by Steve and Laura Lympus

What do bison, snowbanks, geothermal features and the new Lympus home-to-be all have in common?  If you guessed “Yellowstone National Park,” you are correct.

Over the last several months, we began to wonder if God may be leading us away from Bethany to the great unknown of a new church. We began tentatively looking to see what was out there and stumbled across this small church in West Yellowstone, MT.

As we prayed, discerned and explored the idea of taking this step it felt more and more clear to us that God just might have a plan for us in this.

In April we made our first visit to “West,” met the great  folks at Community Protestant Church, and found ourselves in awe of what God is doing in that place. Steve accepted a nomination to be their solo-pastor starting this summer.

June 11 will be our last Sunday at Bethany, and already we are grieving the loss of this incredible community. We met and were married here,  we have lived a lot of life with all of you here, and most importantly, we have been deeply touched by God’s presence here.

Our overwhelming emotion at this time can only be called bittersweet. We are excited for what lies ahead but are also so sad to be leaving Bethany. We will miss this community dearly. So the next time you’re on your way to Yellowstone, be sure to stop in “West” for a great welcome from us (bison included)!