How long have you gone without a shower? Two days? Three? Four!?! My personal record—and I’m oddly proud of this—is five days. It would be one thing to go without a shower in regular home and office life, but my five days were while vigorously hiking the Appalachian Trail. But my feat is not all that impressive, or even uncommon, on the trail. Last year at Sola – Appalachian Christian Retreat, we had a hiker-visitor who had gone fifteen days without a proper shower. A hiker might take advantage of a mountain stream to wash their clothes or to wash themselves, but this tends towards only the removing of some smells while others are acquired.

Taking a shower is definitely the first priority when coming in from the trail! And it almost never takes any convincing to get a hiker to shower when one is available. It takes a lot more convincing—and in fact it takes the work of the Holy Spirit—for a person to want to be cleansed from all their sin. But this is the message we preach, as it was said to Paul after his sight returned, “Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord” (Acts 22:16). We pray that God uses our mission to convince many of this truth of the washing away of sin by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Email us at info@discoversola.com and tell us your record number of days without a shower. We’ll send the winner a free Sola bandana and a bar of soap.

– Doug, Priscilla, and Maple (a.k.a., Banzai, Hot Drinks, and Maplecakes)