Appalachian Trail Servants

Since the outset of Craig and Suzy Miles' marriage, they have been praying that God would use their time and talents for ministry. One morning prior to going to work, Craig went to church to pray. While praying, an article entitled "X-treme Hikers in China", in a missions magazine called The Commission, caught Craig's eye. This article was literally an answer to their prayers. Similar to the hiker missionaries in this article, they believe that they are called to be full-time missionaries on the Appalachian Trail.

Since that day, they have diligently worked on molding the vision that God gave to them--a ministry called A.T. Servants.

Craig has a passion for church growth, evangelism, apologetics, logic, and hiking. Suzy enjoys apologetics, music, hiking, and making hiking equipment. Their qualifications, passions, and gifts are listed below.

Suzy’s education and vita

Suzy attended high school in Dahlonega, Georgia. Here, Suzy was selected to be in Who’s Who of American High School Students, she was the editor of her school newspaper, and she was a leader in her high school band. Suzy has been playing trumpet, and other members of that family of instruments, for 10 years. While still in high school, she began classes at North Georgia College and State University in the year 2000 majoring in music education. While living in Dahlonega, Suzy was a youth group leader at New Day Worship Center (2001-2002). She also taught a coffee house Bible study group during that time. She attended Auburn University in Montgomery in 2003 and she intends to finish her undergraduate degree at Truett-McConnell. She has been interested in backpacking and camping for a number of years and she even introduced hiking to both Craig and her immediate family. Suzy loves reading, making web pages, and making hiking gear for Craig and herself.

Craig’s education (BA, M.Div., M.A.) and vita

Prior to graduating college, Craig went on a three-month missions project on the beaches of California with Campus Crusade for Christ. After receiving a B.A. from the University of Georgia in economics (1990), Craig went to the Church Dynamics Institute in California to learn about church growth. In 1993, Craig decided to attend Luther Rice Seminary. During his seminary years, Craig joined several professional organizations such as the Evangelical Theological Society, the Evangelical Philosophical Society, Evangelical Ministries to New Religions, and the Atlanta Christian Apologetics Project. He was selected to be in Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities in 1997 and, that same year, Luther Rice Seminary hired him to grade logic and to teach a philosophy class. Wanting to learn more about apologetics and philosophy, Craig attended Texas A&M (1998)—-a top-five MA program in philosophy. Here Craig learned about philosophical theology, philosophy of religion, and logic. He taught logic to 90-120 students per semester and he wrote his thesis on “God’s Relationship to Time” during this period (2000). While at Texas A&M he joined professional organizations such as the Society of Christian Philosophers, the Society of Biblical Literature, and the American Academy of Religion. Having gone to school with the intent to become a seminary professor, Craig originally purposed to go on to pursue a Ph.D. in either philosophy or theology. However, Craig was burnt out from school and he decided to go to work to pay off his school debt. So, instead, he moved to Gainesville, Georgia where he worked for Regions Bank. It was at this time that he became acquainted with Suzy and her family. Because of Suzy and her family, Craig became interested in backpacking. He spent almost every weekend and even some weeknights traversing trails in the North Georgia Mountains with Suzy and her family. In 2002, Regions Bank moved Craig to Montgomery, Alabama as a Policy and Procedure Help Desk Agent (2002-2003) and he was eventually promoted as a First-level Computer Help Desk Agent (2003). He missed Suzy during this time. So, on December 28 of 2002, he married his wife, best friend, and hiking partner, Suzy. It was soon after marrying Suzy that God put the vision about doing ministry on the Appalachian Trail on their hearts.