My squads start to the World Race has not been like any other squads in World Race history. For starters, we did not all converge on Gainesville, Georgia to meet at AIM headquarters 2 months prior to leaving. We didn’t get to meet with other squads and compete to see who was the ultimate squad since squads were created. (we so would have won)
We were given a time and day to be in New York City to board our plane and head overseas and that was it. We would be training in Spain and then heading right to the mission field.
Our training started in Barcelona where we spent several days building relationships with our leaders and learning what it was that we wanted out of the World Race. We were also able to get in some amazing site seeing and a lot of squad bonding. I really do have an amazing squad. <3
On Friday April 8th we headed out of Barcelona and to Logrono, Spain. This is where we would start 5 days on the Camino de Santiago. Now for those of you that don’t know, the Camino or the Way of St. James is a 780 km (roughly 500 mile) long trail that spans from France to the coast of Spain. It weaves through cities and farms, over mountains and through plains. And thank the Lord we weren’t doing the whole trail. We got 5 wonderful rain and freezing cold days. (freezing may be a stretch but it was in the 30s at least one morning when we started) My squad walked 123.7 km (roughly 77 miles)
Another side note for those of you that don’t know, I have been on a physical journey with my body for the past 2 years. I’ve lost 50 lbs. mostly through heavy working out and a change to my diet. I knew I needed training before I left for the WR so I got more into lifting weights and all that goodness. But that just didn’t prepare me for the Camino.
Day 1 I ended up with blisters and badly aching feet. I can vividly remember laying down at the Albergue (Spanish for hostel) dreading walking the next day and wondering how my body was going to last.
The next day came and our leader let us know that we would start out in silence and we were to spend that time leaning into God. I knew right away that I did not want to walk and silence is not my deal at all. I wanted to talk about how bad my feet hurt and how tough the massive hill was that we started out on. I wanted to know that other people were hurting as bad as I was. But that wasn’t the plan. So instead of talking with my squad about how bad I felt I told the Lord.
I let Him know about every ache and every pain. I let Him know that I didn’t want to do this anymore. I wanted to just be done and not push through. I know how to push myself and my heart was just not into it. I didn’t know if I would be able to push myself for the whole 5 days. And that’s when God spoke to me.
He reminded me that I had given up eating food every Wednesday for 9 weeks in order to draw closer to Him. He reminded me of how much I didn’t want to stick with that fast but I did. I skipped every bagel day. I missed out every time anyone wanted to go out to eat and I did it for Him. Then He reminded me that this year is going to be full of times when I go without. I will go without food and I will go without physical comfort and it will all be for His glory. This would be my fast from physical comfort. And just like that 9 week food fast I was going to make it through this fast as well.
From that day on I pushed myself. When others stopped for a rest I continued on. I knew that if I slowed down I would be so tempted to stop for good that I wasn’t going to happen. I was going to show God that I am in this, physical discomfort and all.
For the next few days that worked great. I ended up at the albergues earlier than most and was able to rest and shower and recharge. Everything was going great. When our last day on the trail came I was so determined to keep up the momentum no matter how much my feet were ready to give in. We started the morning with team prayer and a caution that the trail would split off and we were to take the path near the water. I took note and headed out.
The first stop came and I again knew I needed to push on. I stopped long enough to hear that a few others had skipped the stop and I was more than happy to follow right behind and skip the stop too. I kept going and ended up walking with other pilgrims (this is what people are called that walk the Camino) heading into our final stop of Burgos.
I got to a point where I stopped paying attention to where I was and just focused on continuing on. By the time I thought about the the split of the trail I realized that I must have pasted it. I was in a city and the pilgrims that I was walking with were long gone from different stops and I couldn’t see a single pilgrim on the path. I did see all the signs pointing the way so I knew I was still on the Camino.
I had no idea where we were staying that night. I knew the rest of the group would be going a different path so I wouldn’t run into anyone. I remembered hearing something about the group staying near the water but that was all I had.
Right then and there I started praying “Lord, I’m going to need some help. Please let me run into someone. I have no idea where I need to go.”
I kept walking. I walked for what felt like forever through warehouses and business complexes. And then those beautiful golden arches appeared on the horizon and I knew God was throwing me a line. There was McDonalds and I was going to have free wifi!!!!
I walked inside to find other pilgrims inside. One was even kind enough to show me where we had all missed the branch off to go by the water. I Googled all the albergues in the area near the water in Burgos and checked US time to see if I could email anyone not already on the trail. Nope, 4 am seemed a little too early to email them. But I was fine. I had all the albergues and Google maps was now loaded to my phone with the info on Burgos, I would be fine.
I walked the rest of the way into the city and made it down to the water and looked around to see if I saw or heard 20+ Americans. No such luck. So I pulled out all my screen shots and started going from albergue to albergue asking if the front desk clerk spoke English and then trying to ask about a large group of Americans. 7 albergues later and I was no closer to finding my group. My level of concern was rising.
I found a woman on the street who knew enough English to help me. She told me that any cafe would have wifi, I would just need to buy something for them to provide the password. So with this info I headed down the water way to find a shop that would have wifi. The first shop that had a wifi sign in the window was my stop. I ordered a muffin and what I thought was hot chocolate (turns out hot chocolate in Europe is melted chocolate in a cup) and sat down to message my group. I messaged my squad mentor, Gary, and my teammate, Lydia, asking them what the name of the albergue was so I could navigate my way to them. 15 minutes went by with no response.
That was when I looked down at my phones battery power, less than 20%. I had less than 20% before my phone died and I lost my one means of communication with my team!! Right away panic set in. I messaged my sister and let her know that I had been separated from my team and I had no idea where I was supposed to go. I was envisioning situations that where so out there about being abandoned in Europe by my squad.
I can be very dramatic some times.
After 2 minutes of this I stopped myself and decided that I needed to get it together and I needed to have God take the wheel. He doesn’t have a battery life and He can take care of this for me. So I stopped and said a prayer asking God to help and provide me with a way to reach my team.
When I was done I decided that I would eat my muffin and wait to see what He would do. Well I didn’t even wait a minute. I took my second bite of muffin and there through the window I see one of my mentors, Chris, walking by. Mouth full I booked it out of my seat and ran to the door. As soon as I opened the door I began to yell for him and everyone else from my squad that was with him. They all turned around looking just as surprised to see me as I was to see them.
Thanks to my determination to finish the Camino I had walked an extra 4 km and had wondered around the city of Burgos for over an hour looking for my team. But all that extra walking was totally worth it just to see how God was showing me that during this year He has me, through physical discomfort and all. God is so good. And next time maybe I will only have one minute of dramatic visions in my head before I remember that God’s got it. 🙂
