the old north state
We finally made it all the way across North Carolina, from her farthest east to her farthest west.
Here's to the land of the long leaf pine,
The summer land where the sun doth shine,
Where the weak grow strong and the strong grow great,
Here’s to down home, the Old North State!Here's to the land of the cotton bloom white,
Where the scuppernong perfumes the breeze at night,
Where the soft southern moss and jessamine mate,
'Neath the murmuring pines of the Old North State!Here's to the land where the galax grows,
Where the rhododendron's roseate glows,
Where soars Mount Mitchell's summit great,
In the "Land of the Sky," in the Old North State!Here's to the land where maidens are fair,
Where friends are true and cold hearts rare,
The near land, the dear land, whatever fate,
The blessed land, the best land, the Old North State!
The above poem, written by Leonora Monteiro Martin in 1904, was adopted by the NC General Assembly in 1957 as the official toast to the State of North Carolina. I know this poem because I included it in the preface to a biography I wrote in high school about my grandfather, Earl Taylor Green, who served the State of North Carolina as a highway patrolman for 35 years. He loved and bled for the Old North State; his ancestors who came here in the 1600s loved and bled for the Old North State; his great grandfather who wore the GRAY loved and bled for the Old North State; and I love and am willing to bleed for the Old North State.
In fact, we loved her enough to walk 1,200 miles from her farthest east to her farthest west, calling her people to repentance and warning of coming judgment as watchmen upon a wall. Along the way, I beheld with joy the long leaf pine, the cotton bloom, the scuppernong, the jessamine and the southern moss, the galax, the blooming rhododendron, and even the summit of mighty Mount Mitchell. I also thought often of my precious wife, one of her maidens fair. But, in sorrow I found not cold hearts rare, nor the weak grown strong. A near land, a dear land . . . YES, but, it seems, no longer blessed, no longer best. Like the rest of America, she, too, is under judgment. And she, too, must needs REPENT.
Greetings, dear brethren, in the name of the ONLY HOPE for the Old North State and the rest of these United States—Jesus the Messiah. We are currently back home wrapping up a few days of rest following a long 10-day stint that involved 152 miles of walking, 58 Gospel encounters, and the crossing of North Carolina’s state line into Tennessee at her westernmost corner. It was surreal. While driving back to our place of refuge one night from the walking route, I saw the highway sign on US 64 at the state line that reads “Manteo 563 miles” (It used to be 610; I guess the four-lane out west cut some of that off). For us, however, it was 1,200 miles on foot, nearly double the US 64 highway mileage! We literally walked across our home state, from its farthest eastern shore to its farthest western corner. To God be the glory!
From Her Easternmost Shore to Her Westernmost Corner
The particular day that we walked into Tennessee, I was so excited that I had to tell somebody. Eric and I went inside a saloon right on the state line that had just opened, and I told the lady behind the bar: “I know you are going to think I’m crazy, but we just walked across NC and we had to tell somebody. You seem to be the only person around. I’m a middle-aged preacher who God told to drop what he was doing and walk across this wicked country of ours and warn folks: America is in BIG TROUBLE.” The conversation at the Thirsty Turtle continued from there, and the lady took a Gospel tract. She was just one of almost 60 encounters we had on this latest stint of The Long Walk.
There was also Dennis, who felt like he needed to justify to a walking preacher why he smoked marijuana. I asked him why he needed to explain himself to me. When he inquired whether or not God made all the grass and herbs of the field, I responded “Why, certainly! He made poison ivy but not for us to rub all over our bodies.” This man was obviously under conviction, and he was humble when I spoke bluntly. He was just walking home that morning and probably never expected a rebuke from a walking preacher. He told me he had been mad at the LORD for awhile. I told him God sent me to get his attention and that he needed to humble himself and seek the LORD while He may be found. He received a Bible from my hands, and we parted ways.
The Lord put Dennis into my path.
The same day I met Dennis, we also had encounters with a lady checking her mail, two girls on their front porch, a father and son, a man working at an antique shop, a lady with her ten dogs and a massive turkey, a grandmother with her grandchildren, three Mexican men fixing a truck, a barista at a local coffee shop, a marine veteran, a woman painting her front porch door, a family traveling in their minivan who stopped to ask “What’s the story here?”, a waitress with blue hair, and Mrs. D who was sitting on her front porch as we turned onto a rough gravel road that would take us up to Tuni Gap. Mrs. D was 99 years old and took a Gospel tract! Days like this, encountering a wide array of folks going about everyday business, are common.
Eric & Bethany stop to share with 99-year-old Mrs. D in front of her house as they walk a lonely gravel road toward Tuni Gap.
There are slow days where we walk many miles and see few people. In fact, after a long slog from Unicoi Gap on a little used trail that follows the NC/TN state line and then connects with a rough dirt road atop Waucheesi Mountain, AND after a 10-mile descent of that dirt road back to the pavement on the Tellico River, we thought it would be the first day on this entire walking journey that we didn’t have a single Gospel encounter. I was parked at a road junction as Eric and Bethany walked the last leg in the rain. It had been 17 hard miles with zero people. And yet, a quarter mile from where we planned to stop, Eric noticed two guys swimming with their kids in the Tellico River, strange considering a thunderstorm was passing through. DJ & Terry both took Gospel tracts. Praise God, we still haven’t had a single day without at least one encounter!
Eric & Bethany finish up for the day after meeting DJ & Terry on the Tellico River.
Our team takes a break on the summit of Waucheesi Mountain after a rough stretch of trail and before a rough stretch of dirt road that will take us down to the Tellico River in Tennessee.
Some of our best and most fruitful encounters have actually happened off the route. For a break, we sometimes make a quick side trip in the car as we did one afternoon enroute to our refuge for the night in Blairsville, Georgia. I have summited 48 of America’s 50 state highpoints, only lacking Wyoming and Alaska. Bethany and Eric like to work toward catching up with me if opportunity arises. Georgia’s Brasstown Bald was pretty close, so I offered to drive them up there so they could hike the mile to the summit and bag another state highpoint. Imagine that, we walk all day, and these guys want to go walk another mile on another mountain. Sheer profundity! Praise God we went up there, for we had two great encounters, one in the parking lot with a tattoo artist from Atlanta who recently took up hiking as a means of escape from this crazy world, and another on the summit with a brother and sister from Phildelphia, relatively new believers who had that fresh zeal for Jesus that I had when I first got saved back in 1993. In both instances, the LORD allowed us to speak words of exhortation and truth. And we have been blessed ever since to maintain a line of communication with our friend from Atlanta, who gladly received a Bible and a copy of One Heartbeat Away, a great book by Mark Cahill, and with our friends from Phildelphia who gladly received some discipleship material, including The Watchmen, another great book by Mark Cahill. Thanks to Mark himself who gives these books to us for free distribution as the Lord gives opportunity along our walk. We have given out quite a few since Cape Hatteras.
As for the siblings from Philly, I was so encouraged to see them walk up on the summit of Brasstown Bald and exclaim, the first thing out of their mouths: “Praise the LORD!” That started our conversation, and it was just medicine to my soul to see a brother and sister traveling together, loving a view from a mountaintop together, growing in the LORD together, and excited about their new walk in Christ together. When God puts His Remnant into my path, no matter where it has been along hundreds of thousands of miles in more than 50 countries, it is always a spiritual shot in the arm more powerful than anything a doctor could prescribe. I love meeting and fellowshipping with the Remnant Body of the Lord Jesus Christ, especially in these last days. If you are sitting at home discouraged and disobedient to our Lord’s command in Hebrews 10:25, not fellowshipping regularly with a local church body because you think it’s all compromised and that there are no good churches left . . . you aren’t looking hard enough. There is always a Remnant against which the gates of hell shall not prevail (Matthew 16:18), and the ELECT LADY (II John 1) is out there. If you can’t find HER, look a little harder.
This guy from Atlanta was a cool cat with a sweet ride and all the gear a guy could need for a hike in the woods. I gave him a sword (I.e. the Sword of the Spirit) to carry in his backpack. I loved the open-carry pistol on his ankle, the Come and Take It patch on his pack, and his excitement over the glorious views up on Brasstown Bald.
We enjoyed some great fellowship and prayer with these two siblings from Philadelphia on the summit of Georgia’s highest mountain. Praise God we decided to go up there that day. I loved that shirt, “Follow God Period.”
Here is the official summit pic for Eric’s 25th and Bethany’s 23rd state high point. Can you see us? I’ll let you figure out how I snapped this photo :)
The last two days on this latest stint of The Long Walk had us slogging the Cherohala Skyway, a popular motorcycle road, up and over the mountains and back into North Carolina. So, we walked clear across the Old North State and into Tennessee, but we are not completely done with her. The Cherohala Skyway was a beast on foot, 21 straight miles of uphill and elevations over 5,000 feet. But, we loved being a visible witness to all the bikers cruising up and down that thing. We even got to witness to a Chinese family on the summit of Huckleberry Knob and a film crew shooting a tire commercial just off the Skyway on Hooper Bald. The Chinese man wouldn’t shake Eric’s hand or take a Gospel tract and jumped back when I tried to show him a beautiful photo I had taken from the summit. He kept saying, “No, No, the pandemic, the pandemic!” Such ridiculous fear was very sad, but his wife stepped up and said, “Here, give it to me. I will read it.” Praise God. As for the film crew, I walked up to three of them and spoke of how America is in BIG TROUBLE with the Lord. One of them responded, “That’s funny. We were just talking about how bad things are getting.” I affirmed that there may be no hope for AmericA but that there is always hope for the AmericAN in Jesus Christ, His death, burial, and His resurrection. All three took Gospel tracts.
Witnessing to Bikers on the Cherohala Skyway
Witnessing to a Chinese Family on the summit of Huckleberry Knob
Finally, we made it to the end of the Cherohala Skyway, and we found ourselves back in North Carolina.
Lord willing, we will drive back in the morning to resume from the very spot we stopped walking last Thursday evening. It takes a little over 3 hours to get up there, and hopefully, all the rain from this tropical storm will have moved out of the area. Please pray for us as we try to figure out our route. The LORD has put a burden on my heart to walk through Madison County, North Carolina. Some say that place is like stepping decades back in time. To get there from where are now will be difficult and will involve some walking east to ultimately go west, probably even a rough stint in the Great Smokies. I am also burdened to walk through some of the rougher sections of Central Appalachia (far western Virginia, southwest West Virginia, Eastern Kentucky, and southeast Ohio) before heading over to Cane Ridge, an area of Kentucky that was immensely affected during America’s Second Great Awakening. When I look at a map, this is all overwhelming, and I have to be reminded that though our objective is the Pacific Ocean, it is not our goal. Our goal is to preach to and pray for our country, to warn folks, a declare the only solution for America’s great big spiritual problem—REVIVAL IN OUR CHURCHES, AND SPIRITUAL AWAKENING IN OUR SOCIETY. I don’t know what the Lord has in store for us in Madison County, North Carolina, the coal-mining areas of Central Appalachia, or Cane Ridge, but at the end of the day, I only want to be obedient. The LORD told me to walk across America. He didn’t tell me which route to take, and “it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps” (Jeremiah 10:23). Pray that we will be obedient and “and not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is” (Ephesians 5:17) in these things. People ask me all the time, “How long is this going to take?” I simply don’t know. There is no schedule to keep; there is no such thing as “out of the way;” and sometimes, it seems, we have to walk back east to ultimately go west.
Sometimes, you gotta walk back east to go west.
All that being said, we walked clear across the North Carolina and stepped into Tennessee, but we ain’t done with the Old North State. We may have a few more steps to take and a few more words to speak within her borders. Maybe, just maybe, we will reach the Mississippi River by the end of the year. The LORD knoweth. Thank you for all your prayers and support.
Before I sign off, I thought I would add a little gallery of interesting snaps from this latest 152-mile leg. Moreover, let me give a shout-out of THANKS to Truett Baptist Camp in Hayesville, NC and the Blalock Family in Blairsville, GA who hosted us these past couple of weeks. We had a nice bed and a hot shower every single night and didn’t have to camp once. Praise God for the kind hospitality of believers toward traveling preachers. The Apostle John once wrote to hospitable folks like this:
“Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren, and to strangers; Which have borne witness of thy charity before the church: whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well: Because that for his name's sake they went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles” (III John 5-7).
And then he says to all of us in the Body of Christ:
"We therefore ought to receive such [i.e. traveling preachers], that we might be fellowhelpers to the truth” (III John 8).
By the way, this is what our latest 152-mile stint looked like on a map:
If this walk across America and these testimonies are, or have been a blessing to you, please consider financially sowing into this difficult endeavor. We have some financial needs, gas has gotten real expensive, and anything you can give is a blessing that will be used faithfully and with account. All contributions are tax-deductible, and donating online is very easy. Thank you in Jesus’ name. Learn more . . .
Walking for the Word of God and the Testimony of Jesus the Messiah,
Jesse Boyd, Zerayim Colportage Board