Ask an Appalachian Trail thru-hiker heading north in the spring, “Where are you headed?”
They will invariably answer with a grin, “Katahdin!” The mountain is the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail.
First Baptist Church Blairsville, Georgia, is located on the opposite end of the 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail’s southern terminus at Springer Mountain, Georgia. The church is in a prime location to minister to the approximately 3,000 thru-hikers and many more day and section hikers who frequent the trail each year.
Hikers leave Springer Mountain between January and April, mostly in March, on a journey that takes five to six months to complete.
SIGN UP for our weekly Highlights emails.
The Blairsville church has two ministries serving the hiking community.
The senior adult Beacon Mission Team has been supporting an organization called the “Warrior Expeditions” since 2012.
The second is a new ministry organized by one of this year’s classes. Both efforts reflect and illustrate the need for more faith-based ministries along the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine.
Mike Baldwin, a member of FBC Blairsville, explained that the Warrior Expeditions ministry began when his late wife Pat, a former Navy nurse, was doing “trail magic,” feeding hikers at the Neel Gap trail crossing in 2012 with Georgia Mountain Ministries.
Trail magic can be anything to help hikers, from providing water or snacks to a full meal.
That year Pat met Sean Gobin, a recent Marine veteran, who had completed three combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Sean described that first Appalachian Trail hike as attempting “to walk the war out of his system” before continuing his college education on the graduate level.
The following year, wanting to help other returning veterans, Sean began Warrior Expeditions.
It sponsors 20 hikers, two groups of ten, each year on the trail as well as a multi-state bike experience and a Mississippi River paddling trip for returning veterans.
The nonprofit, which is supported by the Marine Corps and other organizations, provides equipment and support for hikers during their long journeys.
Mike said in 2013, “Sean called Pat and said, ‘Can you feed us again this year? This is when I’m coming through.’ She got the Beacon Team, and they started feeding and ministering to them.”
Baldwin said they didn’t go looking for this ministry, “God brought it right to us.”
Fourteen years later, they continue to host and feed two groups of veterans and their support team on successive weekends in March. The hikers have a “zero day” scheduled in the area, and the Beacon Team feeds them both days before sending them on their way. A zero day on the Appalachian Trail is a day when a hiker travels zero miles, typically spent resting, resupplying and recovering.
The ministry provides food for both body and soul for these veterans who are readjusting to civilian life.
Full story.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Charles Jones and originally published by the Christian Index.
