A friend was planning a mission trip to serve at a hostel along the Camino. My trip to Europe the prior year had been too short. So when my friend suggested Spain, I thought, I wouldn’t mind going back to Europe. I had never heard of the Camino. After watching a few videos about the place we would serve, I was more than sold! I loved the idea of spending a week meeting and talking to people from all over the world.
Before going out on the mission field, I prayed much about how to separate culture from religion. I’ve heard many stories of missionaries causing more harm than good by pushing their culture onto other people. I cannot say that my culture is the “right” or “Godly” culture. Getting an opportunity to see a true multi-cultural ministry in action was a great blessing for me.
La Fuente del Peregrino
Website: https://lafuentedelperegrino.com/en/
My friend and I spent the last weekend of April serving at this hostel along the Camino. They can accommodate up to nine pilgrims (as the people walking the Camino are called) each night. Volunteer teams of 8-10 people go to serve for a week at a time. Volunteers greet the pilgrims that stop in during the day. There are usually several hundred who stop in to get a stamp, water or coffee, use the facilities, or just for a short break from the walk. At night we would prepare dinner for the pilgrims who would spend the night. After dinner we would do some entertainment including playing a game to learn more about each other. In the morning we would clean, and prepare for the next set of pilgrims.
Playing Solarium with the pilgrims after dinner.
The front of the La Fuente and sitting area outside.
One of the groups that stayed with us overnight.
In the kitchen.
I learned how to make Sarmale, a Romanian stuffed cabbage dish.
One of the local deserts.
Preparing for dinner.
We visit with the pilgrims while they take a break in the sitting area outside.
Do the…chicken?
Language and cultural differences create some surprising confusion at times. When an older lady from Germany arrived for the night. Our helper from Romania greeted her. She told her “I need you to do the check-in before I get dinner started”, but with her Romanian accent, it sounded like “I need you to do the chicken”. It didn’t help the confusion that there were several chickens running around. The German looked around, and said, “You want me to do the chicken?!” Of course she said that with a strong German accent, so our friend from Romania didn’t catch the difference in wording. So she replied “Yes, yes, please I need you to do the check-in quickly before I go start dinner.” as she handed her the tablet with the check-in form. With a laugh of relief, the German lady explained what she thought she had heard. This made for a very fun story during dinner.