Mountaintops and Winding Paths

 

Day Seven

After a devotional by Allan we disembarked at the base of Loon Mountain.  The plan was to ride the gondolas up to the top for a Sunday service. The weather had other ideas.  A misty rain and heavy fog eliminated any hope of an outdoor service but we still had time for our gondola rides up and down, so that’s what we did. Visibility was not conducive to scenic views of any kind but we had fun anyway and I let my imagination tell me how beautiful it surely was out there beyond the fog.  It was an eerie feeling in the gondola, just Paul and I, and I rather hoped we wouldn’t come to a stop along the way and be left dangling in the very small four-seater.  We did actually stop for about a minute which gave me pause and I told Paul I’m pretty sure I could make the drop okay if I was forced to leave the slightly swaying vehicle to hike on down.  He was less optimistic about our chances and sure he’d break a hip if he tried it.  Yes, we’ve come to that – worrying about our hips.

At one point there was a break in the trees and I saw a gurney with something body-sized wrapped in orange lying on it, secured with multiple straps. The dense fog filtering through the trees in the grey morning light created a perfect backdrop for something from the mind of Stephen King.  Helen asked Google about missing or dead people on Loon Mountain and found one possible match.  Human remains had recently been found from several decades back so we did speculate about the possibilities.

After we were all off the mountain we met with the Loon Mountain Ministry group at a local thrift and coffee shop that they manage and that’s where we had church.  They asked if our group would sing a song for them so we did.  Considering we had no practice at all we didn’t flub it up too much.  We sang one verse of Gott Ist Die Liebe in German and then followed with the English version, For God So Loved Us.  The pastor, a youngish (at least compared to us) man with great enthusiasm for the Lord, had tears running down his face as he thanked us and made us feel very welcome.

During the sermon the pastor asked if anyone had read the book Hiking Through. Quiet laughter scattered through our group because Paul Stutzman, the author of the book, is a cousin to many of the people traveling on our bus and his sister is also with us.  Today’s sermon addressed some of the same life issues that Paul wrote about in his book: our path, even as believers, is filled with twists and turns as life throws us unexpected challenges. It was so encouraging to be reminded that there are many people all around the world with whom we can instantly connect through a shared faith and the spirit of kinship.

We had a “picnic” lunch in the community room at our condos since the constant rain and mist made eating outside unappealing.  The rest of the day we relaxed, napped, visited, sang, ate popcorn and in the evening had pizza for supper before heading to our rooms and our beds.