Sun. Oct. 2     No miles today     Zero Day in Etna

I woke up this morning at 6:10 am–exactly when we’ve been getting up while on the trail!  The first thing I did was go outside and look up at the mountains.  They were still covered with dark clouds.  Over Etna, there were some patches of clear sky.  Bill and I enjoyed a big breakfast of bagels and English muffins, then neatly loaded and stowed our packs out of the way and headed for church, which was just down the street.

Our first stop was Sunday School (in case you’re not a churchgoer reading this, yes, Sunday School is not just for kids.  It’s for everybody!).  The teacher had a very interesting topic based on some Bible verses in Ephesians and Hebrews on how if somebody hurts you and you refuse to forgive them,  and instead allow a “root of bitterness” to grow in your heart, not only will it ruin YOU, but it will mess up everyone around you, since bitterness has a “spillover” effect.  Then it was time for church, and we were very pleased to see that the FIRST thing they did in their meeting was to pray for some missionaries they help support in Romania.  It was a Berean church, which means they are really into the Bible and missions.  Even though Etna is a small country town, this church has many members who have personally gone overseas to help with missions.  And–they have a large Awana Club!!  It was wonderful to see the AwanaGames circle painted on the fellowship hall floor!  And I felt a bit bad when during the announcements, they mentioned, “We REALLY need some more ladies to be leaders with the 5th and 6th grade girls.”  That’s one of the groups I work with in the Awana club back home, and it has already started–and I am not there to lead my group.  We thought we’d be done with the PCT in time, but here we still are, trekking north.

After church we had several invitations to lunch, and ended up going with an older couple who also had lots of other people–mostly teens and kids–come over, too.  It was a housefull!  And fun!  We were having a great time when a look outside made my heart sink.  The wind and rain were back with a vengeance, and when I stepped outside to see how cold it was–brrrr.  It was really nasty.  A check of the weather report confirmed that rain, cold and wind would continue tomorrow, but the sun would return on Tuesday. 

So we decided not to try to hike on tomorrow, but wait one more day.  And we wondered, “Lord, why?  Why this delay right now?”  We have finally learned on this hike to not make a fuss about delays–God is always up to something if He allows them to happen.  We did find out one reason from the locals in Etna –the forest fire in the Marble Mountains just north of Etna.  All that smoke we’d been smelling for the last few days apparently had its origin not to the south as I’d thought, but to the north, in the Marbles, and guess what?  The PCT goes right through there.  So maybe one reason for the storm was to put out the fire??

Tonight we are in the Alderwood HOUSE instead of the Hiker Hut, and the Harrisons gave us a greatly reduced rate since the Hut was not available.  Mr. Harrison has offered to drive us back to the PCT anytime we are ready.  So we are very grateful and very blessed!