June 27, 1993

FOUND TENT

I had a pretty good night camping out near the Baptist Church in Hiawassee, GA even though I had to switch camping places in the middle of the night. I started the night camping out on a grassy knoll next to the church but it started to rain around midnight. My old tent wasn't that waterproof so I quickly packed up and moved to the church's car port. While I was moving things down to the car port in a groggy state, I sort of remembered that I quipped to Adonai half-heartedly that if He wanted me to be out here for very much longer He would have to make my tent more waterproof or the raindrops not so hard.

In the morning, I quickly got cleaned up and packed up before anybody showed up. I was glad that there was an early service because I wanted to get across Unicoi Gap and through the mountains as far as I could. Nothing much happened after the service and I got on the road heading south on GA 75 around 10:45 a.m.

It had nice being in Hiawassee again since it brought back memories of 1981. I had worked as a senior counselor at YMCA Camp Pioneer that had been about seven miles out of town. From what I had learned the camp had been closed about fifteen years ago and the land is now a camp for RV's. For most of that summer, I had taught backpacking and camp crafts and led groups on overnights on the section of the Appalachian Trail that ran behind the camp.

Near the intersection of GA 75 and GA 180 (where I would have turned off to the summer camp), I was sort of surprised at finding a good t-shirt in the ditch. What was more surprising was that nearby I found a tent in it's carrying bag. The tent was for backpacking and the bag was a little bigger than the one that I was carrying. It wasn't free-standing but it would work.

When I pulled everything out in the bag, I saw that everything was there including all of the poles and stakes. There was even a tent fly and a small bottle of seam sealer. When I saw that bottle of seam sealer, I was sort of shocked because I felt that this was Adonai's answer to my being out longer and to the question that I joked around with him not more than eleven hours ago. What got me was where the tent had come from. The Appalachian Trail and Unicoi Gap was still eight miles away.