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On the Mountain, 'You Can Feel So Small'
By Stan Friedman
MOUNT VERNON, WA (August 8, 2005) - God dictated the Ten Commandments to Moses
on a mountain, God was said to reside on a mountain, and Jesus was
transfigured before the eyes of Peter, James and John on a mountain. It
is no wonder, then, that the members of Bethany Covenant Church - which
is located in a community with "Mount" as part of its name - would hope
to find God on a mountain.
For the past two years, members have trekked up mountains in the area.
Though they don't expect to receive any new commandments or see anyone
transfigured, they hope their hikes will lead to a new experience with God.
Jeff Whidden began leading the trips up mountain paths because he
believed it would be a way for people to draw closer to God and to each
other as they shared their experiences. "You can feel so small when it's
so vast out there," Whidden says. "It puts things in perspective."
Children as young as six years of age have participated in the hikes,
depending on the degree of difficulty, Whidden says. A three-day trip
this week to Pyramid Mountain will include setting up a base camp and
hiking a trail to the 8,000-foot summit.
The seeds of the idea were planted when Whidden was 13 years old. He
traveled with a group as part of a loosely knit program among area
churches called North Pacific Trails. "I got hooked," he says. "Since we
live near the mountains, it just made sense to start up something like
that for our church," Whidden says. Traveling to the mountains takes no
more than several hours.
In June, the church conducted a "Friday Night in the Mountains" event,
which is an evening hike. The first was up Sauk Mountain and a second is
scheduled for Rainbow Ridge this month. The evening hikes work well
because it is not as crowded as during the day. "When you get there,
everybody else is gone," Whidden says.
Whidden has years of experience leading groups, having been a guide
starting in the 1980s. "This is what I do for my own personal well-being
and hobby." Often people will say they would like to travel to the
mountains, but they never do, Whidden observes. The hiking events help
change that. "What I'm finding is a lot of people will put it down on
the calendar rather than just saying 'we ought to go sometime.'"
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
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