The Still Waters Emmaus community was birthed after Gene and Ginny Murrell had a vision after they went on their Emmaus walks in Chattanooga/Lafayette Community. A quick search in Dayton, Tennessee, for sites to have an Emmaus walk ended with disappointment. However, Gene and Ginny attended training sessions with the Upper Room that prepared them with the tools needed to establish a new community.

The Murrells developed patience as they tried to interest at least 100 people in the area who had attended the walk AND were interested in helping develop a new community.

At first the community was called the Rhea County Emmaus Community. People from the Cleveland, Knoxville, and Chattanooga/Lafayette communities attended a meeting to decide if there was enough interest. The attendees promised to provide support and to share their experienced folks to help the Still Waters Emmaus Community get started. The Community was adopted by the Chattanooga/Lafayette Emmaus Community, but the Cleveland Emmaus Community has provided continuing support.

The leaders of the Still Waters Community were told it would be about three years before the Community would be ready to be on their own. The first walk was led by someone from our community three years later.

The Still Waters Emmaus Community has approximately 400 folks. Walk #1 was held in 2000; the Community has Walks #6 scheduled in the Spring 2004. We have had two men's walks and two women's walks each year.

Since the first monthly gathering in November 1999 at Cedine Bible Camp, in Spring City, Tennessee, the Still Waters Community has never missed a monthly gathering.   The gatherings are held the first Thursday of the month at the First United Methodist Church, Dayton, Tennessee.

The Cedine Bible Camp was chosen to be the site of the first walks as the camp was "beside the still waters" of Watts Bar Lake.