AT 87 - 21st June (1139.3)

What does the 21st of June mean to you. Maybe summer solstice?

Well on the AT it is hike naked day. 

My kids are now shouting at the screen, “NO DAD NO!!!”

You just have to do the AT traditions. 

Well I acted my age for once and didn’t actually get completely naked. But I joined as best I could. (See photo)

Maybe I should put a 18+ rating on the image, scroll down at your own risk. 

There are a number of problems with hiking naked:-

At 6am it rather cold. 

You are not like a kangaroo with a pouch so you have nowhere to store your phone. 

The rucksack straps are really rough on skin. 

When you walk into town you could be arrested. (I dressed before town). 

Over all it was fun, I couldn’t let the young ones have all the fun. 

It was a very flat walking day, through woods and farmland, with one climb at the end. It is forecast to fe rain tonight so I was hoping to stay in the Darlington shelter but as I arrived Flick and Lego were leaving. They warned me of a very strange guy at the shelter. Mentally disturbed and talking about violence, enough to scare my two friends. Change of plan and we headed down hill to a tent spot. If it rains then wet tent in the morning but I’ve booked a bed in Duncannon for tomorrow so I can dry out. 

I had Swim #18 in a big river which was nice to cool down. 

A breakfast fit for a king. 

Swim #18

The original central point 

Pretending to be naked 

Thought for the day. 

I’m not sure if you can take me seriously after the shenanigans above. 

As I walked past grain fields today and I thought of the parable of the sower. 

 Mark 4:14-20

[14] The sower sows the word. [15] And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. [16] And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. [17] And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. [18] And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, [19] but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. [20] But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”

I’m wondering what type of ground your heart is. 

I saw hard ground and rocky ground on the path I walked. 

I saw weeds suffocating the grain. 

I saw some heads with lots of new grains and some with few. 

Jesus said that he came to give life and life to the full. 

John 10:10

[10] The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

If you’re not bearing much fruit then ask Jesus to tend you heart and prepare the soil for good growth. 

30, 60 and 100 times

Hard path and stones ground

And some the weeds strangled the grain.