Generally between 4:30 - 5:00 AM, there’s an alarm clock that automatically goes off in my body. Typically, I’ve been trying to lie there until close to 6:00 so I don’t disturb my pilgrim roomies. But today, at about 4:45, I decided to end my night and begin my day.
I always have everything I need laid out carefully the night before, so that I can just get up and put a couple of last-minute things in my bag without turning on the lights. After a month, I’ve gotten pretty good at it!
But today, nothing seemed to go right. I know this sounds like an irresponsible adolescent, but I couldn’t find my socks! I was starting to get frustrated. I used the light on my phone to look for them, but in the process, I ended up knocking something off the little bedside stand and making a huge noise. I knew that my nine roommates were probably just about ready to join forces and throw me out!
I finally solved the mystery of my missing socks. The woman who was occupying the bed four feet away from mine had put her clothes on my socks! It did make me feel weird handling a woman’s clothes, but I was so happy to find my socks under her stuff.
Yeah, that’s a pretty lame story, isn’t it? But I’ve been living this way for a month, so you need to just cut me some slack! 😆
When I finally got out of there, it was around 5:15 am. At this time of year, there is very little daylight until close to 8:30 am, so a 5:15 departure meant that I would have about three hours in the dark. This didn’t bother me at all — I enjoy that time with the Lord.
(Photos above: Some pilgrims leave items they aren’t going to need anymore!)
My time of prayer on this last stage before Santiago was still focused on God toning my soul. I just asked Him to cleanse me and fill me!
But I was also praying for our church. I’m so thankful God has allowed me to be on this journey with many of you for so many years. You and God have made this an incredible experience! Today, I just had a sense that even with the incredible growth that we’ve had over the past few years, God is getting ready to do something extra special — way beyond what we have even seen so far! I am really stoked about the future!
Celebration breakfast
The walk today was not for the weak — a lot of it was uphill, and these were extended hills. Because of my early departure, I was alone a good part of the morning. That all changed when we got into the city of Santiago.
A Catholic church with its coffee priorities straight
Santiago is a city of around 90,000 people, which meant I had approximately an hour’s walk in the city to get to my hostel. The name of my hostel is interesting. I’ve been talking to you about the stamps that I have had to get in my credential, or my pilgrim passport. Well, the name of the hostel where I am staying is the Last Stamp!
The “Last Stamp” albergue (hostel)
They didn’t allow check-in until 2:00 pm, which is always a bit frustrating to me, but they were kind enough to store my backpack while I proceeded to the Pilgrim’s Office and began trying to complete all the official paperwork to get my Compostela, or my certificate of completion.
I was amazed at how high-tech they were! They had a QR code to scan on your phone. This brought up a form to be completed. Once it was completed and accepted, you were given a number.
Because of my early departure, I was number 84 this morning. As I was waiting, I made conversation with some of the officials who were there for crowd control. One of them said they are currently running between 2,500 and 3,000 people through there each day!
The line to get the Compostela
Pretty soon my number popped up on the screen, and I was to go to desk 8. The kind younger gentleman began to ask some interesting questions. He wanted to know why I had undertaken such a task as this. He took five minutes or so questioning whether or not I felt that I was finishing a better person than I started.
He then asked, “Do you feel like this pilgrimage is something that others in your church should do?” I said, “Absolutely; even though not all would be able to do this one, I believe everyone would benefit from taking some type of pilgrimage to get to know God more intimately. I do feel we all need time away to reflect and pray and soul-search.”
It was an incredible conversation with this official. He knew the right questions to help me reflect on the last 34 days.
Then, he took out his stamp and firmly placed that official seal in my Pilgrim Passport. He printed out the Compostela and said something that was really powerful. He called me “Pastor José,” and said, “You now have a new name!”
I said, “Really?”
He responded, “This Compostela certificate is in Latin, and so now we confer to you the Latin name of Josephum Trussell.” He ended by saying, “Congratulations, Pilgrim!”
My Compostela with my new Latin name
Even though yesterday I said that I’m not really a certificate type of guy, my conversation with him was worth my standing in line for 30 minutes. When he said, “You have a new name,” it did bring out the emotions, because I do have a new name! My old name included the word “sinner,” but today my new name includes the word “forgiven!” Old things are passed away. All things are new!
Wow — that’s powerful!
I’ll admit, as I waited those 30 minutes, there were a lot of things that went through my mind. One thing I thought of were all those St. Peter jokes about standing in line waiting to get into heaven. Yeah, I’m warped!
But I also thought, “What if I didn’t do something right on that passport? What if I get disqualified on a technicality and I get up there and when they interview me and look at my credential they say, “I’m sorry, but you don’t qualify!”?
Well, honestly, it wouldn’t have been a big deal to me, because, again, I’m not a certificate type of guy. I am a bit of a maverick and, honestly, I even thought about trying to test the system and do something wrong on the credential, like miss a stamp on purpose, to see if they would catch it. Forgive me for that admission!
The certification process in Santiago did make me think about the required credentials for getting into heaven. I don’t want to be disqualified that day. Maybe we should all call a timeout and ask God to make sure that, as we walk the Camino of life, our spiritual documents are all in order.
Not a certificate guy
Oh, there was so much more I could share about today — but this blog has turned into a book! I may share more tomorrow, after the first stage of my walk to Finisterre. God willing, I have four more stages. My shoes are still hanging in there!
God is so good — this is right by my hostel!
Note: As I have studied the route for Santiago to Finisterre, it appears it may be a few miles less than what I had originally read and figured. So I will adjust the total miles and remaining miles down by 5. This is not an exact science, but I think fairly closely reflects the miles walked on the route (not including the additional miles walked in the evenings).
Approximate total miles: 555
Approximate miles walked today: 15
Approximate miles remaining: 62
Updated position
[EDITOR’S NOTE]: Joe’s daughter Erica summed up the family’s pride in his accomplishment in the following text to him this morning:
I have tears in my eyes, Dad! I just cannot believe the experience you have had, and by proxy, the experience we have had. I feel God has even changed me through this process. Just reading your blogs has been so good for my soul. Today, the excitement I feel is admittedly strange — I feel as if I am there and experiencing it all with you. I just can't believe we did it!
Praise God, who is so faithful!