Lutheran church’s hiking program connects members with outdoors

Everyone stood in a circle in the Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church parking lot, just off bustling Mill Plain Boulevard in Vancouver. They wore their Saturday finest: hiking boots, flannel and baseball caps. The morning was cool and overcast — ideal conditions for a moving Bible study in the Columbia River Gorge.

The Rev. Chris Manisto read from the book of Job: “But ask the animals and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky and they will tell you, or speak to the Earth and it will teach you or let the fish inform you. Which, of all these things, does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In His hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.”

The passage was meant to give the group something to contemplate while hiking Angel’s Rest Trail in Bridal Veil, Ore. The hike was the church’s second in a series called Faith on Foot. When Manisto thought about setting up a summer Bible study group, sitting inside during those precious few months of Pacific Northwest sunshine didn’t seem right. Church already involves a lot of sitting and listening.

Instead, she revived the Faith on Foot concept she previously used at a church in Minnesota. The premise: Be active and mindful while enjoying God’s creation with fellow church members.

“Let us pray,” Manisto said. “Holy God, as we embark on yet another adventure, let us notice. Let us remember who created it all. Let us pay attention. Give us space to feel the breeze on our faces, see the blue sky, see the birds and the trees and be mindful if only for a moment.”

Walking mindfully

Longtime church member Don Houck led the three-car caravan to the Angel’s Rest trailhead. The outdoorsman toted extra hiking poles and earmarked books about hikes near Portland. May’s hike was Dog Mountain off state Highway 14, a difficult first hike in less-than-perfect weather.

He imagines they’ll alternate between longer and shorter hikes. Manisto also leads walks in Vancouver, along the flat and paved Waterfront Renaissance Trail among others, for church members who can’t go hiking. While being in nature is important, so is being mindful.

Maybe, moments spent mindfully walking outside offer time to be calm and talk to God, or maybe not, she said.

Clean, flowing water is a theological sign of renewal, Manisto said. There are many references to nature in theology, and Lutherans believe in being stewards of God’s creation, she said. Texts say that man, or Adam, was formed from adamah, dust of the ground.

“We’re dirt people. We’re people of the earth,” Manisto said.

Nature has also been a source of rejuvenation and inspiration for Lutheran leaders, she said. In the mid-1980s, while staying at Holden Village, a remote Lutheran retreat in the Glacier Peak wilderness of northern Washington, Marty Haugen wrote a popular evening prayer that’s recited during Lent. There is no cellphone service, no direct roads to the village. It takes a ferry up Lake Chelan and a bus ride to get to the former mining town. The mission: “Welcome all people into the wilderness.”

People — of faith or not — often say they feel most at peace, or have spiritual experiences, in untouched wilderness. It’s a place where people can be away from everyday distractions and life’s busyness.

“When you are in creation, I think you also have a different sense of yourself as a human being,” Manisto said, referring to the awe people feel. “For so many people, it’s a calming place.”

As members of Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church trekked through the wilderness, conversations weaved in and out of varying topics. Health, work, travel, kids going to college.

When people reached the northern edge of the Angel’s Rest summit, with its plunging view into the forest and Gorge below, the talkative group got quiet. The silence was underscored by the rumblings coming from Interstate 84 and the railway below. Seconds later, the chatter resumed as people pulled out snacks and snapped photos.

Be mindful if only for a moment.