5 Days In
Day 1, August 3, 2017
4:00 A.M.—-Alarm Goes Off
4:30 A.M.—-Strap bag on
4:32 A.M.—-Walk out the door
I didn’t really have much expectations of what the Camino Trail would be. I didn’t know how God would show up. A few hours in, I pretty much thought I was going to die, just right there in the middle of the trail. Super dramatic, right?
6 and half hours and 15 miles later, we made it!!! When we got to the first hostel, my back was in serious pain and I had a slight moment of tears. A few squad mates, mmm more like friends. Random tangent, I will now refer to my squad mates as friends. I just had to throw that in there because it’s nice to be at that point with them. By the end of the day when I was laying my head down on my little pillow, I had come to the realization that it is ok to be physically weak because you allow God to come into that space and be your strength. We ended the day with doing communion at dinner unexpectedly. This was a good point to start because the next couple days only got harder.
Day 2
Day two as I opened my eyes, I realized I had the option to keep doing things as I did yesterday or actually make the changes now to become better physically. I could just stay like I was with my tight legs and sore feet or I could stretch and feed my body well. I realized that I could do something about it. I got up, drank a ton of water (hydration is key bla blab la), ate some fruit, and stretched it out before I started the day. These actually made a huge difference. It truly is about starting well and ending well on the Camino. It’s a literal game changer… but really.
This day started out with a tent of defeat but I bought in and God showed up. We prayed for flowers for Ruby and we saw them, which is small but having him answer was a big deal that day. We got focused on one thing on the Camino, and we prayed for it then it came about. It was just a really cool moment of him loving us well.
Day 3
This day. This day though. Day three was good *smiles and nods head*
This is the day that I was feeling better both mentally and physically. I got over the big hump of my body freaking out like a crazy person because it’s like “what the heck are you doing making me wake up so early and walk so long all the time.” I also had a good mental game going. Knowing that God would be present and sustain me throughout the day. Nano also helped with this as he hiked with us and spoke positive truths over us. Words are so powerful! So amazing.
Our expectations for the day were really high. We stopped and did worship on a hillside as the sun came up. SO BEAUTIFUL!!! The day though ended up being challenging towards the end. I tell you what, when you think you are almost there and around every corner you think it is going to be the town and it turns out that you do this for almost 2 hours you start to feel pretty down. Yet, we began praying for the last hour of the hike and declaring things. It turned around that last hour as we realized that we didn’t have somewhere to be other than God’s presence.
Day 4
Once again high expectations. You would think that by this point I would just stop even expecting for things to happen the way I want or plan to. And again, what had supposed to be a pretty easy and short day (hard to imagine walking miles on end with 20 plus pounds on our back would be easy) took a turn. About an hour in, three of my friends were injured and took a break. I kept moving forward while they debated about walking or busing. I caught up with a few others and took a long breakfast break, which was breaking my plans already. During breakfast, God just showed me that I needed to rest with him physically and spiritually. This was also the day a majority of us decided to add 6 more miles to another city, which would cut our miles in half for day 5. Not only did we get blessed with a donation hostel, but free dinner and breakfast! We were served well that day.
Day 5
I finally grasped the concept of no expectations and let God move in whatever way he wanted to during the 2 and half hour hike. I met an American couple and we had some really good conversations about life. One thing they told me was that they heard from other people walking the Camino Trail that our mission group is very nice and have nothing but good things to say about us and our organization. That hit me. It was like all of my thoughts of the past 5 days came into a big halt of like wow everything I’ve done, everything we’ve done as a squad, the pain we’ve endured, the exhaustion we’ve pushed through, the conversations we’ve had, the people we’ve met, it’s been all worth it.
And guess what? Its only day 5!!! There is so much more that the Lord is going to do in the remaining 5 days and it’s going to be wonderful. Day 5 ended with some of us doing worship and communion. The random worship sessions in the front of hostels taking communion together will be greatly missed.
From a spirit of defeat, physical pain taking over, to picking sunflower seeds off sunflowers and eating grapes from vineyards, God has truly kept our spirits up as we continue to push through this journey day by day.
Our father, gosh he’s just so good!
