Ric and Sharon Bruce On a journey with you to Thailand Tomorrow we will speak at a country church near Fayetteville, TN. We were invited to the church by a man we met on the Appalachian Trail this summer. As stories go, the story of our meeting seems pretty interesting:
Our last day on the trail that week proved stiflingly hot and the trail grew steep as we climbed to a mountain ridge from a river valley. When we reached the top of the ridge, we thought our troubles were over. The terrain was relatively flat and we only had about six miles to the shelter we were stopping at for the night but it took us hours to make the trek because the trail was so overgrown.
Overgrown trail is not typically an obstacle hikers on the AT face, but this particular section looked like it had not been maintained that year… and we were hiking in August. As we rounded a bend in the trail I saw in the distance a man sitting on a log that did not look like a hiker at all. As we approached I noticed he wore blue jeans, heavy black leather boots, and a cotton shirt. Beside him lay a very heavy-looking pack.
After our first two months on the trail we’d learned to be very careful and trust our instincts when we came across things that looked out of place. In this case we needn’t have worried. A kind, relieved smile spread on the man’s face as we approached and after a brief hello he asked in a slow southern drawl where he was.
After a fifteen minute conversation we learned he was the pastor of a church and he learned we were missionaries. We hit if off immediately and had a great time talking with him. That night we shared our water and offered our food to him. We all slept in the shelter that night (he upstairs and we downstairs) and the next day we shared a ride with him back to his car. Random chance? Probably not.
