Date: 2006-03-12
From: Mt. Collin's Shelter

To: Allison's Apartment
Miles today: 4.5

I don't like sleeping in shelters. The surface is too hard so my butt hurts if I lay on my back for a while. Last night, a group of guys came in around 12am jsust as loud as thunder and every other word was the "F" or "SH" word. It was almost like it was wrong if they didn't use it in a sentence. Needless to say they woke us up and going back to sleep was hard. Once dawn broke we were up and at it, our goal was to get to church but we had to go aobut 4.5 miles to get to the road, then hitch 15 miles into town, then find a church in Gatlingburg - all before the starting service at 11am. By the will of God it all happened! I'm learning prayer works for sure, and waking up early isn't all that bad, but then again I could just be delierious about the whole waking up early bit. The guy that we hitched into town with dropped us off at the first church we saw. It was a Methodist church. I belive it was called First United Methodist of Gatlingburg. It had a very friendly atmosphere and everyone there was so welcoming. The Pastor was a nice guy as well. He actually had worked with Braveheart's mentor years ago - what a small world. He ended up letting us keep our packs in the church for the day so we cold walk around Gatlingburg without them, and he gave us the key the the church so we could lock up everything...dang!I tell ya, Gatlingburg is just a weird town to me. there are so many people but there isn't much to do . It's almost like a theme park without the park and the theme is "tourist trap". Regardless, the people are wonderful, especially at the church. A lady named Cindthia heard that we were through hikers and told us flat out that she was gonna get us a place to stay tonight. It was sooooo cool. I mean she walked up to us and just told us, "You're stayin' with me". I tell you what, God is showing up huge! So we did lunch and then went to the sports pub and watched the rest of the ACC championship game - Duke won - boooooooo! After hanging around town a bit, we headed back to church to catch their night service that was geared towards those that might not have been born with a silver spoon in thier mouth or life just delt them a harder hand than most people. It was beautiful! I watched as lost people in this terrible world soaked up the hope of Jesus and his love. It was truly great to see God's love poured out to those in need. After the service, we helped clean up and then waited outside for Cindy to come and pick us up. There were two kids outside with a guitar and I showed them how to tune it and we told them how the church was great so hopefully they might stop in one sunday.Cindy showed up and off we went. We stopped and she bought us a pizza each and showed us some amazing wood carvings. There were also some tree trunks waiting to be used outside the store that were massive. I tried to nudge one to move and couldn't even get it to rock, it was like pushing against a wall. When the pizza was ready we left to go meet her husband Don and her daughter Allison. This is a family that has seen much of the mercy and healing power of God through many hard times, yet instead of hardening their hearts, they open them up all the more and give so much to so many. So at the house we chatted about the A.T. They are all wonderful people. Tonight we'll be staying at Allison's apartment and are goingt o do some work for her parents tomorrow.pop-tart packet x2---Shoney's buffet---hamburger - church---pizza - Cindy