a restful (and eventful) sabbath

Chepachet, RI

We met quite a few people over the weekend. There was the woman who shouted us to a stop on the street, asking what we were doing. She was very impressed by the freedom of our walk, and wondered if we had the means to support it, or if we were just "fooling ourselves." Heather replied, "I guess you could say we're sponsored by God." And when she explained that various people along the way helped us just when we needed it, the woman promptly decided to offer us $20. We hesitated, because she seemed that she didn't have a lot of extra money, but she insisted. In the short conversation that followed, she admitted she had a problem with alcohol. But I couldn't help but be impressed by her willingness to sacrifice for a couple strangers she met on the street.

We slept outside a church that night and met many people at the service the next morning. The reading was the story of the good Samaritan, and I thought the preaching was pretty good. The pastor spoke of the difficulties of dealing with the many requests for help from strangers, but emphasized that the parable challenges the kind of self-protective analyzing that the priest and Levite demonstrated, and urges self-forgetful love towards the needy stranger. Good words. But, while the many we met after the service were polite and approved of what we are doing, none reached out to us beyond that. A few people even knew we were sleeping on the pavement at night. I left the church feeling that the woman we met on the street the night before understood the story of the good Samaritan better than those who had just heard it preached (or preached it) in church.

God cared for us very well the rest of the day, though. Someone had told us there was a gorge nearby, and we had decided to take the day off, so we spent the afternoon at Blackstone Gorge. Very beautiful. Trails through unspoiled woods along the whitewater rapids, with rock cliffs rising up at points. We found a quiet shady spot and didn't see anyone else all afternoon. Washed ourselves in the river. It was just what we needed after four days on the road.

Then we went to a different church that evening. The singing was exuberant, but the narrowness and arrogance of the preaching made me cringe. Afterwards, though, Danny and Danell Paniss invited us home for dinner, and we spent the night with their family (four kids and a foster child). Unlike their preacher, they were very humble and made us feel right at home. We talked much about our backgrounds and the reasons for our walk. Heather thought it may have been good for them to hear of Christians outside their narrow denominational community who take their faith seriously and live in a way that they find inspiring. We certainly felt loved by them. Despite my repeated discouraging experiences in churches, I'm frequently surprised and impressed by a few of the people I meet there.