Craig and Suzy Miles’ mission field is located amongst the pines and hardwoods of the Appalachian Mountains. They share it with hikers, the occasional black bear, snakes and other creepy-crawly things better left alone. The Christian couple witnesses to people with funny names like “Chicken Wing,” “Kentucky Fried” and “Rabbit’s Foot.”
North American Mission Board missionaries Suzy and Craig Miles take a break from their Appalachian Trail ministry at a rock outcropping at McAfee Knob, between Roanoke and Cave Spring, Va.For three years now, the Mileses – as Mission Service Corps missionaries for the North American Mission Board – have operated Appalachian Trail Servants, a missions organization dedicated to sharing Christ with hikers along the famous Appalachian Trail.
The Appalachian Trail is a marked, yard-wide footpath winding 2,175 miles through the Appalachian Mountains from Springer Mountain in north Georgia to Mount Katahdin in central Maine. Conceived in 1921 and completed in 1937, it passes through 14 states. More than 4 million people hike some part of the trail each year, and another 2,000 “thru-hikers” attempt to go the entire distance.
A native of Stone Mountain, Ga., Miles, 39, had already earned a degree in economics at the University of Georgia and seminary master’s degrees in divinity and philosophy when he met Suzy, 23, from Dahlonega, Ga. Suzy had been the hiker in her family and shortly after, the couple and her family began hiking almost every weekend in the North Georgia mountains.
At the time he met Suzy, Miles was working in information technology for a regional bank but believed he had a higher calling. One morning on the way to work, he stopped by his Baptist church and prayed a simple prayer: “Lord, how can you use our time and talents for your glory?” God was about to answer his prayer.
“Right after I prayed that prayer, I spotted a missionary magazine on a table next to me,” Miles said. “On the cover was a story about extreme hiking in China. It just clicked in my head that we needed to start a ministry on the Appalachian Trail. Suzy and I were seeing hundreds of hikers pass over the roads and trails and through the woods of north Georgia, but we knew their spiritual needs were not being met.”
Miles and Suzy married, and more than three years later, their home and ministry are based in Cleveland, Ga., about 15 miles off the Appalachian Trail and 70 miles north of Atlanta. They don’t have any children yet. “That would add weight to our backpacks,” he joked.
Hikers are a subculture, Miles said, and most of them use trail names rather than their own. The Mileses are no different. His trail name is Clay, taken from Romans 9:21, which describes God as the potter molding the clay. Suzy’s is Branch, which comes from John 15:5 where Jesus refers to himself as the vine and believers as branches.
Whether simply hiking on a crisp autumn weekend or thru-hiking the entire Appalachian Trail, the sport is not for the faint-of-heart. Backpacks containing tents, sleeping bags, food, clothes, first-aid and water purification equipment can weigh 35 pounds or more.
“Thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail takes a tremendous commitment of time and resources,” Miles said. “And the hardest part is not the physical aspect but the mental. Within the first 30 miles, 20 percent drop out. By North Carolina, 50 percent have dropped out. By West Virginia, 75 percent have quit. Only 15 percent of those who start in Georgia make it to the peak of Mount Katahdin in Maine.”
The physical strain is tough on even experienced hikers like the Mileses, who earlier this year hiked as thru-hikers for three months and 1,000 miles.
Miles said most thru-hikers are people who have recently undergone a major transition in life. Maybe they’ve just graduated from college, retired, recently divorced or lost a loved one. For whatever reason, they’re open and searching for something, which takes them to the trail.
The purpose of A.T. Servants is to reach both thru-hikers and short-term hikers for Christ. Miles’ organization consists of dozens of volunteer “Trail Angels,” who minister to hikers by distributing Bibles, snacks, bottled water and first-aid at designated points along the way, usually where trail gaps and roads intersect.
Missionaries Craig and Suzy Miles run Appalachian Trail Servants, a Christian ministry that reaches out to hikers along the 2,175-mile-long Appalachian Trail.Separately, “Trail Chaplains” – like the Mileses and others – actually accompany hikers along the trail, sharing their faith and winning over hikers via personal witnessing and a strong Christian example. Last year, the couple supervised 122 A.T. Servant volunteers and assisted almost 700 hikers.
“Clay” and “Branch” love to tell the story about how “Chicken Wing” eventually accepted Jesus Christ on the trail after repeated attempts.
“The first time I saw this guy, Chicken Wing, he had a scowl on his face – he didn’t look happy,” Miles said. “He didn’t respond. I saw him again a few weeks later in North Carolina, and he was a little more open this time. Then we got split up on the trail again.
“Later, we ran into Chicken Wing’s trail partner, ‘Kentucky Fried.’ I told him to tell Chicken Wing that we’d see him in Virginia. By the time we got to Virginia, the same Chicken Wing who was cold, distant and hardhearted in Georgia, was receptive. And with tears running down his face, he finally accepted Christ,” Miles said.
The Mileses said they gleaned several spiritual lessons from their three-month experience on the Appalachian Trail.
“The No. 1 life-changing lesson we learned from trail life was that in both your words and works, you have to be consistent,” he said. “You have to keep a clean heart. On the trail, we lived with hikers – non-Christians, drug-users, dope-smokers – day-in and day-out. Our lives and marriage were under a microscope. Hikers saw us in all of trail life. Our job was to be clean in every aspect of life and to be obedient to God’s lead.”
Second, the Mileses learned that man’s schedule is not God’s schedule, and that he can use life’s little disruptions and distractions for his work and will. At one point, Suzy suffered a painful hip injury that forced them to slow down. But their delay enabled them to minister to a college-age group of hikers who later caught up with them.
“We also learned there are always service opportunities and to act on them,” Miles said. “On the trail, always offer to help get other hikers’ water first, or give away your shelter space, or offer some of your good food. People will take notice of your unselfish acts and ask, ‘Why are you being so kind?'”
Miles believes God gives Christians divine appointments, and they should expect them and take advantage of them.
“We prayed for and expected a daily divine appointment during which we might be able to share our testimonies, answer difficult theological questions, provide counsel or share the gospel,” he said.
Miles said it’s surprising how suddenly open and honest hikers – who start off as strangers – can become with each other after days on the trail, ready to discuss the most personal and spiritual issues.
“We do really make a difference in people’s lives,” he said. “Many hikers use e-mail, so we’re able to stay in communication with them long after their hike has ended. We get feedback all the time on how a hiker’s experience with the angels and chaplains has changed their lives.
“During the three months we lived on the Appalachian Trail, we saw God at work daily in our lives and in the lives of those around us,” he added.