Encouraging Pilgrims

I was standing at the back of the plane practicing my Spanish with a man from Argentina when I saw a man take my seat to talk to Rand. They were still talking when I returned 20 minutes later. 

"What was that about?" I asked.

"He overheard us telling that young couple with the kids that we were doing the Camino," Rand said. They had wanted to know what Rand was going to do with his walking stick. Made from a tree that experienced the eruption of Mount St Helens, it's a real eye catcher. We spent the entire boarding process telling them about last year's Camino. They were on their way to hang out in Santiago and wanted to do the Camino when the kids are a little older. We assured them there were lots of families who walked, that they wouldn't regret it, and that it was safe.

The man who approached Rand on the plane was a recently retired CEO of PepsiCo, who married a woman from Spain 3 years ago. They divide their time between Dallas and Madrid and want to do the Camino, so Rand was telling him all the reasons why they should.

Sharing our experience with people who also long to walk is a tremendous joy and feels like serving. I think we all have times when we need encouraged to do the thing we long to do. And it is wonderful to think we could be the catalyst that turns a potential pilgrim into a true peregrino.

The next morning, after we'd made our way to St. Jean Pied de Port, France, by train and taxi, we saw a pilgrim staring from his map to the trail and back again. We stopped and pointed him in the right direction. We know what it is like to go the wrong way on our very first day! 

After taking the bus to Pamplona, a woman with a backpack approached us and asked how to get to St. Jean, where we had been earlier in the day. We told her about the bus schedules and what a taxi would cost.

And still later, before boarding another bus we talked to a man from New Mexico who had been in Spain for over a week. "It is so nice to speak English," he said. "It has been 8 days and my brain needs a rest!" His biggest concern was having enough money. We told him to hit the ATM at every big city, that we had run out and it wasn't fun or easy.

Later I said to Rand, "I was so worried about not fitting in because we aren't walking this stretch, but it has been so nice to be helpful for those who are where we were a year ago."

Serving other pilgrims and potential pilgrims will be a highlight of this trip for me!