My team just got done walking 250 miles of the Camino De Santiago, Pamplona Spain to León Spain. The Camino is a path across Spain for people, called Pilgrims, to walk to Santiago Spain. The walk was intended as a religious walk for repentance. It is believed that the Apostle James was buried there and that he is the patron saint of Spain. But now it has many reasons for someone to walk “the way”; some are spiritual, some are adventurous, some are fitness, some are religious, some are searching for something new in life. Whatever their reasons, we went intending to meet new people and to experience the Camino.
Now don’t imagine a straight line from Pamplona to Burgos to León to Santiago. Because it isn’t that easy. It’s having to walk 13 to 18 miles a day to make it to the next town. Some days walking up and down a lot of hills. Some days walking beside rivers. Some days walking around hills and cliffs. Somedays walking through forests. Other days you walk through fields and fields of open country. Now and then you have towns to walk through. Which I have to say the old Spanish architecture is beautiful. Now, Now don’t think I am talking bad or complaining. Because I loved it, once my feet and legs got used to the endless miles. Oh did I mention that the path sometimes decided it’s just going to go a weird direction just because it can and doesn’t care that you rather not walk an extra few miles for no seeming reason. The reason being it wants to go through a random small town out of the way so people can spend money there. And not to mention this thought was in my head, “IF WE JUST TOOK A BUS WE WOULD GET THER IN 30 MINUTES RATHER THAN 5 HOURS. Also, My teammates had to deal with pretty bad blisters and the girls threatened to tackle us guys if we suggested to walk any further some days… Now you have a picture, right?
NOW isn’t that a picture of life? You have ups and downs. Places that are hard to get through. Places that are fun and easy. Times that you just want something to be done and not have to do anything at all. Times that you want to keep seeing new things that God has for you. Times of fascination of new things. Times of realizing you are stronger than you thought. Times you think you aren’t fit enough or that you can’t go on but you surprise yourself but not surprise the people there supporting you through it. (THANKS TEAM 43:19) Times that it seems God and Life takes you down a path that you think to yourself what was the purpose of this path… why didn’t we do a simpler route. Only to see why it was for your own good to have that happen. OKAY well lets just say God talked to me a lot on this 3 week journey across Spain.
This camino wasn’t just for us individually though. We met a lot of interesting people. They were from all over the world. Some even started walking from Germany. There were a few people who we met up with in ever new town at the Albergues we stay at. We would eat with them and chat with them and just have good fellowship. They would share their experiences and tell us about why they were walking the Camino. My favorite times were staying in the Donativos. These places were homes that a small group of people would stay at. We would cook together and eat together and just have community together. It was so fun. At one of the places we even played music and just fellowshipped together. Hopefully we left some people with Joy and feeling closer to God and Jesus. Others I hope we left with question about who Jesus is and just have that stone in their shoe that makes them think on the things we spoke about.
We are in Croatia now and my feet don’t hurt so much. I do love that I feel so much more physically fit and developed and even deeper relationship with Jesus. I want to send a THANK YOU to all my supporters! I am fully funded! I encourage you to go to my squadmates blogs and support them as some still need funding. However, if you wish to continue supporting me, for a chance to be an extra blessing to churches, orphanages and ministries we encounter in these countries you can donate to my paypal. My email is [email protected].
