“Where are all of you from?”
“Oh, we are from the States.”
“Oh, wow! When were you there last?”
“Um… Well, now….” I ponder for a second. “It was back in October so that would be what? 7 months? No wait I think it is 10…” I turn to my teammate who holds up fingers and does some finger math. “Yeah, I guess that is right… we are in month 11!” I then share a look with my teammate that is a mix of shock, wonder, bewilderment, and a little confusion.
I have had that conversation – or something similar to it – a lot in the past month or so. We are now in month 11! This is crazy to me. There are so many emotions attached to the fact that we have reached month 11. We will be traveling all over the beautiful countryside of Spain this month.
For our first 10 days in Spain, all 34 of us were living in one huge 300-year-old house that is 30 minutes outside of Barcelona. It was a hilarious amount of fun, serious conversations about God, prayer, cookouts, worship, and meal prep. People always say it would be a ton of fun to get a huge house and live in it with a bunch of their best friends and that is what we have done! I have really enjoyed pouring into people, calling them out, praying for people, and having them do the same for me over the past week and a half. It’s a well-functioning body of Christ that is amazing.
During the 10 days we were there, many people went to Barcelona to do ministry. I went into town and did a prayer walk around the city. Simply walking and praying for the people and things that God laid on my heart. Shew, it gave me a big heart for that city. If you ever want to love something that is hard for you to love, or just to love something more, start praying for it regularly. It has changed my heart so many times. Other groups had a soccer ministry that they started, or gave sandwiches out and talked about Jesus on the streets.
As a logistics leader, most of my ministry these past 10 days has been caring for our squad and taking care of the large house where we were living. Ashlyn (my co-leader) and I made trips to the grocery store to feed this huge crowd of people, troubleshot water not working, hosted our guest speaker, answered five-hundred and one questions about the house and what time things were happening, and a ton of other stuff. My favorite part though was listening to the stories people told about their adventures each day when they came home.
My favorite story I heard from people coming back was from the group that passed out sandwiches for a couple afternoons. The story unfolded over a two day period. The first day they went out, they met a young lady on the streets. Brooke (my squad mate) saw the girl twice that day and felt like she should go and talk to her the second time she saw her. She walked over, gave her a sandwich and just began a conversation. She had obviously been on the street for a little while and looked like she was a heavy drug user. It turned out that she had been stuck in Barcelona for 2 months after her passport and all her things were stolen. She had been living on the street since then.
When they asked her what they could do for her, she said that she needed eye contacts. Brooke told me animatedly when she got home that day that it was the last thing she had ever thought someone would ask for but she was going to try and find them! It turns out that not just one but two of our squad mates have the same prescription as the lady. They both had extra so two days later they gave her some, and they worked perfectly. Brooke was jumping off the wall telling me this because she got to share about God the whole time they talked to this lady and felt like it had really opened doors. It was really cool to live it through Brooke.
Currently, I am on a bus to the next 10-day portion of our time in Spain. We are headed to the city of Pamplona to start our backpacking trip on the El Camino de Santiago! AAAAA!! I am all nerves! For those of you who know a little about the El Camino, we will be hiking the French Way. For those of you who don’t know, the El Camino is a pilgrimage road that leads from all over Spain and France to the city of Santiago de Compestela. For hundreds of years, spiritual pilgrims have hiked the paths to seek God and learn more about Him. At this point, most are not Christian but are still on it as a spiritual journey.
Our goal while we hike is to cast vision, pray about, and ponder what our futures will be like in the US, and also to process the last 11 months. We will ask God what He has for us in this next season. We also hope to reach out to the other pilgrims who are searching. They are seeking and we have what they seek! It’s the coolest thing! People’s lives get changed on the Camino all the time, and to know that we get to be a part of it is awesome! It’s a really cool position to be in. We will hike a total of 130 miles over the next 10 days as we go from Pamplona to Burgos. It will be hard but also really, really good.
The last few days of our trip here will be a final time of debriefing, reflection, rejoicing, and hard goodbyes as we close this 11-month chapter of our lives. I could say all the emotions that are attached to this but there are a lot of them and you can probably imagine them. It will be good, though. On the 20th of this month we will board a plane and travel back to the States…. SO CRAZY!!!
As we hike the Camino could you please partner with my squad and me in praying for divine appointments as well as the hearts of the people we will be talking to? We want to talk to the people God already has set out for us and we want them to be ready for it.
Please also cover us in your prayers – for health and a time of fire to be lit in us as we think about this next season of life.
Lastly, please pray for logistic transport to be worked out. We still do not have a ride from Burgos to Mijas at the end of the 10 days on the Camino. We need it but haven’t found anything that is cheap enough. It’s stressful and I do not want to spend my whole time on the Camino searching for wi-fi in the small towns so I can do work.
Well, that sums up my month 11! I am so excited! I will probably be posting pictures on Instagram and Facebook as we hike (data is cheap here 4 GB for $10) so keep an eye on them!
See you all soon (literally!),
Elise Swepston
