Hello Again,
Greetings to Everyone! I will try to continue to catch you all up on where
we are today. From our last blog post from Paw Paw , W.V. to West Virginia, we have completed MD. another state finished and a new one began. West Virginia so far has not been an easy task.
The steep mountains so far have been very trying on our knees. We have been told by the people whom are ahead of us that it only gets harder from now on. Please continue to pray for Gentle Fir's knees, as they have been swelling and have bee really feeling these steep climbs. God is merciful though, Praise God!
We have had an interesting few days....! Since Pilgrim's leaving the trail, we continued our walk into Fort Ashby. Here we stopped into a little cafe' and had some good hot food. We then continued on our journey up more steep climbs through Baker Holler. while we were walking we were stopped along the road by two women who were sent out in search for our family. These two ladies said, we were sent by my husbands uncle to find you and to have you over to his house. She continued to say he was a Mennonite preacher and wanted to talk to us. We were shocked that people were out looking for us and had been waiting on us to be walking through there part of W.V. , it is a small world. The one lady told us to continue on our walk and they would find us and tell us where to go. So we continued on our journey and were wondering what might become of this part of our trip. We now know that the one lady was Jill Dayton and her husband is Brian Dayton. We walked on through beautiful farm lands and curvy steep roads and then the Uncle whom was looking for us came and stopped us. Mr. Phillip Dayton, had heard of our coming and of our walk and had been waiting on us since Harpers Ferry. He said he would like us to come to his farm, True Vine. He went on to town and bought us a pizza, hot wings , juice, milk and breakfast stuff for morning. We met Brian Baker and Mrs. Jill found us near True Vine Farms and they helped us up the steep climb to Mr. Dayton's farm. Mr. Phillip's son Buckle helped us as well to get up the mountain. Thank you to all of them for their help.
We were able to pitch our tent in his tractor barn for the night and stay out of the rain that was coming. The next morning was Sunday and we said we would like to go to church with them. We were up very early around 3:00 AM due to a whipper whill calling in the same tractor barn as us. We soon find out that they are nearly extinct and this happens to be one of the birds nesting areas. So, we had the pleasure of sleeping together with one of these extremely loud calling birds all night. It was funny though to hear the stories about the noisy creatures. When Mr. Phillip woke up he brought us coffee and the keys to a vehicle and gave us directions to Pinto Mennonite Church and told us what time to be there for services and that we were invited to stay for lunch. Our family got cleaned up and had the scripture readings and took the Lord's Supper in the tractor barn and then off to church we went.
Pinto Mennonite Church is a very friendly, loving church. We were welcomed by everyone and treated like family. While there we were discussing the bad storms and flooding expected to be hitting and how to get to a hotel for safety and a family in the church asked us to hike to their home and stay with them. So, after a wonderful meal and fellowship with ALL of Mr. Phillip and Mrs. Nancy Dayton's family, we packed up and walked to the home of Lawrence and Judy Brenneman's.
The Lord has been protecting us this whole trip. The Brenneman's have a nice garage apartment and offered us to stay there to see what the weather was going to do. We walk to their home and Mr. Lawrence met us at the bottom of their steep drive way and offered to push one of our carts up his steep driveway. So, up we go again climbing these high hills. We had time to get settled in and refreshed before church again.
I do not believe in coincidence, but at the evening service they had a guest speaker who was sharing her testimony and as I listened to her speak, we had very similar testimonies. I feel that it had to be of the Lord that our paths crossed in this little town in W.V. This lady Rebecca Rust, had nearly the same testimony as myself and I was able to share and encourage her and to pray with her for her and her husbands mission. What a blessing. She and her husband have a trucking mission taking a tractor trailer church to truck stops. Please pray for their ministry called, Headlight in Trucking. After church we went shopping and the Brenneman family bought us groceries for our stay. While we were in the grocery store our check out girl happened to be the daughter of Kevin Howser, our last trail angel. It is truly a small world.
It was late when we all got home Sunday evening but Mrs. Judy fed us a great meal of grass fed sloppy joes from their farm and carrots and sun chips. We set up and fellowshipped into the early morning hours. God is amazing! Thank you to ALL of our trail angels in West Virginia so far. We are still at the Brenneman's home for now and watching the storms. When we are able to be back on our journey, we will be on a narrow, dangerously curvy, steep climbing road with no road shoulders , so please keep us in your constant prayers. We will be climbing and heading up into the Dolly Sods at over 4000 feet elevation so please pray for our knees.
I would like to Thank All of the Dayton family we met and to the Brennaman's for all of your hospitality and loving Christian fellowship. We have been truly blessed and continue to pray for God to direct our steps and to guide us where he wants us to go. God is so good to us.
Many Blessings and Prayers,
Backpacking Believers,
Gentle Fir
