Turned for the better

Fall has now begun in Spain as well. The drought is over, and there’s more rain. The stream of pilgrims is decreasing, and a few of the volunteers are already heading home. The harvest in the monastery garden has also begun. We’re picking almonds together, gathering walnuts, picking tomatoes, and peeling and canning roasted bell peppers.

There’s been some commotion here lately. For some reason, the local bartender has taken a dislike to the hostel and sees us as competition. Unfortunately, he’s managed to get to the point where we’re temporarily forbidden from using the hostel kitchen for pilgrims. This was a major blow for us, since we love to prepare healthy meals and eat and chat with the pilgrims.
So now we’re cooking only for the volunteers in our little kitchen in the volunteer house.
But the Lord knows how to turn everything around. What at first seemed like a major setback turned out to be a wonderful advantage.
We moved the Jesus meditation—which normally takes place at 8:30 p.m. after dinner—to 6:00 p.m., before the pilgrims go to eat at that bar.
Since the bar doesn’t open until 7:00 p.m., the pilgrims aren’t in a hurry. And they’re more open to attending the meditation. Almost every evening, the room is nearly full. Even after the meditation, they stay seated much longer to talk—the conversations we would otherwise have during meals. How remarkable! God always knows what He’s doing! He is faithful!

We continue to pray for the bartender and his family. They are still trapped in great darkness and great bitterness.

Here’s another beautiful testimony we’d like to share: Michele, one of the staff at Oasis, is walking the Camino for a week with a small group of women. There was a Chinese woman in the group who was having a lot of pain in her knees and was walking with braces. With all those hills, she was having extra trouble carrying her backpack. But when Michele asked her if she could carry her backpack for her, she refused. After a while, Michele took the backpack off the woman’s back anyway, and the woman began to cry.
She realized she didn’t have to struggle alone and that she could accept an act of love, just as she could accept God’s love. He wants to take on and carry all our burdens.
After walking for about 40 minutes without the backpack, the woman discovered that the pain had completely disappeared. She was able to continue without braces, because her knees had been healed.
She had let go of her “own strength,” allowing God’s love and healing to flow to her.

It can be so hard for people to receive God’s unconditional love. Our self-reliance can really get in the way. We haven’t earned His love, and there’s nothing we can do to deserve it, but it’s there. For each and every one of us.
He waits patiently until we’re ready to accept it.

Michele with 2 backpacks