For the past 8 days, my team and I have been walking El Camino trail in Spain. We walked roughly 100 miles and traveled from Pamplona to Burgos. It would be simply impossible to convey all that has been shared with each other and with other pilgrims on the trail in this past week, so my hope is to share a couple stories and a quick snapshot of what one day walking the trail looked like for me. All the glory to God alone! It still feels unreal that we can even be participating in this journey and many thanks to you for all of your prayers and support.
It was incredible that something so unnatural for me like walking 15 miles a day in a foreign country and sleeping in hostel style lodgings could become routine and normal in only a few short days. Generally we would wake up about 5 am and shuffle around in the dark between bunk beds trying to assemble our gear as quietly as possible. The plan was set the night prior as we would come together as a team and determine which city we would travel to and gage how long it would take to get there. You see the Albergues and Donitivo’s that house pilgrims would generally fill up around 3 pm so the goal was to journey in such a way as to secure beds for my team of 7 by about 1 pm and try to avoid the siesta time from 2-5 pm when most businesses close for my favorite part of the day.
In Pamplona we sent our larger World Race packs ahead of us to Burgos, so for the Camino I traveled with about 3 outfits, a water bottle, and a sleeping bag liner in my oh so adorable $10 walmart backpack, which I am pleased to say made it the whole way! Anyway we would begin the Camino in the dark and walk together following the yellow arrows and shell symbols that marked our way. After an hour or so, the sun would peak and it never failed to amaze me lighting up the sky with oranges and rich pinks over fields of freshly cut wheat, vineyards, and small farm houses.
Generally about 8 miles in, we would stop at a Panaderia or a small cafe and order breakfast. My heart fell in love with the warm chocolate croissants and fresh orange juice. Many of the businesses were family owned and even in our broken Spanish we could share in a bit of their story. After brunch you guessed it more walking! Sometimes this was spent closely with my team sharing stories and life and other times we would break up a little and move at our own paces. During the Camino we were challenged to disconnect from social platforms and spend about an hour of just quiet time with the Lord each day. This was so very personal and looked different for everyone.
About a mile out, we could generally see the city that we would stay in and would arrive at an Albergue, pay for lodging, find a bed, take a nap, shower, hand-wash our outfit for the next day, go the market for groceries, and prepare a community meal in the cocina and then share team time over dinner. Some evenings involved exploring the city, participating in mass and the pilgrim’s prayer, or just suppressing laughter with each other over bunk beds. Of course each day looked vastly different than the last, but this was the general routine we settled into on the Camino.
For me, the best part of the Camino was walking with other Pilgrims! So many names and faces flash to my mind, because not only would I walk with someone and share conversation for several miles, but I would run into them again and again at little stops on the Camino or at the Albergues at night. I think one of the sweetest conversations I had was walking with my Italian friend, Marco. We shared so much life and conversation for over 2 hours walking along. He was doing the Camino for many reasons but definitely searching for answers outside of religion and looking into Christ in a season of work transition. We laughed about the weight of our Bibles in our packs and talked about everything under the sun and even touched on deep family experiences. I was able to share much of the healing I have found in Christ through family loss.
I could share many more stories of the people we encountered but one just #reallife story was when I was getting ready to leave our Donitivo at 6 am and went to grab my shoes from the rack downstairs and they were gone. For a solid couple of minutes, I had tiny pity party as they were my only tennis shoes for the trip before switching over to my chacos and toes socks for the 15 miles that day. Then I said a prayer that somehow the Lord would return my shoes and started the day. Later as we neared a little restaurant, Charles ran out with a big smile and said they found my shoes! My friend Casey had put them on in the morning and walked 5 miles before she realized they weren’t’ hers. We shared so many laughs as her shoes were gray New Balance’s and mine are black Nike’s haha. Luckily someone else was able to grab her shoes and we shared many laughs as she quite literally walked a mile (or 15 to be precise) in my shoes.
Praying for: I would love if you could join me in praying over my team. I have a family of 7 right now and we are praying for more and more unity and sensitivity to what God has for us each day. I would also so appreciate prayer over our time in Morocco, our next stop. We will have much longer in Morocco and are praying for very intentional relationships to be formed and for the Christ’s authentic love to be shared.
Also thank you so much I only have about $4000 more to go until I am FULLY FUNDED! I have just been so blown away with your support and care. Never could have imagined how I would be able to do this journey last year when I was accepted.
Many blessings,
Breanna
