It Begins...

May 23rd, 2013 12:00pm

Nervous- Do I have everything? What if something goes wrong? Will we have a profitable ministry? Excited- I can't believe it's finally here! These next few hours are going to take forever. When will our plane finally leave?

Our entire team in the Springfield Airport- Strapped in and Ready to Go!

All these thoughts and more swirled through my head as my team and I said goodbye to family and friends in the Springfield Airport. A quick photo op and we were headed through security and to our gate. After what seemed like forever we got on a quick flight to Atlanta. From Atlanta we took about a 10 hour flight to Madrid, Spain- with two people getting very sick on the way over, the flight in itself was an adventure. Let's just say airsickness was not part of the plan. Once in Spain it took an airport train, two buses, and a 45 minute Taxi ride through mountainous switchbacks to finally arrive in St. Jean Pied de Port.

St. Jean is a small town in the south of France, which acts as the start of the Camino Del Santiago. Filled with shops, restaurants, and albergues, St. Jean caters to the flood of pilgrims who begin their journey here. We had one day to explore the town and acclimate before we set off on our first day of trekking. Below are some pictures of our exploration of the town.

Picturesque St. Jean

Lunch...and yes that's a whole egg on my pizza!

St. Jean's beautiful Medieval church- We saw hundreds of these small town parishes.

 

An ancient key to the church in the picture above, that still worked!

  

Meet the Team!

Hello All,

Join me over the next few weeks as I post a day by day account of my trip. I will also include pictures so you can get an even better idea of the Way of St. James. As I have said before I am very new at this so bear with me as I learn how to be a "blogger." But before we fully dive in- some trip statistics and a team introduction.

Trip Statistics-
19 Days (Late May-Early June 2013)
13 Days spent hiking
10 People (two teams of 5)
287.5 Kilometers (178.64 miles)
630,890+ steps
Across 2 countries

The Team-

Janet-Our fearless leader. Home-remedy specialist and hiking extraordinaire Janet was in every way the glue of our team. She kept us on track and lead but allowed us to make decisions as a team as well. Janet took care of us and always put us before herself. She answered the Lord's call to take care of those around you and showed such love and compassion to all. Janet was the ultimate asset to our team and I cannot imagine what our trip would have been like without her.

Micah-Our musical genius. Guitar toting and philosophy loving Micah was the only guy in our 5 member team. He's a real trooper for putting up with all of us ladies for 13 days straight. Micah added a serious and thought provoking component to our team and promoted a lot of self-reflection. Always steadfast, he never missed a beat and daily lead the pack.

Vicki-Our pragmatic photographer. Insanely skilled with her camera, Vicki provided the most beautiful pictures of the trip. Her practicality and determination ensured that our team kept goals and purpose in mind. On top of her artistic talent, Vicki has a great albeit sarcastic sense of humor that kept me on my toes and smiling.         

Lyndsay-Our caring extrovert. Regardless of situation, Lyndsay was always one of the first to strike up a conversation and open up to those we met. She constantly asked how we were doing and strove to make everyone else's journey as enjoyable as possible. Her smiling face and eager attitude made her a joy to be around.   

On the first morning of our trek- (from far left) Lyndsay, Janet, Myself, Micah, and Vicki

As you can imagine our team ended up spending lots of time together as we trained for months before leaving and then spent the entire trip together. Each person brought this unique and lovely personality that allowed our team to reach many different types of people and balance each other out. I got to know everyone quite well and love and miss them greatly. There's just something about walking almost 200 miles with someone that brings you together.

So that's the gang you will come to know and love as you read about our shared experiences on the Camino. Tomorrow we begin!