Around Europe
I’m back in the US as of last Tuesday. It’s a blessing to arrive in the States with fresh encouragement from this summer, and while the school year ended without much flair on my part, I’ve kept quite busy the last few months with a few travels and stories I’m eager to share with you all!
L’Abri has, in the last year, felt like a home away from home—the place I return to when I need retreat, or space to think and flush out my ideas alongside others who are reckoning with their own big questions. I am continually struck by the natural opportunities there are to minister to other students during my own time of being ministered to at L'Abri. Whether it’s sharing resources, or listening to someone as they process their own spiritual journey and begin to articulate what they think about God, I’ve found L’Abri to be just as much about listening to others and asking them questions as it has been my own opportunity to reflect. In the last few months I’ve been thinking a lot about identity and the things that come together to make us us. What we love, what we hate, what we think about God, our families, or nationality, who our families say we are. How do we understand ourselves, and how does that influence how we approach God as the giver of the law, the creator of the earth, and lover of our souls? The question of legalism, and how it differs from being followers of the law, has been one that I often come back to. I’m currently working on a writing project regarding this and will share it with you when I’m satisfied with my thoughts :)
Since my visit to Agape’s (Cru) pilgrim house on the Camino in April I have kept in contact with the program director who invited me to come out for a week-long visit in August to help run the house. As I’ve used this summer to make deeper connections with hospitality ministries, the opportunity to see the inner workings of Agape’s ministry and their vision for hospitality as a form of evangelism fit well into this season of discernment.
La Fuente del Peregrino, the Pilgrim’s Fountain, is a 75km walk to Santiago in the village of Ligonde. For centuries, Ligonde has served as a rest stop for pilgrims on the Camino. It’s known for the medieval pilgrim hospital (with an adjacent cemetery), and boasts of hosting the King of Spain himself on his Camino pilgrimage many hundreds of years ago. Today, Ligonde hosts more cows than humans. You can run from one end of the village to the other in about 45 seconds, likely being chased by one of the many dogs that herd cows by day and compete in barking competitions by night. For an animal shelter turned pilgrim hostel, La Fuente is serving more than a hundred pilgrims a day with free tea, coffee, lemonade and credential stamps, and intentionally prompting conversations about Christ and spirituality with the 10 pilgrims they host nightly with a full meal and place to sleep. Considering the thousands of people that walk the Camino yearly, La Fuente in some way or another is touching the lives of many, and proclaiming the love of Christ on a historical pilgrimage trail that so many walk in search of answers.
I felt like much of what I’d been considering this summer at L’Abri was in preparation for a single conversation I was to have with a pilgrim who Jesus was calling back to himself. D arrived at La Fuente just in time for dinner, having walked almost 40km from Sarria. Seated next to each other, conversation quickly turned to philosophy and our theories for existence. D grew up Buddhist, and his more recent studies of Buddhist philosophy and his time on the Camino have led him to consider why he does what he does. What the goal of it all is. D argues we can free ourselves from suffering by meditation, by looking into ourselves, I argued we cannot actually know ourselves- that we do not have access to ourselves without an objective source of truth by which we can see our own reflection. Essentially, I argued we cannot know ourselves in a vacuum. Many hours into our conversation, after everyone was in bed, I presented Jesus as our source of truth- that the most true view of ourselves is the way God views us, and that God is offering a personal relationship with us as His children. D was receptive and engaging, and you could tell he had never considered a God who would desire relationship in a way that Jesus offers. D left the next morning with John’s Gospel (we read John 10 together), and a closer awareness of Jesus walking beside him. D wrapped up the Camino last week, and I’m continuing to pray that as he thinks about his pilgrimage and transitions back into life in Montreal that he can’t help but consider a God that is pursuing him personally and intentionally.
La Fuente’s goal is to plant seeds- to gauge where people are at in their spiritual journey and introduce Jesus in a way where they are aware of the Gospel as they continue walking to Santiago. These pilgrims are hungry for answers, so much so they are willing to uproot their lives to walk hundreds of miles in search of meaning. D is just one of thousands of pilgrims with the same story. What a loving God we have that He seeks out each one individually and speaks to them in a voice of love.
After three years with TeachBeyond I’ve been granted 4 months of Home Assignment- an opportunity to step back from a majority of my work at GDQ and reconnect with ministry partners, family and friends to share more about what’s been happening, and (God willing) fundraise the remainder of my recommended monthly support.
Here is my current itinerary:
August: New England
September: New York City, Washington DC, Virginia (Richmond, Lynchburg)
October: Tennessee, Minnesota, Illinois, Dallas
November: Arizona, Idaho, Colorado
December: TBD
Writing this update a week into my home assignment from the coffee shop I religiously frequented when I lived in New Hampshire, it’s crazy to think how much has changed in so short a time, and how much is still unknown about the next four months. Grateful to start off this season back where God first called me to Albania. I’d appreciate your prayers for God’s clear voice, or at least my sensitivity to where God is moving and who He is having me connect with. Please pray for my energy, as I’m coming to the States already quite tired from a pretty active summer. Being in Spofford has been a much appreciated breather, and hoping there are a few others in the mix.
Aaron