new friends... old friends... just along the way

one of the highlights of being in ligonde was the amazing people i met who were working alongside me or just passing through.

here are a few of the people i remember. (i'll have to come back and write some more about the people i was working with, as i really did learn a lot from them as well. and there is a lot more to be said even about the pilgrims, i am just too tired to write much more right now.)

a spanish guy with 3 kids, i unfortunately don't remember his name, but he got me thinking about walking the whole camino - about 30+ days and about doing it more or less alone. he said he thought everyone at some point should do the whole thing and do it alone. not just as a challenge, but as quality time to think and grow. after the day with the Lord, walking alone, i would really love to walk the whole thing and am trying to think of a time i could actually do it. we'll see...

several hungarians, one named kata, and another one who i can't quite remember her name either, possibly esther. anyway, she impressed me as she talked about her country and asked for our prayers for it. hungary and hungarians will probably always have a special place in my heart since during college our Cru group prayed for hungary and sent people there in the summers to help with an english camp for high school and college students. many of the hungarians who passed through had a hungarian flag on their backpack, so were easy to pick out. but anyway, i digress, this girl i'll call esther asked for prayer for her country during our prayer time, so later i asked her about that (both specifics of why she wanted prayer for her country - since i haven't been the best with keeping up with news of hungary over the years - and about her spiritual journey - she mentioned that several were fasting and praying for their country, not the thing you hear everyday). it was interesting and encouraging to hear that many hungarians are calling out to God to heal their country, which economically isn't doing so well and still has a very high rate of suicide among youth. so, if you think of it pray and fast for hungary with them and for them.

i also met this woman christine, who is an american and who will probably crash at my place on wednesday on the way back to the states. she was walking with an austrian friend she had met along the way, named crista.

there were some sweet madrileños and catalans and sevillanos i met as well, including several who were extremely open about their spiritual journey. it was fun to talk about God and Jesus and what He means to me and my spiritual journey as well as listening to them.

i met an english woman and a spanish woman who had both discovered God along the camino. after explaining the Gospel to both they both said that was what they wanted in their life. they had both grown up with spiritual baggage that had kept them from allowing God into their lives, but now wanted to release control to him. please pray for them.

there was a japanese kid and a german girl, both of whom were searching for God but who were waiting for him to reveal himself to them along the camino. they had three days left of walking when the stayed with us. please pray for them.

again and again people commented on the peace present at our refuge and how there was something different about this place, something that drew them in and made them feel at home. we shared that we wanted to serve them and to demonstrate Jesus's character through both actions and words. it is amazing how open people are during this journey, pilgrimage, and how almost all of them are looking for something spiritual. pray that they would find Jesus.

there are a few people i will hopefully talk with again, but many whom we were only a day in their life. fortunately God is in control and he can use their time with us and at the refugio in powerful ways to draw them to him.