If there’s a rule Larry Nutt lives by, it’s a simple credo learned from years of hopping around the globe first in the pursuit of adventure and more recently in what he considers a one-man crusade to put his faith into action.
“When you enter a new village,” he said, “get the chief on your side.”
This simple philosophy has held up time and again in the far dusty reaches of the globe to which Nutt has traveled. He was introduced to Africa in the 1970s when serving as a cargo pilot shuttling workers and supplies to and from various mining operations, including those in the small African nation of Mali.
In his off time he would explore the countryside, feeling drawn to experience the local culture. Some of it he attributes to a wanderlust he’s felt since his childhood, but the longer he was there, the more convinced he was meant to do something useful in Africa.
“God works in his way and on his timetable, not ours,” he said. “It wasn’t until years later that the idea for Legend Treks came along and when it did, we knew we had to take people to Mali.”
Legend Treks is Nutt’s tour business with a twist. In addition to featuring the sights and sounds of such romantic sounding areas as Mali, Morocco and Peru, Nutt’s tours also have opportunities for service activities built right into the itinerary with the goal of educating tourists on the needs of that country while providing hands-on opportunities to work among the people.
Nutt has logged millions of miles with the business and on his own to make his idea a reality, always following the same modus operendi — when approaching someplace new, get the head man’s blessing and the locals will know it’s permissible to come see what the 63-year-old, white-haired, fair skinned anomaly from Cabot, Ark., is all about.
“In 2010, I was introduced to officials running L’Ecole de la Paix, a Catholic school in Bamako, Mali,” he said. “Imagine, right in the middle of a country that is 99 percent Muslim, you have this high-quality Catholic school. The officials said they wanted to find a way to get more of the local needy kids the chance to get an education.”
With one eye on the unspeakable poverty all around this oasis of hope, Nutt readily agreed to be the conduit by which students would be sponsored to attend L’Ecole de la Paix. All the way home, he felt the adrenaline of being shown an avenue where his ministry would impact lives daily, as well as the panic of having absolutely no idea how he was going to pull it off.
“It was only after I agreed to do this that I started thinking, ’Well, where are you going to get the money, Smarty?’,” he said. “That’s when I decided to approach the Catholics, thinking if I can’t get Catholics to support a Catholic school, then who else is there?”
Nutt’s idea, while rooted in a certain logic, proved to be more problematic than he bargained for, beginning with his own perception of the Catholic faith. A lifetime Baptist, his early spiritual orientation didn’t always cast Catholicism in a positive light. In fact, out and out contempt for Catholics during his growing up escalated to the point where the Catholic church in his hometown was surreptitiously burned to the ground.
For their part, the parishes he approached in Arkansas were wary about getting behind his idea financially. The idea of writing checks to a non-Catholic emissary who phoned up out of the blue talking about some school on the other side of the planet was sufficient to give pause, especially given the financial pinch in which many parishes and their flocks found themselves. After taking several runs at parishes from one end of the state to another, Nutt was little closer to his goal than when he started.
Having exhausted all other tactics, he went back to his core philosophy — always go to the chief.
“One of my co-workers is Catholic and I asked him, ’Hey, I heard you guys have some sort of a chain of command. Who’s the leader?’” he said. His colleague told him it was the bishop, but added quickly that most Catholics would be too intimidated by his station to just show up on his doorstep, himself included.
“Well, I figured I could say that I was ignorant of protocol,” Nutt said with the slightest hint of a grin. “This bishop guy would have to take me as I am.”
So it was that Nutt sought an appointment with Bishop Anthony B. Taylor. For as many exotic places as he had dared to tread the most unfamiliar was now before him, tucked into a picturesque Little Rock neighborhood. While it is probably a stretch to say that the former Marine and lifetime adventurer was intimidated by the meeting, he nonetheless felt the urgency of what was at stake.
Prepared for anything, he was astonished at the warm reception he received from Bishop Taylor, who was taken with Nutt’s idea and asked how he could assist. Nutt told him that an official letter endorsing the project would help give parishes peace of mind in talking to him and perhaps help him make headway in gaining sponsors.
After corresponding with the archbishop of Bamako and the Bamako archdiocesan director of Catholic education, who vouched for Nutt’s program, Bishop Taylor penned a letter in support of Trailside Community Action Program, the humanitarian arm of Legend Treks. In Nutt’s vernacular, the chief had given his blessing and doors began to open.
To date, four Arkansas parishes have committed to sponsor students. Four full scholarships, $475 each a year, are supported through a grant by Our Lady of the Holy Souls Parish in Little Rock, which, it should be noted, signed on prior to Bishop Taylor’s endorsement. St. Jude the Apostle Church in Jacksonville and the Cathedral of St. Andrew in Little Rock sponsor one student each and St. Mark Church in Monticello sponsors a half scholarship.
Nutt makes sure the parishes receive updates on the students’ academic progress. He also stays in contact with school administrators to make sure the sponsored youngsters, literally the poster children for the ministry, are being held to the highest standards.
“There are too many people watching them for any one of them to fail,” he said.
Between the efforts with the school and Legend Trek’s other altruistic activity — bringing free vision care to the remote locations where the company sponsors tours — Nutt has watched his venture turn on its head from a business that has a service component to a mission that also takes people on tours. It’s not the first time that his best-laid and best-understood plans have been upended. Just ask his Sunday school class, who hear a much different message about Catholics than he once did.
“I tell them, ’Don’t ever let me hear you bad-mouth Catholics because if it wasn’t for them, seven of my kids wouldn’t have hope today’,” he said, his voice suddenly, unexpectedly breaking with emotion. “What Bishop Taylor has done has been wonderful.”
