On the Mountain, 'You Can Feel So Small'

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.'"

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