Hello from Portamarina, Spain! We just finished day 1 of the Camino and what a wild ride it’s been. We have met people from all over the world and I’ve tried many new foods.Â
Before we started, people kept asking us where we were going to start. We would tell then we were beginning in a town called “Sarria,” but since we aren’t very good at rolling our “r’s”, they thought we were saying “Soria” which is a town about 300km from Santiago. When we’d say we are doing the walk in 5 days, the reaction was the same every time: “uh….no. Es impossible….” Then every time we’d explain it and the Spanish people would say, without fail, “ohhhhhh! Que bueno! Buen Camino!” This happened with the  Spanish man in Charlotte, a priest in Madrid, and a group of nuns in Getafe. Too funny.Â
Today, we began walking and finished about 15 miles, stopping in towns and churches along the way. I met a couple of French women and finally got to speak French with someone! I studied all through my time at OHS and during my year at North Central. I am excited to go to France next week.Â
Last night a woman raised in New York and living in Madrid asked if she could our group for dinner. We had excellent conversations about the spiritual life and she asked many questions. We discussed doubt, scrupulosity, and commitment to the spiritual life. A lot of the things she was saying really rang true for me, especially as I think about my life before seminary. We must remain faithful! Know that The Lord is seeking you and desires for you to enter into a relationship with him. It is hard to keep faith sometimes, especially without tangible experiences to back it up. But isn’t this faith? If we had all the answers, there’d be no reason for faith. But faith is our actively willing to believe in something that we cannot see, even though we can’t always experience it with our senses. Instead of our flesh, we must believe and act with the eyes of faith!Â
My goals for the Camino were to grow in humility and trust. Let us make this our prayer…to have greater humility and trust that the God who has called us and loves us more than we know will supply what is required for his will to be accomplished.Â
From Spain, Buen Camino!Â
PAX,
RA