A.T. Servants Idea is

One Year Old

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Please pray 

for us!

Here are some specific needs:

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Praise God that Craig is able to work full time for Appalachian Trail Servants and praise God that Suzy is working at full-time, corporate job! Please pray that God provides our full-time financial support.  Pray that Suzy can work with A.T. Servants full time.

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Begin praying that God will raise up volunteers for the 2005 season.  Last season we had volunteers in Georgia and Virginia.  Next season, we hope to have consistent Trail Angels in Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee,  Virginia, and Maryland!  More volunteers means that more hikers are helped in the name of Christ. 

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 Pray that the deeds of Trail Angels will be seen by thru-hikers as the good deeds of the church and Christians and not the individual Trail Angel.

August of 2004, marked one year birthday for the idea to do ministry on the Appalachian Trail.  A lot has happened in one year.  

July 2003: Living in Alabama, Craig prayed that God would use the time and talent of he and Suzy for God's glory.  The prayer was answered immediately with a call to service on the Appalachian Trail.

August 2003: Craig and Suzy labored during the month of August writing a 51-page plan of ministry. (see Chapter 1: Demographics of Hikers, Chapter 2: Method of Ministry)

September 2003:  In hopes of becoming Mission Service Corps (MSC) missionaries, the plan of ministry was sent to the North American Mission Board for approval.  

October 2003: Suzy attended an Appalachian Regional Ministry Summit Conference and met a number of life-long co-laborers.  

November 2003: Craig was placed as a MSC missionary.  An announcement letter was sent to about one hundred family and friends and ten Baptist state conventions with the great news.  It was also during this time that our interactive web page began to take form.

December 2003: Suzy was placed as a semester missionary.  Craig accepted another job with Regions Bank in Gainesville, Georgia.  

January 2004: Craig and Suzy moved to Cleveland, Georgia to live in a basement apartment near Mount Yonah..

February and March 2004: We contacted 2 Associational Missionaries who oversee 32 associations, 9 Directors of Missions who oversee about 400 churches, sent letters to 47 churches in Georgia, spoke at 5 churches and 2 Pastors Conferences, attended 2 Executive Meetings and spoke at 1, spoke at 2 colleges and about 300 students, were interviewed for a documentary on the Discovery Channel about the Appalachian Trail, were featured in two articles (since December), procured a truckload of food and drinks from the Chattahoochee Association, assisted 108 hikers in Georgia, worked with over 20 volunteers from 6 different groups, and held down a full-time secular job.  During this month, we also visited Directors of Missions in Tennessee and began planning and training so that churches there can serve hikers in 2005.

April 2004: Suzy spoke at a Women on Mission and Women's Missionary Union meeting.  5 groups helped hikers this month and we went on 3 speaking engagements.  We also spent a week learning how to be missionaries and how to raise funds for God's work at a North American Mission Board Training School.  The Chattahoochee Baptist Association provided a truck load of water during this month.

May 2004: Craig and Suzy spoke at the Watauga Association in Tennessee and attended Trail Days in Damascus, VA--the largest of hiker events.   With the help of 43 volunteers, we helped a total of 164 hikers in Georgia.  In Virginia, First Baptist of Damascus helped about 300 hikers!  All together, about 450 hikers along the Appalachian Trail were shown Christ's love through the Church!  Furthermore, 17 of these hikers were helped at least twice along the way.

June 2004: Craig was ordained.  

July 2004: A.T. Servants officially became incorporated as Appalachian Trail Servants, Inc.  

August 2004: A.T. Servants applied to be a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization with the Internal Revenue Service.  Craig also left his job at Regions Bank after four years of service.  Craig and Suzy took this step of faith so that he could work full-time for A.T. Servants.

As A.T. Servants begins to grow, we look forward to the challenges ahead.  Listed below are some anticipated big events that will be taking place in the future:

1) Appalachian Trail Servants, Inc. may become a non-profit corporation in late 2004.

2) We will send out our first Trail Chaplain in March 2005.

3) We will gain our first corporate sponsor (in-kind).

4) We will obtain a R.V. so that we can train churches and help hikers more effectively.

Your prayers, encouragement, and your financial support make the difference in this venture. 

When Craig and Suzy moved to Cleveland, Georgia at the beginning of 2004, Suzy performed ministry duties full-time and Craig worked at a secular job at a bank full-time.  After much prayer and planning, now Craig is working full-time for A.T. Servants and Suzy is working full-time at Craig's previous job.  Our next goal is to raise enough financial support to support both Craig, Suzy, and the ministry full-time.  In this way, both of our talents will be utilized and we will be able to travel and spend more time in each of the 14 states that host that A.T.. As we spend more time in each state, we will be able to train them and they will begin to plug into the possibilities of showing this unreached people group a new life in Christ.