30. Oct 2025

Santiago de Comp. - Negreira

Photo 1: Yestetday at noon I met Peter Wieners at the Cathedral in Santiago. We are both on the Exectutive Committee of VM-I, a foreign missions sending organisation affliated with the German Pentecostal Church. Peter is also the Managing Director of VM-I. He did the Camino starting in Portal, Portugal. About a year ago we planned to meet in Santiago and then walk together to Cape Finisterre, not knowing whether either of us would make it that far. Ten years ago it would have been unthinkable for Peter to walk the two weeks from Portal to Santiago. He had a health condition that greatly limited his physical capacity. As Peter was contemplating involment with VM-I, he knew he could only do this if God would heal him. God did.

Photo 2: This kilometer marker shows the next two destinations that were possible on the Camino. Peter and I walking to Finisterre. I will then continue on to Muxia.

Photo 3: Walking through the woods leaving Santiago

Photo 4: I love these old rock bridges. Right before crossing this one, I met Patricia, a young Spanish pilgrim. I asked her what she does when she is not doing a Camino. Her voice cracked with emotion: "I am not working at the moment... I am searching for my place." I shared with her the story of Jacob who left everything behind him including a lot of pain, and walked 1300 kilometers to an uncertain future in Mesopotamia. He was looking for his place. God met him on the way and gave him the promise to be with him, that he would make it to there and one day come back. I could see a tear trickle down her cheek. Patricia said she would hope that God would speak to her. I could sense by her comments and questions to me that she was disappointed by her experience in Santiago. She did not have a God encounter. I said that maybe God was speaking to her now through me and asked if she knew how to make the faith connection to God. She said no. I asked her if she believed that Jesus is the Son of God, that he died on the cross and rose again. She had difficulty believing in the physical resurrection of Jesus. So for the next several kilometers I explained God's plan of salvation, starting with Adam and Eve in the garden all the way to the resurrection if Jesus... that through the cross and the resurrection the power of sin and death were broken. When we ask Jesus to come into our heart, he turns the light on in our soul that was turned off by sin. This light in us can connect with God's light, ans so we become God's children. We at this point we arrived at the next town. Her boy friend was there at the first bar/restaurant waiting for her. Patricia thanked me for the talk and said that she would think about the words I had spoken to her. She did not know that she could read about the life and teachings of Jesus by reading the first four books of the New Testament... this is secular post Christian Europe. She said that she wanted to do this now. There are so many people in Europe who have grown up on a religios system, but do not have the God connection.

Photo 5: I caught up with Peter at the pilgrim hostel behind this church. Peter usually leaves much earlier than me, and I will catch up somewhere towards the end of the hike. This way each will have their personal Camino experience on the path and we can share the evening and breakfast time together.