College + Young Adult Ministries Camino Walk

First College +Young Adult Ministries Pilgrimage Completed

Tami Woods
Director of College + Young Adult Ministries

What started out as a conversation between two diocesan departments about possible collaboration has become the beginning of a meaningful new tradition. Two years ago, Catherine Markette and I began brainstorming ways that World Missions and College + Young Adult Ministries could possibly work together.

In the Spring of 2023, Catherine invited me to meet with Duane and Sharon Miller while they were in San Antonio on a home visit from Spain. We discussed different things that could be done on a trip to Spain - one of which was the Camino de Santiago. Although I had heard of other pilgrimages, the Camino was new to me. Intrigued, I took the idea of a trip to our College Missions Council (CMC). One of our CMC members at the time was Susan Lindstrom, Director of College Ministry at Christ Church in San Antonio. When Susan is not serving the young adults at Christ Church, she is a professional travel advisor. After sharing the conversation I had had with the Millers, Susan shared that she had just received a discount code for half off a trip on the Camino de Santiago. The catch was that the code had to be used within the calendar year, and there was only one more scheduled trip just three months away. I had never been to Spain, nor had I ever attempted a pilgrimage like this. Was the Camino de Santiago something we could be entrusted to take someone else's children on? Well, there was only one way to find out! With the encouragement of our CMC and Bishop David M. Reed, Susan and I embarked on our exploratory adventure. And what an adventure it was!

Susan and I had an amazing experience visiting Sharon and Duane Miller and touring the Oasis Center in Madrid where Sharon serves their community. We also successfully completed the last 114km of the Camino de Santiago surrounded by strangers from different places, countries, and backgrounds who quickly became our friends. We left Spain grateful for the opportunity and excited to share it with the students and young adults from our diocese.

Two years later, our group of sixteen pilgrims from all around the diocese embarked on our very first diocesan College + Young Adult Ministries pilgrimage as new and old friends from the same diocese, but we returned home as a forever bonded Camino family. We were all changed by this experience and will hold it and our love for each other in our hearts as we now continue on our own individual paths.

If you have not had the opportunity, I highly encourage you to READ the BLOG from our trip. Who knew we were walking with such amazing theologians!