Sunday, May 9, 2010

Going to Damascus!

Hello All! Or I should say y'all... or all y'all...

Yep! It's Damascus, Virginia, here we come! Cari and I are really going to be able to go, and we're excited! (I have to ease up on all those exclamation marks... don't want to use them all up...).

It is going to be quite a trip though. We will leave Madison, Maine on Wednesday night, May 12th, and drive the 1000 miles to Damascus, Virginia, to take part in the annual TRAIL DAYS gathering. Check out the link, below...

http://www.traildays.us/

Damascus is about mid-point of the roughly 2,175 miles of the Appalachian Trail, and Trail Days is a fantastic opportunity for anyone interested in the trail, or interested in the great outdoors, to come together to enjoy a wide variety of events and activities. You will get to meet thru-hikers, sectioners, day hikers, trail maintainers, trail angels, authors, outfitters, gear manufacturers, and it goes on... and on. Definitely check out the site, and the schedule of events!

We will also be looking forward to seeing Bark & Berry,(Joel & Cortney Leachman), who were Trail Chaplains for ATServants this past year. We had opportunity to be of some assistance to them when they got to Caratunk, then I had the honor of meeting them at the summit of Mt. Katahdin. It will be so nice to see them! Clay & Branch,(Craig & Suzy Miles), who founded the ATServants ministry, will also be there, and we will get to meet them, too!

And if that isn't enough excitement... we will (hopefully) get to visit Lumbermack & LabRat, (Mac & Kelly Spainhour), up in Nebo, an hour North of Damascus. I worked with Kelly several years back, for Cary, North Carolina, at a wastewater facility, where she is the LabRat... uhhh, Lab Manager. I hadn't seen or talked with her for all these years, but in reading the guestbook entries in Bark & Berry's Trail Journal, I came across an entry by LumberMack Spainhour. He mentioned his wife, Kelly, the LabRat, and I realized who they were. I never knew that they hiked, that Mac had completed the AT, or that Kelly had been up here in Maine, and has summited Mt. Katahdin three times! After contacting them, I found that they are in the process of starting up a new Christian Hikers Hostel in Nebo. We hope they are there for the weekend!

One more thing... Cari (Mrs Stickman) and I have been furiously trying to make up a bunch of ScriptureSticks to take down to Damascus. We intend to look for opportunities to "gift" them to folks we meet on this trip. We never intend to be annoying to folks, or overbearing in even the slightest way, in offering up a free ScriptureStick. We do look for the Lord's leading in our little ministry, and would appreciate your prayers, that his agenda takes the forefront, and not ours. Thanks so much!

I need to call it quits for the night, but couldn't wait to share with you all! Good night, and most certainly, God Bless you all.

Stickman

http://www.scripturesticks.com/

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