Oregon Public Broadcasting

Truckers are nomads. Every day on the job they face exhaustion, bad food and long hours. It's a life spent far from loved ones. And made even more difficult by a bad economy.

To stand up to these stresses, some truckers turn to their faith. In North Bend, Washington, drivers attend church in the back of a semi trailer.

Correspondent Anna King is starting an occasional series on hidden religions in the Northwest. In the first installment of that series she spent a Sunday with God's highway-hitting followers.

Chaplain Tom Kemp, 59, invites a truck driver to a worship service at his Transport for Christ chapel in North Bend, Washington. Trucker Church - Audio Slideshow

Tom Kemp: "Hey Boss! I'm from the chapel up there right by the CB shop."

Some churches have bells. Mosques have a call to prayer. Chaplain Tom Kemp walks from big rig to big rig. His Transport for Christ chapel is at a truck stop on Snoqualmie Pass in Washington State. Services are held in the back of an 18-wheeler.

Tom Kemp: "We got a Sunday morning worship service that starts up here at 11 o'clock. Wanted to let you know that you have a personal invitation to come sit in with us. Here's a copy of our magazine, look forward to seeing you up there. Alright man."

Kemp is persistent. Icy wind threatens to blow his cowboy hat off. But he quickly strides to the next truck on the lot to repeat his message.

He only approaches trucks if there's a person sitting behind the wheel. Truckers often hang out in the driver's seat, even though they aren't on the road.

Kemp says it's almost like sitting on their front porch. The seat's the most comfortable place in the truck and they can watch the goings on around the truck stop.

Tom Kemp: "A lot of the things that go on with drivers is loneliness, anger, fatigue, frequently they miss meals 'cause they are out on the road."

Kemp says when you get two or three of those factors smoushed together; drivers often look for comfort in destructive behaviors.

Tom Kemp: "That is prostitution, pornography, gambling, drugs and alcohol -- all of those things that you would find in any metropolitan area are available on any truck stop that you want to go to. Transport for Christ stands against those things."

There are chapels like this all across the nation. Kemp says they serve as a sort of non-denominational stop-gap for drivers who are away from their usual congregations and communities. He says most drivers are on the road about 300 days a year. And they can't go to churches without wheels because they can't park there.

About 11 o'clock, more than a dozen massive men file into the tractor trailer. There's one woman too. The chapel's got wood-grain veneer walls and a tiny pulpit up front. The congregation stands shoulder to shoulder -- three abreast. They sing to a tape cassette jammed into a small Sony boom box.

Truckers often display their faith in God by customizing their big rigs.  Trucker Church - Audio Slideshow

Kemp ended up here as a chaplain after he'd been knocked around by life a bit. His father died, he got divorced, he started his own business and went broke -- then lost several other jobs. But after all that he found the church and found meaning in missionary work.

Tom Kemp: "I had a driver step up toe to toe with me and say, 'You never been a driver, how do you think you are going to minister to us?'"

Kemp says that's when he realized that his life had actually made him qualified to minister to truck drivers.

Tom Kemp: "I said well number one I have been in the military, I know what it's like to be away from your family and alone and lonely. Number two I know what temptation is. And number three I know what it is to fail. I have screwed up a job so bad I deserved to get taken out of it and I was.

"Well that driver glared at me for a hard thirty seconds, and then he spun on his heel and I thought he was going to walk out of the chapel. And he reached over and grabbed a chair and pulled up to the table and said, 'Chaplin can we talk?'"

Kemp believes the men and women he helps are mostly invisible. We see them all the time on Northwest highways but rarely interact with them. The chapel is a place for the truckers to get to know one another and offer each other support.

Allen Parker: "Hi My name is Allen Parker. I live in Sacramento, California. I don't really like to be over the road driving anymore. I got a little family with a 6-year-old and I got a fiance that's doing chemo right now. I'd like to be local if I could. So I could spend time and watch my 6-year-old grow up. But the local work in Sacramento kind of fell out the bottom. I told my fiance that I was going to take up doing this. The isolation and the loneness for me, I don't know about you guys, but I don't like it. That's why I chose to come in here."

Kemp says he isn't sure how much he's helping truckers like Parker. His congregation is different every Sunday. Sometimes Kemp gets postcards and donations mailed from the nation's highways.

He just sees himself as Johnny Appleseed -- planting a message and helping truckers get down the road a piece. 

He's got a whole new congregation trucking in next Sunday.