Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: This. Good morning, friends.
Good morning. It's 9:30 and we have a wonderful program today, so invite everybody to get their seats.
This program is going to be presented by a group of the people who were on the Camino during this past summer.
But I want to introduce their fearless leader, Mark Edwards, whom I'm sure you all know.
He's been the director of youth ministry here since what, 2013, I think.
He also leads a small group on Karl Barth, which is his favorite author.
Besides hiking and biking, Barthes his third love, I think he teaches at TCNJ and at Princeton Seminary and at Princeton University.
And interestingly, has also had the opportunity to teach inside a couple of the New Jersey Correction facilities, which is a special gift.
He's led groups on. Do you call it Beyond Malibu or something? Yeah, and the Appalachian Service Project and Camino. So he keeps very busy with the young people during the summer. And so today he's here with the Camino team. And for our prayer, I would like to read a portion of one of the Camino Trails Camino prayers, which begins with a reference to Abraham and God guiding him as he was moving from one place to another.
And I've modified this a little bit so that it can be a prayer on behalf of all of us on our own life's journey, wherever we are. So let us pray.
Oh, God, be for us our companion on the walk, our guide at the crossroads, our breath in our weariness, our protection in danger, our shelter on the Camino or wherever we are along the way, our shade in the heat, our light in the darkness, our consolation in our discouragements, and our strength in our intentions.
Amen.
Mark, it's all yours.
[00:02:30] Speaker B: Well, good morning. First of all, it is an honor to be here, and it's a lovely gift to spend time at Nassau with all of you. And it's just an amazing thing that we get to go out into the world and go to these incredible places. So we had a great group this summer. There were 22 of us. This is a trip that we did in 2017.
We did it with 20 people. Sally Zinc was on that trip, and Sally and Ron were going to join us on this one but couldn't make it at the last minute. So we had a wonderful group for our second round of 24. A lot of those kids are off to college or other things, so we don't have our whole group here. But you'll get to hear from from a variety of the people that were on the trip. And yeah, we just want to share some Pictures and share some memories and then also allow time for questions. So just in real brief, this is a trip that goes across northern Spain. The Camino de Santiago became the third most popular pilgrimage in the Middle Ages. Second or third to Jerusalem and to Rome.
And the typical official starting spot is your front door.
So wherever you live in Europe, that's where you're supposed to start. And you will see signs for the Camino in other countries around. Most of those routes filter through a little town on the north side of the Pyrenees, the French side called St. Jean Piedeport. So many people start there. That's kind of the unofficial official starting spot. And if you do that, that's about a 500 mile walk that many people do in about a month.
We didn't quite have a whole month. So we started 200 miles away, about 200 miles away from our destination, and walked for 11 days door to door. Jersey to Jersey. It was a 14 day trip. We were walking 11 days consecutively. We had a couple days in Madrid up front. We got some pictures from that. And then we made a quick exit from Santiago back to Madrid and back to Jersey. So it was a lovely trip. And you're going to hear a little bit about it. And Eric is going to be the first.
[00:05:01] Speaker C: Good morning, friends. Good to see you all.
One of the things I loved about this trip, I'd been a number of years, once you step on it, is realizing that these stones that you're walking on are very, very walking through and staying in are old.
A reminder that people have been walking this path for a long, long time before us.
And many will walk time after us as well.
One story that really stood out to me was we were. I think Doug and I were walking together this day and there was a guy near in front of us who was wearing a backpack and he had a Buc EE's patch on his bag, which I did not expect to see a BUC EE's patch in northern Spain. It's a convenience store in the south.
And folks started talking to Doug. And it turns out Doug had walked the Camino the previous year with his wife, who has Parkinson's. And what they would do every day is that they would walk as far as they were able to and then take a cab to the next stop.
And she really wanted Doug to come back this year to walk the Camino again.
You saw all kinds of people, young people, older people, people walking really, really fast like Nico Barreto.
People walking at a more deliberate pace.
Everybody was walking their way.
For me the other. The piece that was really important is we stopped at.
We had good breakfast. Yeah.
We stopped at a building that a church group had rented out, and they were passing out tracks, kind of doing all the symbols of the Camino.
And they're pretty good symbols. I mean, there's signs everywhere showing you where to go. That's helpful. There's a backpack that you're carrying with you, your life on your back. On your back.
But as I thought about the significance of the trip, one of the things you experience on the Camino is anytime you're not sure exactly where to go, you look around and there's a sign pointing you in the right direction.
And often it doesn't feel like everyday life is like that. There's not signs at every corner telling you what to do next.
But there are often people and situations and the stirring of the spirit that maybe isn't as clear as a blue and yellow arrow telling you where to go. But if we're careful, if we look around, there's often markers for us, showing us where God is leading us next.
Last thing I remember is I had a trip to Germany, long planned before I knew the Camino was going to happen, so flew back with the group on a Thursday.
I flew back to Europe on a Sunday right after that, and we were in Germany, and I saw a Camino sign in this church many, many miles away.
And I took a picture of it and I sent it to the WhatsApp of the group. And Byron Walker said, oh, are you going back in the Camino?
And I realized in the moment, I texted Byron and the group back. I said, no. I actually never left the Camino, which I think is the point of this, is that this is special and extraordinary, and the journey itself is distinct, but it's just a mirror to everyday life.
And every day we take another step, and people have gone before us and many will come after us.
And along the way, you get hospitality and challenges and love, and that's just the shape of life.
It's a lovely reminder of that.
So enjoy the rest of the testimonies. I'm going to pass this off back to Mark.
[00:08:29] Speaker B: Ingrid is. That was perfectly timed. That was perfectly timed. We're going to go to Ingrid and Doug.
Come on up.
[00:08:39] Speaker D: Hi, everybody.
This is my camino mug from 2017, the first time I walked with Mark and Janine and our group from NASA and my daughter Camille. And she and I each have a mug that we cherish with our photos from it.
Gosh, I wish I knew what Eric Just said.
[00:09:05] Speaker E: We.
[00:09:06] Speaker D: I think, most importantly, when we were thinking about what we might share with you this morning about walking the Camino, I think one of the most compelling aspects of it for me is the simplicity of the invitation of living a life that you're really carrying only what you need. You don't need much, but what you do need is really quite essential.
And every day is sort of a reflection of that. And the rhythm of every day, the simplicity of, oh, today I'll wear my pink shirt, and tomorrow I'll wear my blue shirt. Oh, I might need my pants today, but maybe not. You know, it's. Those kinds of decisions are very inviting.
And, Eric, I don't know if you mentioned anything about the cruise du Ferro on. I think it's our second day of walking.
We pass this very recognizable moment on the Camino called the Cruz de Ferro, the Iron Cross.
And as you're walking, you come across this pile of pebbles and stones and a long wooden pole with an iron cross at the top that has a long history of.
Perhaps it was there because it marked the way. It was an easy way for people to see a thousand years ago. But the history behind it is that people would carry and leave their burdens at the foot of the cross.
So you might pick up a stone along your way. You might have brought a stone from home.
Sometimes people inscribe messages on them, but along this way you're lightening your burden, literally. Because if you've been carrying it in your backpack and you're leaving it at the foot of the cross, and having done things like this, maybe the most important aspect is the way that this sort of transfers into your everyday life when you return, because it really does give you perspective, and it really does help you see things in a very different way when you've lived. The simplicity of what it means to walk the Camino.
And we have lots of arrows and we have shells, scalloped shells, around our house.
Honey, I'm going to hand you the microphone. But I want to mention one more thing.
On our night before we officially started walking, we had a wonderful outside dinner in the piazza.
[00:11:53] Speaker B: You just saw pictures of it.
[00:11:54] Speaker D: Oh, and I don't know if you can see my scallop shell here, but this scallop shell, the shell has become a symbol of walking the way.
And when we had this dinner, Byron and I took all of the shells from our dinner and we went back to the albergue and cleaned them.
And we didn't have any string, but I had a whole New roll of dental floss.
So we took my little pocket knife and carved into the top of the shell, and I attached dental floss. And so each of the Camino. This was one of many shells that maybe you'll hear more of, but mine is still lasted and my backpack has been around a little bit. So these shells are remarkably strong, and I love having it at my home and on my backpack.
All right, Dougie, thanks.
[00:12:56] Speaker F: I got some notes here just to remember a few things. I'll just.
Oh, I'll just try to relay some memories. One of the first things that I will carry with me from the trip is in Madrid.
We had the opportunity to go to a couple of museums. The Renia Sofia and the Prado, which had some incredible paintings.
I think all of us were pretty amazed at the power of some of those. That was really incredible. And then we started the hike and I saw pictures of when Ingrid and our daughter Camille had done it in 2017. And I didn't realize how much up and down there was. I thought it was relatively flat.
So I was kind of surprised, especially on that second day when we went up to. Yeah, that was probably it.
There was a significant incline, which kind of took me by surprise. And I thought, oh, man, I may have to take a cab one of these days from one place to another.
But, you know, just one foot in front of the other and just keep persevering. And that was one of the challenges for me. In fact, I joked to the group that it was amazing that God was able to create the Camino 90% uphill.
That's what it felt like to me.
Another thing that struck me was the number of churches. Churches in all of these little towns. We saw everything from the Compostela de Santiago to really tiny little chapels. You had to bend your head to get in that were hundreds of years old and weather worn.
Yeah, that's where we all left a stone to drop a burden.
But these churches, there was a mass, and I think every town we were in every night for the peregrinos, the pilgrims.
And so we attended a lot of them and it was really interesting. Most of them were in Spanish. Some of them did multi language and recognized the pilgrims. But it was really incredible to see the power and the influence of the Catholic Church in Spain for centuries, millennia.
And also we saw remnants of the Knights Templar throughout, which I thought was really interesting.
Another thing that struck me was the discussions that we were able to have getting to know people on our group. And as Eric said, we met another Doug on The. On the trip and shared stories about our journey and our. Our pilgrimage.
Is anybody going to talk about Galicia?
I don't want to step on anybody's toes, but. So the state that we did most. Province in Spain that we did most of the hiking was Galicia. And one of the things that was so surprising was walking along and hearing bagpipes.
So we wouldn't have expected in northern Spain to hear bagpipes, but Galicia and Gaelic culture are shared. In fact, the Gaelic culture apparently started in Spain and transferred up, I think, due to fishing lanes, up to Scotland and Ireland, which was really fascinating. And we found at Osobrero, kind of the high. One of the high points of our trip, there was a shop that had all kinds of Gaelic culture with Celtic knots.
There you go.
Things like that. So it was fascinating to learn that part of history.
And then the other thing I'll say is just the time for reflection that we had on this hike, I think that was one of the most profound parts of the journey.
And you have time to think about the things that you normally just kind of gloss over paper over in your life and bring those to the front of your thought. And for me, that's what's carried forward the most. I think after the walk, the.
The reflection that I've been able to carry on and the kind of long burn of the hike for me, of the pilgrimage.
Thanks.
[00:17:51] Speaker G: Okay, so a moment that I wanted to talk about. Oh, oh, that's me.
[00:17:55] Speaker F: Okay.
[00:17:57] Speaker G: A moment that I wanted to talk about from the Camino was this is kind of a really small thing, but on the day.
I don't know what day it was. There's one day where there was that we had all been warned. There was very big uphill for, like, I don't know how many miles. A lot of miles.
Five. Thanks, Errol.
And so we were doing that. I was not looking forward to that. I didn't like uphill.
And Charlotte and I were just walking, and we had passed these two guys a couple of times, and we just passed them back and forth. And then eventually we saw them. We were sitting down. I think we were all kind of, like, really tuckered out.
We saw these guys, and they were sitting together, and this guy just. He offers us a cookie, and we're like, oh, no, thanks. Because I don't. I guess don't take food from strangers. That's bad.
But I feel like that, for me, just kind of.
I feel like with all of the other people that were on the trail at the same time as us, like, there was. I feel like there was always just a spirit of, like, we're kind of, like, all in this together, and, like, we're all doing the same thing. And I feel like everybody.
Not to say that people in regular life aren't friendly and don't say hi to you and I guess don't offer you cookies, but I just feel like that's not something that we really encounter in normal life. But I feel like the Camino isn't really normal life.
I just felt like, for me, that, like.
Like, kind of just captured, like, what, like, everybody's, like, kind of spirit was on the Camino about, like, greeting other people and, like, just being kind to others. And I thought that was great.
[00:19:49] Speaker F: Okay.
[00:19:56] Speaker H: Something to note. I got to go on the Camino the first trip. I don't know if it was the first trip, but 2017, when I was eight. So eight years later.
Eight years later, I was doing it again. And I think that was just a wonderful part for me. I got to. As I hiked, just the memories just came back to me.
When you're reliving a memory in the spot where it took place, I wanted to just share three things I loved. One was a scene.
I think Saar was the town. I don't know. It was this wonderful town that kind of Our albergue was up on the hill, but down, like, in the heart of the town, there was this wonderful stone bridge, and I think it's in Casey's painting.
And we hiked over it to get to the albergue, and then we came down later in the evening, and we just sat by the bridge. I think I was in the water skipping stones. It was wonderful, fresh water.
And there were these two guitarists that were there, and they were wonderful, wonderful singers. And we joined in, and we sat alongside the rim of the bridge, and we were just singing our hearts out. And we sang for about an hour. But it was just wonderful to.
To just join strangers in song.
That's my mom.
For just a long time. And just have a great memory made. The second thing I loved was the water along the trip. I wasn't expecting there to be many swim spots, but we always made the best of what there was. And so whether it was hiking fast ahead so you could stop for the swim spot and then try and be all dry by the time the group caught up, or just all jumping in together, sunbathing on the rocks and just swimming in the lakes and rivers and stuff, that was just the part I really enjoyed because it's Just wonderful when you're in a strange spot to be. Just like having fun in the water. And then the third thing was the food. I loved the food and also I loved the meals that we shared together. It wouldn't have been the same if it wasn't made by us, like in the albergues with garlic salt and lots of olive oil and pastas and sauces, or the fancy group meals that we had. It was just wonderful sharing and nourishing our bodies and refueling all together. So I think those are three things I love.
[00:22:19] Speaker E: Hello, everybody.
I'm Errol Lord.
You probably know my wife more than you know me or my kids.
But anyway, I went on it with my son Tom, who's in college now.
And I'd done long walks before, so I knew that there was something special about slowing down and thinking about things and the world getting much, much smaller. So I knew I was going to like it in that way. But I wasn't really sure the group dynamic of it.
But that turned out to be the best part by a lot. So the amount of love within the group was kind of unbelievable. Like, I just would not have predicted it. No offense, everyone, but, you know, the kids were like cousins. The kids are very impressive group of people. Like more impressive than the adults, probably.
They were like really, really, really ridiculously loving towards each other in like a good.
Like, it was like a big group of very close cousins.
The adults, you know, we bonded a lot and we, like, I think had a good time kind of taking care of the kids in a certain kind of way, and they took care of us.
You know, some of the adults needed more taken care of than others.
Eric, no, Eric was amazing. He ran it, actually. He ran the whole way. He was two hours ahead of all of us anyway, so, I mean, what I told them at the end, the. Our last group reflection was what, you know, I'm a child of the 90s, so, like, irony was the overwhelming attitude towards the world in my generation.
And this was like, probably the least ironic thing I've ever been on. The most sincere, loving thing. And that was real gift to see it kind of go all the way through. Everybody was really, really sad when it was over.
Like, really, really sad. Tom and I stayed in Spain. We didn't come back with them, and we went to Toledo, which is an amazing, beautiful place full of beautiful paintings. But it was very weird to not be with the group.
[00:24:28] Speaker F: So.
[00:24:28] Speaker E: Yeah, I mean, it was a transformative thing. I really, really loved it.
Tom turned 18, so I'll just Give you two, like, particular anecdotes. So he turned 18 on the trip. It was right in the middle. And we were lucky. He was lucky. It was probably the best day in terms of where we went in the middle of the day. We went to this monastery, which I have the ribbon from on my keychain. What is it called? San Memos Somos.
Anyway.
Yeah. And we decided to just hang out there for a while, which was an unusual thing. I think at the beginning, Mark was kind of like, no, the feet have to be going one foot in front of each.
But we decided probably for like, an hour or something, just sitting in the courtyard. These guys were playing Frisbee, and it was pretty magical. Everybody enjoyed that one time that we had a break in the middle of the day.
And then later we had it. We found an impromptu place to swim.
Swimming was a big part of the trip, as Elias said. We had several places where we swam, and we found a little creek where Elias and Tom and Casey did some slightly dangerous things.
And then we kept going.
So it was just. I can't imagine a better 18th birthday.
Yeah, this is it.
This is the monastery.
Oh. And the other thing I wanted to say was just the swimming in general. For me, that was one of the best things.
It was a kind of glue that held the days together. We didn't always find a place to swim, but we found some, including a nude public beach.
It was completely legal and only made Elias slightly uncomfortable. I put it that way. All right, I'll leave you with that.
[00:26:22] Speaker B: Thanks, Errol.
Some things you discover after the fact you don't know in advance.
Janine, Casey. Casey, Janine.
All right.
[00:26:38] Speaker I: Okay. Hi, guys. I'm Casey.
So when I was first going on the Camino, I was, like, set on. Like, I brought my sketchbook, and I was set on, like, capturing the beauty, because obviously you're in Spain. Like, it's gonna be beautiful everywhere. So I was like, oh, I'm going to be painting all these sceneries, all these crazy things. And I did. Like, I painted samos. I painted all these pretty landscapes. But one thing I wasn't fully anticipating was finding all the beauty around me, because I turned out, like my biggest muses by the end, because my sketchbook, it starts with all these sceneries, and then it gets to the people I'm around because I feel, like, the connection. The more the trip went on, the more I was inspired by the great people who I was with. Like, for example, on Tom's birthday night, I remember we came home and I was sitting on the top of the deck after we had, like, our little closing ceremony. And Adeline and Elias were just started singing and playing, like, their guitar. And I was just like, this is, like, one of the most beautiful things, like, I've ever seen. Like, this is so cool. And I sketched them. I was like, this is, like, probably one of my favorite things I've done on this trip so far in, like, terms of my art, because I was just like, this truly captured a moment where I felt so connected to the people around me. And I just think that's really great. And another moment that I thought where I was really connected with the people is on the first day. I mean, on the last day when I was planning on painting Compostela before we left for the train, I was like. I went out really early. It was like 8am we were supposed to meet at 11.
I was sketching. I was sketching. But the entire time groups would come in, they'd pour in, and I would just hear all their excitement, their cheers. They were so happy to make it together. They'd, like, hug each other. And I was so taken aback that I almost didn't finish my thing because I just thought it was so beautiful how everyone feels so excited to make it together.
So I feel like my big takeaway from this trip was there's not just beauty in the places around you, it's really in everyone and everything. And it came back a lot to the hospitality we're faced. I remember on the first day, right when we were leaving Austin, the train from Astorga, this old woman, she was, like, walking up the street, and she just said, bien camido to, like, every single one of us while we were walking. It was like the first one I got, and I was like, wow, that's so nice. Like, everyone here was just so happy to be there. And at the end of the day, I just thought it was such a beautiful experience and I would totally do it again.
[00:29:02] Speaker B: So.
[00:29:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:12] Speaker J: Well, hopefully, if you were wondering, why do people do this? You've started to get a sense of what. What makes it worthwhile. Why just going for a couple weeks and walking could be appealing. I hope you have a sense for that.
People do wonder why. Why pilgrimage?
And in a way, we're kind of already all on a pilgrimage, Whether it's our journey towards life's end or sort of the pilgrimage of our soul towards the celestial city.
Wait, don't go yet.
But in one way, some people consider a spiritual discipline, right? So you forego something, you give up something you suffer a little.
Sort of like fasting might be when you give up food, but this, for some of us, it doesn't feel so much like hardship. Some of us did experience blisters and sore muscles and things. But regardless, we all have this sense of movement and we're all moving towards a place of rest. And that's why I like to go on these walks. It's just, it's finding a place for your soul to rest and at the end of the day for your body to rest. And for these trips, my job is usually to plan months and months in advance all the places we will rest our heads at the end of the night.
And so I'm already in contact with the people at the albergues and hoping that they really will keep those 24 beds for us because some places don't even take a deposit and we don't even speak the same language. And I'm like, okay, so. So it's fun when we finally do get off a plane after lots of hours of traveling and we land at places like central Madrid and people are kind. And I think that's one of the things that stood out to me is the sense of hospitality that's offered along the way.
So you can go to the next one? Yes, thanks. Okay. So some of the places there are monasteries. This is one of the towns that has a Benedictine monastery. And every night they do an evening song and they invite pilgrims to participate in it.
And you can keep going.
There's one of them from the back. It's a beautiful old town.
There's another monk of a sort.
One of the places, even during the day, people offer hospitality. And for many decades there was a self proclaimed Knights Templar who would just offer tea and conversation, probably cookies, to Elaina to the passing pilgrims. This year he had failing health so he could no longer offer that hospitality. But I truly hope someone will pick it up again and along the way, keep going.
Some people offer stamps so we can remember our journeys. And I think there's a stamp book being passed around.
Others offer words of encouragement, signs, stickers.
[00:32:33] Speaker B: Everybody got a chance to read that one? Okay, now just in case you missed it. Omg, you guys, that's not what I said. All right.
[00:32:43] Speaker J: More signs, places to rest and reflect.
And each of these have been, you know, thought through, carefully placed, and they're meant for hospitality so we don't get lost on the way, so we can have refreshment along the way, which we enjoyed multiple times a day.
This is O Sobrero, where it's been in a family for many generations, this idea of hospitality.
And the son that owns it now, where we stayed, has a job. I don't know if he's a physicist or a chemical engineer, but he travels back and forth commuting to make sure this place stays alive for the sake of his father, among other things, who still sits there at the bar and talks with the peregrinos every night. And they have a little church up there that gives away these little arrows that are painted on the rock. This town claims to be the town that started the Yellow Arrow, so they're very proud of that sort of unifying symbol that we find throughout the entire Camino.
[00:33:53] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:33:58] Speaker J: And the towns welcome us.
And this is one of the places that's run by a Christian group called Agape. And I think it's a special opportunity. Some of the albergues, through either the American Camino association or through places like this, Agape, they invite volunteers to come for a few weeks at a time. So even if you feel like you can't walk and you want to be part of it, you could go volunteer to. They offer us drinks and cookies and hugs. Their big thing is that they offer free hugs. So one of the things I think, for. For us as pilgrims, the challenge is to be gracious in how we receive hospitality and to think about how we can encourage the people who are offering the hospitality. And hopefully, by receiving so much hospitality, it helps shape us so that we know how to better give hospitality. And I think for me, that's one of the things. When we come home, I hope that we will randomly offer cookies even if we're not on a Peregrino.
[00:35:00] Speaker A: Right.
[00:35:00] Speaker J: So looking for those little ways to support one another. And I think so someone already mentioned the music that happened. I think that's such a gift that Ingrid and this church and these kids give as a gift. They sang here at this free hug.
They had a little organ or piano, and Ingrid played and the kids sang. From what they have learned at our church, they were singing worship songs, and people stop and listen and love it and enjoy it.
We even have some random people that weren't part of our group that jumped in for this picture. So you just have to leave a place that's giving free hugs special, smiling. So that was one of the memories that I had wanted to talk about. And I think we are at the end. One more.
Oh, this is one of the Albergues that we have. Volunteers can come and pair up and offer hospitality. It's the first Albergi that Mark and I ever went to back in 2001, that convinced us that the Camino was a worthy, a worthy thing to walk. So I think that's it for me.
[00:36:02] Speaker F: Thank you.
[00:36:11] Speaker B: And that's a good picture.
From the high and dry plains of central Spain, up the rolling hills o the Braero is a little goat herder hut home with thatched roofs, gorgeous views. And then you descend into these thicker eucalyptus forests, lots of moss, to town of Santiago.
And you've gotten to hear a little bit about it and maybe you have some questions. So we'll just open it up right.
[00:36:47] Speaker E: Here.
[00:36:52] Speaker B: And maybe you guys, you guys all come forward now. You guys all come forward.
[00:36:56] Speaker E: This is wonderful. Thank you very much everybody.
[00:36:59] Speaker J: I have several questions.
[00:37:00] Speaker A: What did you have to carry in your backpack? What did you not have to carry?
[00:37:05] Speaker B: Where did you sleep?
[00:37:07] Speaker A: What if you had a call of.
[00:37:08] Speaker E: Nature on your route?
[00:37:10] Speaker B: And where did you eat? Did you have to tote food with you?
[00:37:14] Speaker A: There are probably a million other questions.
[00:37:19] Speaker G: Oh, well, what we did a lot of the times for like breakfast was oftentimes the night before. We would go out to grocery stores and like buy little things to carry with us. But often we would stop around, I don't know what time.
Yeah, like four miles in to like stop at a place for breakfast.
And then sometimes we would stop for lunch, sometimes we wouldn't. It depended on like when we were getting in. So we would either stop for lunch on the way or just walk until we got to the town where we were staying for the night and then eat lunch there.
And then dinner, we would just eat at restaurants. There was a couple nights where we cooked or people cooked in the albergue, like as a group.
And then there was a couple times where we went out for group dinners. And then sometimes we were just kind of like on our own in little groups.
[00:38:13] Speaker B: Where do we sleep?
[00:38:15] Speaker I: We would sleep in different albergues. Luckily again, Ms. Janine, she booked us in van so we didn't have to like stray off in different places.
So yeah, those are pretty cool. And sometimes we would even wake up really early and leave at like 5am But I don't know, once you got to ya albergue, like best feeling ever. Like you lie in your bed, you're.
[00:38:35] Speaker H: Like, oh, this is so nice because.
[00:38:37] Speaker I: Your whole body's like on fire. But you know, having a place to stay at the end always is great.
[00:38:42] Speaker B: What did you carry?
[00:38:45] Speaker H: Unlike my 1 pound pack from the previous trip, for me we carried about, I think £10 was probably the average weight, like with water.
But your pack definitely got heavier throughout the trip because you were just carrying all those good snacks and all those good shells and little trinkets you'd found along the way.
So we definitely took a lot more back with us than we came. But you would carry just base layers. You would carry food enough for the day, not really thinking about tomorrow. You would carry water. Thankfully, there was tons of wonderful public fountains with signs that either had like drinking crossed out or like, yes, drink it.
And you could just fill up your water bottle or your camelback and I don't know, it was just enough to keep you going. And you would restock at the grocery stores and. Yeah, it's amazing what you can do with so little.
[00:39:43] Speaker B: Errol on trail emergencies.
[00:39:48] Speaker E: Okay, that's a good picture for her.
I mean, we didn't have any, like epic on trail emergencies. So that one person had some really bad blisters and she had superhuman strength to go along with it and somehow made it all the way through.
Adeline, Mark and Janine's oldest, had a cross country injury and came in the middle and got an E bike and rode up and down and went and scouted things for us.
I guess the biggest injury for somebody who was there the whole time was what was her.
Mackenzie's. What was her injury? Broke her ankle.
Yeah. And before the, before the trip, falling off her horse.
And she probably shouldn't have come either, but she really wanted to and she did the whole thing. I mean, she took some cabs at the beginning, but she had many days where she did the whole day and she's the one that led us into.
Into the cathedral. I have a video of that that we can put up during the coffee hour.
And yeah, she was amazing. So, I mean, overall, like, there were injuries, but nothing drastic. And probably those blisters were the nastiest thing. But she, man, she was a crazy trooper.
Oh, well, you should ask Mark about that.
[00:41:20] Speaker F: No, we would try to time things out, you know, and take advantage of what you had, you know, before you leave, when you stop, you know, you don't want to get back on the trail without taking a break.
But you would see people now and then running into the woods, so be prepared for that too.
[00:41:37] Speaker A: People.
[00:41:39] Speaker F: Other questions.
[00:41:46] Speaker D: Where did you get the cabs?
[00:41:49] Speaker B: You're in the middle of nowhere.
So one of the lovely things about the Camino is many of these paths predate the main highways, so you get to walk kind of like a canal path that sometimes is quite far away from the roads. But it's often crossing roads, and sometimes it's. Roads become parallel to it. And then there's just these little towns every five, six, seven kilometers, you know, four or five miles. So you keep dropping through these little villages, and some of them are so small and nothing is open, and some of them have multiple little cafes and restaurants and grocery stores and services.
And we would walk, walk, walk for five, six, seven hours. And if Mackenzie needed to catch a cab, she'd get on the phone and make a call. SHE speaks Spanish and she would be.
She'd be to the next town where we'd meet her in about eight minutes.
So.
[00:42:53] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:42:55] Speaker J: The trip sounds lovely.
[00:42:56] Speaker H: Thank you for sharing all the highlights and beautiful points.
[00:42:58] Speaker J: Were there any moments that were particularly challenging, and how did you work through those challenges?
[00:43:16] Speaker B: Here's my perspective.
I love getting out into the world, and I think Christ calls us to get out into the world. Come, follow me. And that's not to a library, and it's not even to a sanctuary.
It's out into the world.
And this is, in many ways, life distilled. And so every day has glorious moments.
Every day has.
I'm hot, I'm thirsty, my feet hurt. I need to find a bathroom.
Where's the other people in my group?
Every day has these challenges. And in some ways, they.
They may not be major challenges, but because they're what you have to face, then they kind of become, you know, your day's struggle. And we would always just share at the end of the day. I mean, I think this is one of the best parts, just highs and lows of the day.
And, you know, everybody has a high, everybody has a low. And sometimes the low becomes the high. And. And that's just one of the special things about living life in a pure way. It's a simple way, but that means the joys and the struggles get simplified and purified and tears for both. Yes.
[00:44:44] Speaker F: I would say it comes down to two words, perseverance and resilience.
And I was amazed. I didn't have any blister issues. I was fortunate that way, but a lot of people did and other kind of injuries, knee or a pulled muscle or something. And every single person on the trip persevered and pulled forward. For me, it was a challenge physically, the endurance.
And I felt like all of us got stronger as we went along. I know I felt that way. You know, it was really hard at the start, but it got easier because I, you know, my body was adjusting and my spirit was adjusting. So I would say that's, you know, part of it.
[00:45:33] Speaker B: Just one more thing. Because you're together and somebody's hurting and you're not over the long haul, you realize, oh, it's actually a joy to share people's burdens with them, to see them through their burdens, to carry their burdens with them if you can. And that actually becomes a beautiful gift.
[00:45:57] Speaker A: With that, it's a perfect time to say thank you so much to Mark and his team.
Just a couple of announcements. First, there will be continuing pictures up during the coffee hour that you can look at. And second, there will be on a back table opportunity if you haven't signed up or looked at the small group opportunities to still sign up for those. And also if you have signed up or need it for yourself, there are paper copies of the study guide that Carol Werheim has prepared for it. And finally, there are a few free copies of Tom Coogan's book Deadheads and Christians. So if you're interested in that theme and you haven't picked up a free copy, there are a few still back on the back table. Thanks again, everybody.
[00:46:56] Speaker B: And.
