Pilgrim House FAQ
Revised May 2012
UPDATE: For the latest on Pilgrim House, please visit the Pilgrim House website.
Here are the most frequently-asked questions we receive. They range from how we got here to International Teams’ contact information. If you’re a partner, a friend, or just someone who’s curious about what we’re doing, we invite you to read these.
1. What led you to come to Spain?
2. Why did you start out in La Coruña instead of Santiago de Compostela?
3. How’s your Spanish?
4. What’s happening now with the Pilgrim House project?
5. Is the hostel open now?
6. What will Pilgrim House Welcome Center and hostel be like?
7. What do you do all day???
8. How can I contact International Teams? How can I give to the Lord in support of your family and the Pilgrim House ministry?
1. What led you to come to Spain?
Nate and I both attended Wheaton College, where we were involved in a summer ministry called Youth Hostel Ministry (YHM). Every summer, a group of Wheaton students would fly to Europe. Half the group would travel from city to city, staying in youth hostels and meeting fellow backpackers. The other half would stay in Amsterdam and work at two Christian hostels run by a Dutch organization. Nate participated in YHM three summers in a row, and I participated his second summer. After we graduated from Wheaton, we lived in Amsterdam for six months and worked in these Dutch Christian hostels. Because of our experiences with YHM and working in the hostels, we returned to the US dreaming of one day opening up another hostel in Europe that would share Christ’s love to travelers.
The beautiful city of Amsterdam:
In 2004, we attended a Preview Weekend at International Teams (IT). We were open to serving anywhere in Europe, and when the mobilizer, Mark, found out that we had experience backpacking around Europe as well as working in youth hostels, he asked us, “Well, would you like to start a youth hostel? Would you like to do that with us?” Yes, of course we would! Then he told us that a new café run by IT workers was opening in the Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela that very weekend. He thought a café and a hostel would partner well together.
As we started researching the city of Santiago de Compostela, we were amazed at what we found out:
- It was the end of a spiritual (Catholic) pilgrimage trail called El Camino de Santiago
- About 100,000+ pilgrims each year arrived in Santiago after having walked the Camino
- The Camino was growing in popularity and becoming more and more trendy among people of all faiths and walks of life
- There were special “Holy Years” where the city then expected anywhere from 4 – 9 million people
We thought Santiago would be perfect for a new hostel. So we started the long process of building our support team and wrapping up things in Chicago where we’d lived since 1998. Along the way, we had two more kids (to make three total), and we even added a teammate, Sarah: she already spoke Spanish and had a heart for hikers. We all finally moved to La Coruña, Spain, in September of 2007.
Pilgrims walking the Camino de Santiago (that’s me, Faith, in the bottom left):
2. Why did you start out in La Coruña instead of Santiago de Compostela?
As mentioned before, our plans were to join the existing IT café team in Santiago. However, due to several reasons, their team moved back to the US in July of 2007.
We debated for a while as to whether we should move to Santiago and start out there alone, without any community. One day as we were praying, the Lord literally dropped a thought into our heads: “Move to La Coruña first.” La Coruña is about 45 minutes away from Santiago by car, and Vida Nueva, the church that sponsored some of the Santiago team for visas, was located there. Its pastor, Rob, was an American from Chicago who had lived in Ecuador and Mexico before moving to Spain 15 years ago. We learned that Rob wanted to plant a new church in Santiago.
So we started to explore this very new option: move to La Coruña first for a couple of years, build a relationship with our local Spanish church, Vida Nueva, and together with Vida Nueva start planning for a hostel that would exist alongside a new church plant in Santiago. It felt right and clear, and we received confirmation from many advisers. We were so excited to actually arrive in the middle of an existing community in La Coruña in 2007, instead of starting out all by our lonesome in Santiago.
La Coruña:
We stayed in La Coruña longer than we had first anticipated, as a “couple of years” turned into four years. During this time we:
- Built a solid partnership with Vida Nueva, becoming involved and taking on some leadership responsibilities
- Learned Spanish (this took about two years itself!)
- Started our own NGO, Terra Nova, which is formally linked to Vida Nueva
- Researched pilgrims, hostels, the Camino, and other backpacking ministries
- Wrote the Pilgrim House project business plan
- Recruited four new teammates; they plan to arrive in 2012
- Had our fourth baby
It was a busy four years, first with acclimating to our new life in Spain and then with getting down to business and making progress with the hostel project. We made the big move from La Coruña to Santiago in July of 2011, and we are settling in to our new surroundings. The best part about our new place is that the Camino runs right by it, so we can look out of our window and see the pilgrims walking by.
The Cathedral in Santiago:
3. How’s your Spanish?
When we arrived, we hardly spoke a word of Spanish. Our first two years were largely focused on language-learning and cultural adaptation. We were functional after two years, but now that we’ve been here for four years, we feel pretty comfortable. The kids’ Spanish is very good, of course. They also learn the local language, Gallego, since half of their school day is in Gallego. Brennan once told Nate, “Daddy, I’m worried about your Gallego.” Ha!
4. What’s happening now with the Pilgrim House project?
In consultation with our International Teams advisers, we have decided to plan for a two-phase project. The first phase will be the Pilgrim House Welcome Center, where we welcome in pilgrims and create a space where they can continue to connect with their fellow pilgrims, debrief their Camino journey, and have a safe place to explore their faith questions. There will be couches, tables, and a kitchen. Art, books, Bibles, and other resources will be available to encourage contemplation. Pilgrims will be able to slow down and hang out, reflect on their Camino, and talk to staff about life.
Phase 2 will be a hostel that continues the spirit of the Welcome Center but adds in beds.
Currently, we are laying the groundwork for effective ministry. We are raising funds so we can open the Welcome Center, making connections with others who work with pilgrims, continuing to get our ducks in a row legally, revising the business plan, and preparing to welcome our four new teammates and build a strong team before the Welcome Center opens.
We are also partnering with our local Spanish church, Vida Nueva, to prepare for a new church plant in Santiago. Although our team will not lead the church plant, we will be core members and help out according to our gifts and abilities.
5. Is the hostel open now?
We plan to find, renovate, and prepare a locale for the Pilgrim House Welcome Center starting in October 2012, with a launch in March 2013. The projected launch of the Pilgrim House hostel is March 2016. As we’ve already experienced, we hold our plans loosely since the Lord is the author of them, but this is what we’re working toward.
6. What will the Pilgrim House Welcome Center and hostel be like?
Nate (back row, 2nd from left) with the friends he met on his Camino trip:
Pilgrim House Welcome Center and hostel will offer:
1) Time and space for the pilgrims to debrief their pilgrimage. This might be through simple conversation, structured group discussions, or questions on a form that they can take to help them journal.
2) A very strong community feel. Depending on the size of the building we ultimately find, there will be different common areas in both the Welcome Center and the hostel: a large living room, a TV/DVD room, a kitchen that guests can use to cook their own meals, a dining area, and perhaps a small chapel.
3) A welcoming environment with a spiritual emphasis. Historically, the Camino de Santiago was a Catholic pilgrimage, and these days it maintains very strong spiritual overtones. In 2010, 95% of the pilgrims who arrived in Santiago reported that religious motives played a part in their journey. We want to offer the Welcome Center and the hostel as peaceful places where these pilgrims can share their hearts, explore their faith questions, and have access to resources so they can discover more about Jesus. We also believe that God can move powerfully through prayer, and we want to pray with the pilgrims and bless them as they prepare to leave the Camino and return to their everyday lives.
4) Security, cleanliness, comfort, good showers, friendly staff….in short, we want our accommodations to be excellent.
7. So, what do you do all day??
We love this question! In this season of preparation, research, and planning, we’re blessed to have a very flexible schedule and to be able to take care of the kids together. However, we are always mindful of the sacrifices that our partners have made that enable us to live here, so we try to be fierce about using well our time and resources.
In a typical week, Nate and I, combined, work 50 – 60 hours total. Our best time to work is in the morning, when the kids are in school. We also work at night, after the kids have gone to sleep, and on Saturdays as well. We try to schedule in a date once a week.
All of our work currently falls under 3 general categories:
1. Pilgrim House Project Work (anything related to pilgrims, the Camino, our Terra Nova NGO, research, the business plan, the capital campaign, team meetings, meetings with other connections, strategic planning)
2. International Teams Team Leader Responsibilities (anything related to new teammates, the home office, reports)
3. Partner Relations and Communication (updating our partners, building our support team, connecting with our churches)
In typical Spanish style, our family does celebrate a siesta after lunch, when all of the kids go into separate bedrooms and have some quiet time and Matthew has a nap. After siesta, it’s time for snacks, some outdoor time or soccer practice, and then it’s bedtime for the kids between 8:30 and 9:00. The days are long, but weeks tend to fly by.
And that’s our life here in a nutshell.
8. How can I contact International Teams? How can I give to the Lord in support of your family and the Pilgrim House ministry?
International Teams
411 W. River Road 1-847-429-0900, info@iteams.org
Elgin, IL 60123 www.iteams.org/us/
First of all, thank you! If you’d like to make a special OR recurring gift online, please visit the International Teams USA website by clicking on the link above. Click on “Give” in the toolbar.
The IT/USA Online Donation page will come up. Click on “Continue” at the bottom, and then on the next two pages you’ll be able to enter in the necessary information. Please designate gifts to “Nate and Faith – Spain” OR “Pilgrim House project.”
Also in Step 2, the default option will be to give through a bank draft, but if you’d like other options, such as to pay with a credit card, click on the drop-down menu under, “I’d like to set up electronic payments.”
If you would like to send a gift by check, please send it to IT at the address listed above. In order for your gift to be tax-deductible, please don’t write our names in the memo line of your check. Instead, please include a separate note saying that it’s a gift for Nate and Faith.
If you don’t live in the US, you can contact your closest IT office to ask them what would be the best way to donate. IT has offices in Canada, the United Kingdom, Austria, The Netherlands, Costa Rica, The Philippines, Ukraine, Australia, and New Zealand. You can find contact information for all of these offices at www.iteams.org.
THANK YOU for your generous partnership and support!
