was to, you know, make my bed in the morning and, you know, put a puzzle together. Like that was all I did for like the first like month and a half was just super simple things just to have some degree of like control.

I'm very fortunate that I had really good friends and mentors in my life at the time that you know, consistently encouraged me and prayed for me and one of my one of my friends when my mentors He kind of came into that season of life with me said hey, how about we try to reset life? How about we try to like rethink life? Do you want to go through a process of kind of reevaluating and figuring out what's next and That was a lifeline that I needed I needed I needed something I needed something

So he and I just started meeting once a week over zoom, you know, phone calls, that kind of thing during COVID. And he just had me go through this process of, know, looking at my life as a big picture. So it was kind of like life coaching kind of a thing. And so, you know, where'd you come from? You know, what are the big moments, the weak moments? Where are you strong? Where are you weak? Just kind of analyzing and looking at everything. It was a great, digging deep process, which really led me to a lot of journaling and talking to God through journaling. And so I started waking up every morning.

you know, getting a cup of coffee and sitting and just journaling for hours. I mean, I went through, gosh, in nine months, I went through like 12 journals. Like, I was just, I had to get everything out. And so God was constantly speaking into my life and pointing out like, hey, this is a broken area of your life. This is a broken area of your life. So it was just, it was like the really painful part of like,

you any type of health where, you know, you've got to get better, but you got to get worse. You got to go through a lot of pain first before you can actually get better. We got to, we got to get all the infection out before we can actually like wrap this up and heal this. So it was a lot of that kind of stuff. and

It really kind of reset my life on trusting in God and just like, don't know how this is all going to pan out. I don't know where this is all going to go, but I'm just going to trust you God. When I can't see how this is all going to work, all I see and all I feel is emptiness and despair, but I'm just going to trust you in the midst of despair. And so just staying consistent with journaling, consistent with praying, staying consistent

Consisted

with this life coaching practices that I was putting in And just little increment by increment by increment God really started to kind of like reshape my thinking showing me like brokenness and then Teaching me that he's there to heal that brokenness and all these different layers of that

And it was in the midst of all that, it was like summer of, you know, 2020 at this point, my life coach, Steve, he was like, hey, I want you to do something. I want you, and this was the weird part, and it plays into the story later on. He's like, I want you to come up with some different adventures that you want to experience in your life, different types of adventures.

So he's like, one of them, want you to do like, what's an immediate, a big thing that you can do in the next six months. That's challenging, that's hard, that's difficult, that's gonna cost you something, but it's something that can happen in the next six months. And I want you also to think about, what's an adventure that you wanna have that's with and for other people? What would that look like? And then ultimately, I want you to come up with, what is a big pie in the sky, ridiculous life goal kind of thing that

You know, it's probably never gonna happen. But you know, this is what you would love to see happen. And I want you to think through these things and write these things down. So I wrote down, you know, for the short term one, I wrote down like, I have some friends that live in Arizona. I'm going to go visit them, spend time with them. They do ministry with the Navajo people. So I'm going to just partner with them and just see how that goes for a week or so and experience that. And so.

few months later in September of 2020, I flew out to Arizona and spent time with them. And it was during that trip that I actually added on some extra days and went to Zion and Bryce. So it was kind of cool how that experience happened. The adventure to have with and for other people was like, want to be in amazing places with awesome people. I want to love people and disciple people well. And I want to just do that in just really different kinds of settings.

And then the of the pie in the sky, the ridiculous one was I wrote down, said, I want to ultimately disciple people in the context of traveling and retreating with people and do that in beautiful places. So those are the things I wrote down. So like I said, I went to Arizona, I went to Zion and Bryce, and I had the most profound moment with God that I've ever had in my life.

I sat by the river in the Narrows there in Zion. It was just contemplating life, know, asking those big questions. God, why me? What's going on? Why has all this had to happen? What am I supposed to do? Who am I? Like all that kind of big existential kind of questions. In the midst of that, God spoke to me and just like, stop. Look around. What do you see?

And so I like stopped and I looked and I saw the river, the trees, the rocks, the canyon walls all around me. And he said, all of these things are being what they are. Just be. You have the freedom to just be you. And you know, it floored me. I was just like, my gosh.

I've been like scrambling around trying to do everything and God's speaking to me and telling me just to be this, be who I am. I left the park that night. The next day I went to Bryce Canyon, explored Bryce Canyon, stayed there past sunset and when I was done I was driving back to my hotel and...

I just had this urge to look at the stars because I lived in Orlando for so long, I hadn't seen many stars. So I drove off the side road, got out and stood up and looked out. And for the first time in my life with my own eyes, I saw the Milky Way and I was just floored. I was like, this is incredible. This is beautiful. And I was there for like 15 minutes or so. And I was like, all right, I need to get back. So I get back on my car and right when I turned my car on, I heard God speak to me and say, stop.

get out of the car, you're not done yet. So I turn the car off, I get out, standing there in the darkness and I'm just kind of waiting. And God says, you have more you need to say to me.

So I was like, all right. So I just started talking, talking out loud in the darkness, just talking about life, talking about everything that had happened with my wife leaving and all of those types of things. And as I talked, my talking became shouting and my shouting became yelling and my yelling became screaming. And to the point, like if you had walked up, you would have seen this crazy man in the darkness screaming at the top of his lungs. it essentially was just all of my frustration, all of my hurt, all of my rage, all of,

everything that I've experienced and all the hurt in ultimately asking that question, why? Why did this all happen? And at the kind of the crescendo of all of my shouting and screaming and frustration, anger and rage, right at that moment, God says to me, stop. Now look up.

So in that moment, he didn't answer my questions.

but he gave me the stars to look at.

So I stood there and I don't know if it was 10 minutes or two hours. don't know. I have no concept of time at that moment. And so I just stared at the stars. And then after whatever amount of time it was, God finally said to me, he's like, all right, you're done. You can go home now.

Alright, so I get back in the car, drive back, fly home, and like I said, two days later, I talk to my friend about this experience and he's like, you know what, you should check out this Christian ministry in the national park thing. This door gets blown wide open. End.

It's just, it's incredible. And like, kind of like another piece of this story, if I can continue on is, as I was processing, you know, applying for this, like I said, a friend's encouraged me to do so. So I applied for the organization and January of 21, actually on my birthday, I got the acceptance letter says, Hey, you're part of this ministry now. And suddenly I was like, my gosh, I'm actually doing this. This is insane. This is crazy. What am I thinking? I have like a salary job I'm working. I've got a

place

you know what what what in the world what you mean I'm good I started panicked I had like a panic attack that day I was like this is nuts I'm actually doing this like how can I actually do this and I sat down with my friend Jairo and I was just telling him like I don't know maybe I maybe I overstepped maybe I'm crazy maybe I should back off of this and he spoke to me he just like encouraged me he he's like hey listen God opened this door so you just need to trust God with this

McKenzie Smith (39:45)
Thank

Amos Smith (40:03)
And I was like, okay, okay, you know, I'm still anxious and kind of freaked out a little bit. And I go, go home that night. I go to bed and I have a dream. And listen, I, I know people have different perspectives on dreams and you know, most of my dreams I don't remember, but this dream I remember. And in, in this dream, it's kind of like when you're in a dream, you kind of automatically know where you're at.

And in this dream, I knew that I was standing in Glacier National Park where I'd been assigned to go. But I've never seen Glacier. I've never even seen a picture of Glacier at this point. But I knew in my dream that I was standing there. I standing in this beautiful field surrounded by all these incredibly huge trees and beyond them all these mountains. And oddly enough in my dream, these mountains were saying my name over and over and over again.

and I immediately wake up in the middle of the night and I'm crying and I'm like, all right God, you win, I'm in, you got me. And that was enough for me to like just go full in. committed to going, sold off everything like I said, traveled, did all the stuff, got to Glacier, was just having the absolute best season of my life. And.

Towards the end of season, me and some friends did this one hike called Gunsite Pass. It's 21 miles over the Continental Divide. And we're having an amazing time and incredible hike, most beautiful place I've ever seen. And about two thirds of the way through, we stop and get some food and we continue on. And after we leave that spot, we come down the hill, come around the bend, and immediately I'm standing in the exact same place I saw in my dream.

And I was just like, my gosh, like, all right, God, you've you've got this all figured out. You know what's going on. You got this plan. And here's here's kind of the weird thing. Like in my dream, you know, the mountains were literally calling and I had to go. I did not I had never heard that quote ever before, because like in Florida, like nobody says that nobody's around that. So I never heard that quote. wasn't until I got to Glacier and I got my job working in the camp store. They had a big poster of that. I was like,

like

how did they know not having any clue that this was a famous quote I just had a dream where the mountains were literally calling me and so all that happens and like I said I went to Death Valley National Park experienced that and halfway through that season the organization calls me and says hey we want you to be applied for this program director and the main piece of what you're gonna be doing is actually taking people

McKenzie Smith (42:19)
Yeah.

.

Amos Smith (42:43)
on retreats into the national parks, which was that third huge adventure that I wrote down. And I was like, are you freaking kidding me? Like God is leading up the very thing that I had hoped to have. And so all of those things to say is that I went through horrible pain that I hope nobody ever has to experience. But

God is faithful and good through all of that. After I got to Colorado when I was done with Death Valley, you know, started this program coordinator job and a few months later, I actually started dating Elizabeth and about a year later we got married. And so I'm married. I'm married to an amazing woman. She works at the church that we go to. She loves the Lord and she's just an incredible piece of my life. And I can't imagine being with anybody else now. And so it's just like this

This thing of like I went through a lot of pain But I wouldn't trade it for anything because of what God brought out of that and brought into my life the beauty I got to experience the adventures I got to go on and ultimately being with my wife now It's this story of just so I just I had this faith in God that it's like I don't stress out nearly as much about stuff anymore It's just like God really has a plan and he's really working it and he actually cares about us

McKenzie Smith (44:03)
Yeah. Thank you so much for sharing all that and walking us through that season. just, man, God is so good and he's so gracious and he will restore, you know, the brokenness. Like, I think we hear those things so often and it's like, no, like he's still doing it now. And it's just, it's so wild to me.

the correlation of our desires and our wants and in submission to God, like he works those things out somehow and they're not always what we had imagined, but there's a reason that some of these things are on our hearts and I think it's so cool that you

or that your friend told you to write it down and now you've been able to see those things come to fruition and you can look back and have those things written down and be like, God answered that, that, and that. And he didn't have to. Those were just like your pie in the sky dreams of like, well, this would be really cool. But it doesn't have to happen.

And I just think that's so cool. And I think that it's amazing how God has restored even marriage for you and brought you your beautiful bride now.

has had her fill some places that your ex-wife, you know, was not, you know, in loving and serving the Lord. And obviously that's really important and huge. And man, just I just hear your story and I'm just so encouraged. yeah, it's just wild, wild what God can do whenever we're faithful and prayerful and

you know, truly kind of give it all to God and go through those hard wrestling, you know, moments of screaming and yelling at God because he wants it all. I think so often we just take it somewhere else and it's like, you know, like he wants to. But yeah, I'm just so encouraged, encouraged by your story. I want to ask you a question. Being

And you can say that you don't want to answer this if you don't want to, but I would love to ask you kind of a hot question of how being someone that has been divorced has either helped or hurt your ministry.

Amos Smith (46:49)
That's a great question. I've not seen how it has hurt any ministry that I've done. I think the experience has given me a deeper level of grace in understanding for people who experience that thing, divorce, whether it's...

You know, and what I guess I understood now is that it can come in so many different variations and types where sometimes it's mutual, sometimes it's one sided, sometimes it's messy, sometimes it's clean, sometimes it just has so many different layers to it. And so I have a much deeper like understanding and love for anybody that's experiencing that same thing. And I've had the ability to have some deep conversations with people who are experiencing that from a place of understanding.

So it's a it's a painful thing. But again, the way I see it is like God does a good job of judo flipping all of our situations that, we feel like they're all going to go one way and then suddenly God can just flip them around to something else. And really, he doesn't waste anything. He doesn't waste any pain. He doesn't waste any bad experience if we we we let him and

He can take even horrible things that have happened, painful things, and redeem those into ways to love and encourage other people. So for the most part, yeah, I would say that not a great experience for me, but it has allowed me to have a higher level of empathy and sympathy for people and to have greater levels of conversation in the midst of difficult relationships, even beyond just divorce, just difficult relational issues.

McKenzie Smith (48:40)
Yeah, yeah, no, that's good. I just was curious because, I think sometimes, you you were a youth pastor when all this was going down and that, you know, I think people forget that pastors and people in ministry are human and that, you know, the same things that happen to all of us can happen to those in ministry as well. And so I know that depending on the environment that you're around, you know, it can either.

take away from your ministry or it can help build up your ministry. And so I was just curious what your experience was in that. Because I think so often, you know, we just jump to the, well, they're in ministry, like their life should be perfect. And it's like, no, they're actually probably more being attacked by the enemy because they're in ministry. And so, you know, Satan's doing everything that he can do to try to get them to stop.

Well, Amos, for anyone who maybe is going through a similar season, I'd love for you to just give them a word of encouragement or advice. I know that you said, you know, in the middle of this you couldn't see the plan, you couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel, maybe someone is in that exact same place. What would you leave them with?

Amos Smith (50:14)
I think what I realized was God is not far away and we have the choice to either stay close to him or not in difficult situations. And I did have that moment early on in the experience, the pain where I was

very tempted to go off the deep end and was even starting to lean towards that and God reminded me and saying you have a choice right now

You can do life your way and try to fix your problems. You can try to medicate, you know, make the pain go away on your own terms in your own ways. And that will lead to more emptiness, pain, hurt and brokenness for a longer period of time. Or you can come close to me and I will expose things and it will be painful. But this is the way that you can heal. And I thank God that he had

The key piece of that is recognizing and knowing and believing that while you are in the river of misery, that's all you can feel. But Jesus is walking through the river with you.

You may not feel his goodness and his presence in the moment. And all you feel is the misery. Faith is knowing that he's there holding you up so that you're not swept away by it and leading you to the other side and out of that misery.

McKenzie Smith (52:56)
Yeah, yeah, I love that you emphasized feel there because our feelings can cannot always be true. And so I think it's it's so important in those seasons to not rely on on the way that we're feeling. So thank you. Thank you so much for that. So Amos, for somebody who wants to connect with you, learn more about the ministry that you're a part of, where can they find more about you or that?

Amos Smith (53:25)
Yeah, so the ministry is obviously a kind of a goofy long name. It literally is a Christian ministry in the national parks The original guys weren't too original with the name, but at least it tells you exactly what it's all about So if you google that a christian ministry in the national parks or are equally complicated acronym ACMNP You can find us online find out more about the ministry and what we're doing Also, you can look on instagram. We have a great

Instagram account with all sorts of great stuff and so you can either look there with two of them so it's either ACM MP or you can look up Parklife which is connected to ACM MP Parklife is common term so you might see several of those but if it's connected to that acronym ACM MP you'll find out more about what we're doing you can see what our teams are up to in the parks videos content of what that looks like of what that experience is like and we'd love to be in touch with you reach out you know connect with you if you're curious

about maybe joining a team, being a park, doing that kind of ministry, we'd love that. We also do retreats, impact trips is what we call them. So they're three to seven day long trips. And I lead a lot of those taking groups of people into the national parks, experiencing God in more of a short term setting rather than a full season. So whether you want to do something for three to six months, or you just want to do something for a weekend, we've got all sorts of opportunities, would love to connect with you ultimately, to take people from their normal context into beautiful

McKenzie Smith (54:58)
I love it. Well, you all go check it out. thank you again just so much, Amos, for being here and for sharing your story and for walking us through this hard season, but encouraging us that God is with us and that he is working it all out for his good.

Amos Smith (55:14)
yeah definitely thanks for letting me be a part of this.