The Truck Stop

As the Chaplain of the Travel Center of America Truck Stop in Columbia, Pastor Sherry has holds Bible Study on Wednesday evenings at 7PM.  We meet in the Delaware Room of the restaurant.  People come, seeking faith and fellowship, dialoguing about the most important questions of our lives.  Truck drivers join in.  Staff has become family, and the Word of God goes out.  We believe that the Word of God does not return void, even as it is overheard.  Some inquire about what is going on in that room—why is there so much laughter?  Why is there so much joy?  Why are people hugging each other?

What is happening beyond these walls and parking lot—economic woes, stressed out marriages, health concerns, spiritual apathy—happens within them.  Truckers come battling a disease called loneliness and separation. It isn’t only truckers who come here, but travelers who find themselves stranded, like a couple from Kentucky, who was robbed and left with no way to get back home to their children after completing a job in Boston.  Because of your generosity in the past, we were able to help them with travel expenses.  This couple is one of many who come through these doors looking for aid.

This is a ministry of presence and helps, of listening and prayer for those who are far away from family and their faith community, a place to find spiritual nourishment, accountability and find a community of believers that cares for them.