A Journey of the Heart
Tom Kildea is pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Succasunna, New Jersey. He’s been to Mountain T.O.P. five times, and he’s delighted to have shared the experience with his wife, Janice, and his kids: Amani, James, and Jenny. He would love to share it with his dog, Henry, if he could.
When I arrived at Redeemer in 2001, a newly minted associate pastor, I was asked if I wanted to accompany the youth on a trip to Tennessee. I was young and up for just about anything, so I said, "Sure!" Within weeks of my ordination, I was in a van with a bunch of kids and a few brave adults, making the long trek from suburban New Jersey to goodness-knows-where in Tennessee. It was the first of several trips "up the mountain."
Redeemer's history with Mountain T.O.P. goes back decades before my arrival. Since the 1980s, this church has sent groups of young people and adults up the mountain every three years or so. Many have participated, and though they have moved on in many ways, I have no doubt that their time on the mountain stays with them. Mountain T.O.P. lives in their hearts.
"What is Mountain T.O.P.?" newer folks may ask. The quick answer is that we serve people living in poverty in rural Appalachia by helping with home projects: painting, clearing brush, building wheelchair ramps and sheds.
But if that were all there was to it, one might ask, and rightly so, "Why go all the way to Tennessee? Surely there are people in need right here at home!"
There is much more to it. Mountain T.O.P. isn't just a service project. I think of it as a faith expedition, a journey. Our faith stories often speak of journeys, of leaving the known and comfortable and heading into the unknown. Like Abraham, we answer God's call to go "to a land that I will show you" (Genesis 12). We leave home, our routines, and our usual selves behind, and on the way we become more open to God and to one another.
The "land" we mountain toppers find is an intentional Christian community, an intergenerational summer camp. There is plenty of the usual campy fun, but instead of boating and archery, our days take us out into the community, into hard work and sometimes challenging situations. Each morning we leave our pleasant base camp and head down to the valley below.
We never do this work alone. We go as a community, in groups that feel awkward on Sunday and like family by week's end. We work hard, we practice love, and somewhere along the way we encounter Christ, in the people we meet and in each other.
Yes, some of the tasks are hard and disagreeable. (Think of the hours we spent this past summer digging post holes around enormous rocks!) And yet our challenges turn out to be light burdens. To our surprise, quiet prayer becomes something we look forward to. Our teens, usually less-than-enthused about "going to church," come gladly to evening worship, attentive and open. Those who make this journey find others just like them, and together they discover, once again, a God who accepts them as they are and invites them deeper.
Mountain T.O.P. is no mere service project. It is a faith journey, a journey of the heart. I am so very thankful for the opportunity to accompany others up the mountain, and I look forward to returning: to breathe in the air at the top, and to be refreshed for the work that awaits us all in the valley below.
“Those who make this journey find others just like them, and together they discover, once again, a God who accepts them as they are and invites them deeper.”
