"I am a voice shouting in the wilderness, Clear the way for the LORD's coming!'"



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Tuesday, August 24, 2010

West Union to Cairo WV

Cairo, WV

We spent two nights in West Union with Paul and Sharon. They are a lovely couple that are what long distance hikers like to call "trail angels". They take in ADT hikers and feed them yummy homemade food and give them a nice bed to sleep in. Paul and Sharon have taken in over 30 hikers over the last few years. They see it as their ministry to help people in that way. I know we greatly appreciated getting out of the heat for a couple days. The fact that Sharon was a fabulous cook did not hurt either! The day Sharon picked us up we only did about 4 or 5 miles and thought well if she is going to pick us up we will just sit here and wait on her. She picked us up around 3 on wednesday and took us back to her house and we met her husband Paul, "Tall Paul". When he introduced himself I had to look way up at him and I said nice to meet you, you're tall!! He said thanks, you're young! Haha! Sharon showed us to our room and when we got there I saw a bunch of stuffed kitty cats on the bed. She said she read how I Love KITTIES and that was all the kitties she had! I thought that was adorable and so thoughtful. That night for dinner we had roasted pork tenderloin, green beans, sweet potato caserole, mashed taters and gravy, homemade biscuits, handmade apple sauce, and salad. It was quite a feast! After dinner we went to the Doddridge County Fair to watch the talent show. It was very American!! Everything you would expect from a county fair! The next morning Sharon dropped us off on the trail to walk and she was going to pick us up 10 miles down the road. However as Jeff and I were walking through the town of West Union we thought it was a cute little old town and we wanted to check out some of the old buildings and houses, as well as finish typing our blog. Also, perhaps we would get a chance to minister to someone. So we got off the trail and roamed around town a while. After seeing the town and stocking up on food at the grocery store we walked down the trail a litle ways so we could walk through one of the tunnels. Sharon called shortly after and I told her she was not going to have to drive very far because we had just left West Union. We spent another evening with Paul and Sharon having dinner, telling some of our experiences and going to the fair again. It was fun and the bed was such a blessing! The next morning Sharon took us a few miles down the trail and we started walking. It was not the best morning for me because my womanhood had come for it's monthly haunting and was really hurting. We walked about 3 or 4 miles while I was crying and moaning and then Jeff said, "hunny, we don't have to walk." I was just thinking that not walking was not going to keep it from hurting so why stop. However as I thought a little bit more, stopping sounded great and so we got out the footprint to the tent and I fell down. I had a salon-pas hot patch and asked Jeff to put it on my lower back hoping it would help with the pain. I fell asleep for a while and woke up with my back on fire because of the main ingredient in the patch, capsicum extract, which I later found out is cayenne pepper. Wow was it hot! My pain was nearly gone though, so I highly recommend it to anyone with aches and pain. It can be found in most drugstores and is only a couple dollars. Feeling well now,we walked a few more miles. We got a couple miles outside of Pennsboro and put our tent up in a wide spot on the rail trail. The next day we actually did 10 miles for the first time in a long time. We made in all the way to a quaint little town called Cairo, WV. When we got to town we saw a bike shop with a huge ADT marker on it so we went in to meet the woman who owned the shop. Turns out she is the West Virginia Coordinator for the American Discovery Trail and she said she did not know about us. I guess they have not put us on the main page of the ADT website yet. She said she would put us up there and she gave us some ADT stickers and rail trail medallions. I thought I saw something on her sign about icecream and she said we should go across the street to "The Scoop" for icecream. So we took her advice and headed that way.
We got there and were greeted by the nice gentleman who owned the shop, Mr. Benson, and his 12 year old son, mr. Benson. We told him what we were doing and he said he would definitely check out our blog. He asked if we would like to eat some breakfast in the morning. We said sure. He gave us his card and told us he was a minister of the celtic apostalic church. At that point he had peaked my interest a little more so I was very exited about meeting with him and his wife the next morning. We told them to stop my our humble abode that evening if they could. Cairo had a nice little covered picnic area to pop our tent under and it was right in front of The Benson's house. Jeff and I got in the tent pretty early because it was raining and there was not much in Cairo to look at. We decided to read the book of Galatians and then started on James when we heard a loud drone and then a merry little irish tune being played on bagpipes. We knew it had to be the Benson's and we climbed out of the tent to see. It was their middle son Noble playing away. When he finished we clapped and yelled encore so he played us another. In a little while longer we saw Mr. and Mrs. Benson walking our way. We all sat at the picnic table and got to know each other a little bit and got a little history lesson from Mr. Benson, well actually he is Dr. Benson and he is quite the historian. So after talking and the Benson's maybe dedcided we we not creepy serial killers, he said maybe we should just meet for breakfast at the shop, and then we could have a bible study. We thought that was a grand idea so we agreed on a time and had a goddnight prayer and went to bed. I did not sleep a wink though because after the rain in was humid and muggy out and I had a couple days layers of sweat and grime on me. However when I finally got out of bed in the morning I felt good and energized and ready for our fellowship with the Benson's. We headed to the Scoop and helped with putting out all the chairs and tables and sat around while Mrs. Benson made breakfast. She is actually a chef so she did not need much help. I got the impression that she was a professional so I went out front and sipped coffee while she cooked away. While talking over a delicious breakfast I mentioned to the Benson's that I had a knot in my kneck and an occasional pain in my lower back and how I had been praying for a chiropracter to cross paths with us. He said well, we go see a wonderful chiropracter on Tuesday evening and he is in Parkerburg. So he proposed that we stay in Cairo for a couple days and sleep over at their friend's house who have more room for guests and they would drive us to Parkersburg on tuesdays and also hook us up with a church in town at which we could camp. Once again God has answered my prayers. Oh how he loves us so! I am so grateful for his love even though we do not deserve it.
So we have been here in Cairo for 3 nights and 2 days and have thouroughly enjoyed our time so far. We got a chance to share our testimony with both the families we have been with. They both said it has come at a perfect time because they too are experiencing a time in their life where their faith is really being strengthened but gets hard at times. Both families moved here because the holy spirit led them here and they feel very isolated because there are not many here who are following the way of Christ. It is neat to see that God has moved two mature Christian families to this little town of 200 people in West Virginia. It will be great to check back in a few months and see what God has done with them in this town. They have both been such a wonderful blessing to us as well. Jeff and I have had some nice talks with both families and have had some good time for reflecting on our journey.
While reflecting on our journey I think we have recieved some revelation on why our journey is happening the way it is. Before we left the spirit put on my heart very often to pray that our journey would be to edify the church. Last night after telling the Bastian family our testimony and sharing some of our thoughts, Mr. Bastian said some good words and Jeff felt it was God talking through him. He said we were doing "Kingdom work". When he said that I immediately thought of the scripture in Matt. "But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." After he was finished speaking he said that verse. He is so right about what he said. So many people today are getting caught up in end time prophecies that they forget there is still so much work to be done. Christ will not come back for anything less than a perfect bride and the bride does not seem perfect yet to me. So many christians today are well fed from going to church and listening to the message of salvation but they have been fattened up so much they have become lazy and are not doing kingdom work. The harvest is plenty but the workers are few. ATTENTION CHILD OF GOD: IF YOU ARE NOT WORKING TO FURTHER THE KINGDOM ASK YOURSELF, WHY NOT? IF YOU ARE, GOOD JOB, KEEP FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT!!!

~ Kristin


Well Kristin has pretty much said it all. So I have only this one small thought provoking question to add. If all these signs and wonders we have been seeing across the world really are warnings of the return of the Messiah, as believers, how does that effect you? Does it change what you are to be doing here on earth? Does it change the way you think about God?

~Jeff

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