| Pastor
feeds travelers’ body and soul
June 29, 2006
By Lilla Marigza*
The Rev. Alan Ashworth has built a ministry around a basic principle--when
you’re tired, the smallest kindnesses mean a lot.
His church is the New Hope Union United Methodist Church in the mountains of
Virginia, just a mile and a half from the Appalachian Trail. His outreach is to
the thousands of hikers who travel the trail each year.
Ashworth sees himself in each of them. “The solitude is what first pulled me
to the wilderness,” he explained. “I think God speaks to us outdoors.”
The trail is more than 2,000 miles long, running from Maine to Georgia.
Ashworth has found that most people on this journey are at a crossroads. They
come for solitude and answers.
“We have young folks who are finishing their education, beginning to wonder
what to do with life,” he said. “And we have folks who have just retired and are
wondering what to do with life. Most everybody is looking for something.”
The trek across 14 states can take six months or more. What Ashworth and
volunteers offer the hikers is a hot meal at a time when many of these wanderers
have hiked for weeks and encouragement is appreciated.
“They’re a fourth of the way through when they come here and the fun of
hiking has departed and the work has begun,” he added. “It’s an unsettling
time.”
John Ritke from New York followed a sign on the trail inviting him to a
breakfast buffet at the church. He sat down to a hearty meal of sausage
biscuits, waffles, eggs, grits, and baked apples.
“They’ve got everything you could possibly want here,” Ritke said. He has
lost 15 pounds since his journey began and this is the first hot, home-cooked
meal he’s had in weeks.
There will be no sermon around the breakfast table. Hikers eat, rest and go
on their way. The meal comes with no strings attached but it offers volunteers a
chance to share God’s love through fellowship.
One hiker shared what this simple experience has meant to him. “It makes you
wish you could take the whole mentality that goes on, on the trail, and bring
that out into the world? to show people how generous the world can be.”
This same hiker noted that the element of surprise adds genuineness to the
whole experience. “To wake up in the morning, hike for an hour, and find out
there’s a free, all you can eat breakfast? it’s mind blowing.”
For Ashworth, this lesson is the purpose for his ministry. “I know in my own
journey, it was unexpected kindnesses that continued to draw me to the Lord.”
Another element of the ministry is something more spontaneous. Ashworth likes
to call it “trail magic.” Trail magic is a kindness when you least expect it ?
like an ice chest set along the trail to surprise passing hikers with something
cold to drink.
The cooler is stocked with cold drinks and a copy of the New Testament for
the taking. The travel-size Bibles are also offered at each breakfast meal.
Ashworth uses the free meals and fellowship as a way to reach people who might
not otherwise come to church.
Some people take the kindness at face value, according to Ashworth, while
others question his motives. The pastor said he finds inspiration in his own
life experience and knows these simple acts will stay with each of these
travelers long after they leave here.
“We want to feed bodies but we want to feed minds and spirits as well,” he
said
*Marigza is a freelance producer in Nashville, Tenn.
News media contact: Fran Coode Walsh, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5458 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.
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Resources
The Appalachian Trail
Volunteers in Mission
Virginia Annual Conference
Arkansas Annual Conference
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