The Camino can seem dry at times but lately it’s been wet, we hiked 18 miles today, about half of it in a light drizzle. It’s a delicate balance of how much to wear because one minute you’re cold and one minute you’re sweating hot. Or what to bring, this month we’ve stripped down to half our pack and at times I still think we overpacked, like my headlamp that is out of batteries and my spare batteries were sent ahead or my sleeping pad that has a hole in it…or my chacos that gave me terrible blisters…
What has been amazing are the people we’ve spent time with on the Camino. We walked the first three days with 3 girls from Austria/Germany and shared meals with them, and then we serendipitously kept on seeing them! on the trail, at the store, in our albergues (hostels)…it’s been cool to walk alongside them…the last time I saw them, I spent some time with one of the girls, reading the Bible, showing and explaining how I read, praying for her and encouraging her in her walk. When I prayed for her, I placed my hand on her knee and she mentioned a few minutes later that her knee was warm when I prayed and it was still warm and even about 20 minutes later, she said it was still warm. She also said she was feeling sad that day and she didn’t know why but after praying, she said she felt happy. I think there was a transfer of anointing in that prayer.
Another day, we split our team up, some of us wanted to walk the harder but quicker day (18km) and others wanted to walk to longer but easier day (25km), Me and three others picked the shorter route but funny enough we ended up walking the longer route and it was totally a God thing, we ended up walking alongside this couple from Nebraska and spent the whole day with them, talking, sharing, bouncing ideas of each other and when we realized how far we were, Andrew volunteered to carry the lady’s pack for her and her eyes welled up with tears…she was so moved. When we arrived into town and were getting to our hostel, they told us they would cover the lodging for us 4 who walked with them and that they would fast and pray for us instead of eating dinner. Wow! What provision!
The next day we were walking with this missionary, Pablo, who had been in Madrid for 11 years and he blessed us 3 with a coffee. Wow God! We had such a great time picking his brain, asking questions about his life and later that night we stayed at the same albergue and we invited him to eat with us. We’d been pooling one euro for dinner per person and cooking a lot of pasta… He said sure and we went and borrowed some pots and pans from a local restaurant. However when we started to cook, we couldn’t get the stove to work and what were we going to do? Randomly we saw the couple from yesterday from Nebraska who was excited to see us and they invited us over to their place to use their kitchen. Wow! We brought our grocery bags over, cooked and they said bring your friends to eat over, so they went out to eat and all 13 or so of us piled in and we shared a meal together. It was a sweet time.
Day before yesterday, day two of walking with Pablo, we walk and talk and ask theological questions (he has a seminary degree!) and he blesses us 3 with a coffee and we talk to some other people on the trail and then that afternoon, at the store he mentioned that he wanted to treat us to dinner at an actual restaurant, to a menu de dia meal. Wow! He also ended up buying some groceries and we played some hearts, talked some more, stumbled upon this awesome local Spanish music and dance celebration and had an awesome meal with gazpacho, octopus and potatoes, cheese and caramel flan. Wow! It felt so amazing to get poured into and to be so full (spiritually and physically). What a blessing to spend time soaking in what it’s like to be a missionary in a country that could care less about God.
Based on the people I’ve talked to, the Spanish are a devout and religious people with strong tradition and a rich history, but from the outside it doesn’t seem like much relationship. Pablo said in his 11 years he hadn’t seen one person come to Christ. Would you lift him up in your prayers? Him and his wife and two daughters, for encouragement and fruit in his ministry?
The day we went to PortoMarin, we arrived just before a woman tripped, fell, and cut over her face. Ouch! We went over and helped with gauze, calling an ambulance (which took over an hour to not arrive), we talked to her and her family and then the next day we went to the church to get our stamp for our credential and they were there! And then we stumbled upon another cafe and they were there too! And then today we walked down the street to the store and saw them again. Wow! We were able to pray and encourage each other and it’s just been a sweet time.
