Then he said to me, "This is what the LORD says to Zerubbabel: It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of Heaven's Armies. Zechariah 4:6
So it was way dark and dank this dawn when we unloaded off at the park. And we were quite beyond tired. There was a lot of hysteria on the bus that night on the part of our fellow travelers, particularly the woman who kept announcing in front of all these witnesses that she was going to get our bus driver arrested the moment they arrived in Portugal. And I am pretty sure that both Nicole and I were wondering What the blazes we were doing. Nicole had told Ander that we would meet him at the bike shop at eleven this morning, and that felt like a long time away. A few drunks sidled up to us and whispered how beautiful we were. I hefted the pack and sort of started circling, like a tired old dog sniffing out a place to curl up and die.
Christy?
Ander?
Yes, Ander was there and swept us up into sweet hospitality, the whole deal: bed, showers and croissants and coffee and poetic wanders throughout beautiful San Sebastián with lots of the sorts of historical details I love and plate after plate of tapas and ensalada. Yes, Anders was the gentle touch of the promise that He will be in our suffering and pain with kind favor. And bike guy was amazingly kind as well, fiddling to make everything absolutely strong and smooth. He told us stories of his immigration from Honduras, how he made his way up through Mexico, but when he got to the border and stared across, he decided that it was way too difficult, so he turned himself in, and applied to Spain. And his little girl with curls was there as well, and she is learning English, and I gave her on of my Dad's little bibles, and he made her promise to learn the whole thing.
But most of all, the wildly pealing bells of the Church of the Good Shepherd reminded me that I shall not want. And we joined a mass welcoming the Presence of the Holy Spirit on this Day of Pentecost. And we ate this bread and drank this cup in remembrance of Me, and behold I am with you even until the ends of the earth.
And last night Nicole mapped out a tentative schedule of each day's ride, of course with the understanding that it will be full of changes, and we might not actually make it to Fisterra, the "ends of the earth," because the extra 88 km doesn't fit into our schedule, unless we are much better or much worse (and end up taking a little scooting ahead bus ride with the bikes) than predicted.
But if I do make to the big cliff and the sea for a mighty cleansing plunge, where the Romans thought the world ended, He is with me.
Omnipotence Padre Dios, danos la fe del Salvador, que a nuestros padres fue sosten en los momentos de dolor. !Hasta la muerte, en Cristo eaten nuestra Esperanza y nuestra fe! Himnario Bautista
So it was way dark and dank this dawn when we unloaded off at the park. And we were quite beyond tired. There was a lot of hysteria on the bus that night on the part of our fellow travelers, particularly the woman who kept announcing in front of all these witnesses that she was going to get our bus driver arrested the moment they arrived in Portugal. And I am pretty sure that both Nicole and I were wondering What the blazes we were doing. Nicole had told Ander that we would meet him at the bike shop at eleven this morning, and that felt like a long time away. A few drunks sidled up to us and whispered how beautiful we were. I hefted the pack and sort of started circling, like a tired old dog sniffing out a place to curl up and die.
Christy?
Ander?
Yes, Ander was there and swept us up into sweet hospitality, the whole deal: bed, showers and croissants and coffee and poetic wanders throughout beautiful San Sebastián with lots of the sorts of historical details I love and plate after plate of tapas and ensalada. Yes, Anders was the gentle touch of the promise that He will be in our suffering and pain with kind favor. And bike guy was amazingly kind as well, fiddling to make everything absolutely strong and smooth. He told us stories of his immigration from Honduras, how he made his way up through Mexico, but when he got to the border and stared across, he decided that it was way too difficult, so he turned himself in, and applied to Spain. And his little girl with curls was there as well, and she is learning English, and I gave her on of my Dad's little bibles, and he made her promise to learn the whole thing.
But most of all, the wildly pealing bells of the Church of the Good Shepherd reminded me that I shall not want. And we joined a mass welcoming the Presence of the Holy Spirit on this Day of Pentecost. And we ate this bread and drank this cup in remembrance of Me, and behold I am with you even until the ends of the earth.
And last night Nicole mapped out a tentative schedule of each day's ride, of course with the understanding that it will be full of changes, and we might not actually make it to Fisterra, the "ends of the earth," because the extra 88 km doesn't fit into our schedule, unless we are much better or much worse (and end up taking a little scooting ahead bus ride with the bikes) than predicted.
But if I do make to the big cliff and the sea for a mighty cleansing plunge, where the Romans thought the world ended, He is with me.
Omnipotence Padre Dios, danos la fe del Salvador, que a nuestros padres fue sosten en los momentos de dolor. !Hasta la muerte, en Cristo eaten nuestra Esperanza y nuestra fe! Himnario Bautista
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