So we’ve been walking on the Camino for about a week and a half now, and God has already shown us so many beautiful things, and put people in our paths so intentionally already.
On our second day of the Camino, we were feeling pretty beat up already. We hiked the first day starting from Porto along the coast, then the second day was half coastal and then we started towards the central route. We were carrying pretty full packs and that’s what really beat us up. We had lots of blisters, pains, strained muscles and ligaments and whatnot, so we decided after the second day we were gonna take a rest in the town of Rates.
Now we were staying in an Albergue, and typically you don’t stay more than one night unless you’re sick or injured. Well, Shelby, Whitney, and Katy were just about limping when we came by, and I was suuuuper congested with allergies so I sounded pretty sick! They wanted to just let the sick and injured people stay, but we said we wanted to stay together as a group, and luckily they let us stay. I really believe God softened his heart to let us stay because of all that happened the next day.
We rested well that night, and the next morning we took it easy. I woke up around 7am and ate breakfast in the kitchen. There was a bicyclist there from Spain, and I talked to him a little but over breakfast.We were talking about what brought us to the Camino. He said he was in psychology and was on the Camino to find himself (like a large majority of people on the Camino), and I told him we were on the Camino to finish our 11-month mission trip. I told him that even though we are ending on the Camino, that this whole year has been a Camino of sorts, and that I have found my true identity in God this year.
He respected my opinion, but wasnt super into it. He then started talking to me about numerology and stuff like that, and only after I talked did I realize that that was a pagan practice, of finding order and identity in the cosmic alignment of numbers. I tried to be open to hearing about his ideas since he was open to mine, and we had a great conversation. Then, as he was about to leave, Madison suggested praying for him, and I thought that was a great idea. We asked him if we could and he said yes. We prayed for health, strenth, endurance, and that he would have an encounter with the Lord. After we finished praying, he didnt really say anything, but he did say thank you, and gave me and Madison both long, genuine hugs. Im still not sure how God is working in his heart, but I know the way we boldly displayed our faith was very impactful for him.
Then, the rest of the day just got more and more interesting.
There were 6 of us staying at this albergue with no one else there, because the hospitaleros usually only show up for the evenings starting around 2pm. So we were walking around and a pilgrim stops by around 11am, and we knew he saw us, and we felt bad not letting him in, so we opened the door for him and he came in. He didnt speak a lot of english, but he came in, dramatically threw his bag on the ground and gave a loud grunt of relief, changed his clothes and left. We didnt see much of him until later, and we werent quite sure what to think of him.
Then around 1:30 he came back and was sitting at the front of the albergue by the check-in, and when the actual hospitalero came, he greeted the hospitalero as if he was the one working there, and the hospitalero was very confused. I was sitting in the loving room reading my bible and he tried to talk to me, but I had headphones in. Then he came over to me and asked if I had checked in. I told him we checked in yesterday, but he told me I needed to check in again. He seemed a little grumpy, so I didnt want to make hi upset, so I got my stuff and told the rest of the group that we needed to re-check in. So Whitney and I went to the desk to check in, and he started asking us why we stayed an extra night, since he was not the same guy from the night before. We said that we had injured people and he started to tease us saying we were lazy and whatnot. Then Whitney showed him her giant blister, and his tone changed. He went from lightly joking to genuinly concerned, and sincerely wanting to help. He said he could help her with her foot, and he had supplies that would help heal it.
So we went to the living room and while I continued reading my bible, he made a tub of hot water, got some oil and lotion, and massaged and treated Whitneys feet. While he was doing that, we got to talking. We asked him about his life, his past Camino journeys, his faith, and we shared our faith with him, too, and got to encourage him with some stories of our travels and ministries from this year. Then, I was reading the gospel of Mark, and I was blown away by chapter 15 verse 15, where it says “Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged and handed Him over to be crucified”. I shared that in that verse I had the revelation of what the fear of man can do to us if we succumb to it; the fear of man is what put an innocent man on the cross, because Pilate knew he was innocent, and knew he did not want His blood on his hands, but he gave into the peer pressure, and theres a lesson to be learned in that.
Then our hospitalero asked if what I had been reading that whole time was the bible, and I said yes. He said that he thought I was reading something else the way I was marking it with different colors and such. Then he encouraged me, and said that what I was doing is what more people should be doing. He commended me on using my free time to read the word of God, and that that is a beautiful thing to see a young person doing.
Then, we met out other hospitelera (because she was a girl), and she made us soup when she got there and offered it to all of us. We had some and some of the girls sat and talked with her while I was in the other room with the others who were getting foot massages. At this point, Katy was hurting pretty bad, too, and she asked the hospitelera for encouragement to keep going, and she simply said “open your heart to recieve”. Right about then, the hospitalero offered to massage her feet, and she said no, but the hospitelera repeated the words “open your heart to recieve”, so Katy decided to go an recieve a foot massage!
A few other pilgrims came in that night, and we got to talk with all of them. We had wonderful fellowship over food and feet! Then, we decided we wanted to worship that night, and invited anyone who wanted to to join us. We had a playlist of about 4 songs; Reckless Love, Another in the Fire, Heart Abandoned, and Great I am. Both of the hospitaleros joined us, and our grunting friend joined about halfway through. We all worshipped with our whole hearts, standing, sitting, kneeling, walking around. We opened our hearts to recieve whatever the Holy Spirit was doing in that moment. Every once in a while I looked at the hospitaleros and I was trying to read their reaction. Were the uncomfortable? Freaked out? Just soaking it all in? I couldnt tell, but I kept worshipping and tried not to let that occupy my thoughts. Then when we finished, I saw they were both in tears. The hopsitalero then wanted to share some words with everyone in the Albergue. We went inside and he gathered everyone in the living room and read us a poem and the Pilgrims Prayer.
He then shared his heart and how moved he was by everything that happened in the day. At first, he was confused, and right away he knew it was going to be a different kind of day. He wasnt even supposed to be volunteering that day, he was just visiting the hospitelera and was helping out while he was doing that. He commended our group and told us to always stay together, and that we had something very special. Then the hospitalera shared that on her way to the albergue, she always stops to pray, and today she asked for God to change her heart, and through our conversations and our worship, God answered that prayer. Whitney also shared that they were both answers to her prayers, and that she was praying that God would send someone to motivate her to keep going, and they were both so kind and hospitable and their stories were so inspiring, and that gave her the motivation to keep going.
So, we may not have seen anyone recieve salvation or get baptized, but in that albergue, the presence of God was so thick that everyone there could feel it in a powerful way, even those who didnt join us for worship. They knew something was different, and seeing the body of Christ moving in that way was so powerful to them, and they could see it through our community and though the way we loved others that day. I have to say, that night was my favorite day of the World Race so far, no contest. It was such a beautiful display of what God can do when we just give all of the glory to Him in everything we do.
