Today’s “Prayer Steps” are for you?

Emily and i at the Puerta Palo
 The high spot for the day 

Today’s “Prayer Steps” are for you?

The Camino app tells me in seven days we have 

• walked 111.94 km 
• Ascended 3946 m (that’s 7.13 CN towers)
• Descended 3210 m (5.8 CN towers)

The health app in my iPhone tells me in that same 7 days I have taken 187,327 prayer steps. (To be honest it only says “steps” but my Camino motto is “every step a prayer”.)

And some of those prayer steps may have been for you! If not there’s another 500,000 to come, and they could be yours!

But what is a “prayer step”?

Many years ago I was on a 60 km Prayer walk (my first long one). I had collected significant requests from people and took those needs to God as I walked. For the first 25 or so kilometers I tried to pray out loud. (I thought that was the religious thing to do, create fancy ways to describe situations to God because those prayers are sincere and sincere prayer grabs His attention).  But on that day the more I walked the more my feet blistered, and it became more and more difficult it was to formulate words (especially fancy ones) for prayer. 

So on that day, June24, 2013, I “worked a deal” with God.  The deal was simple:  when I was prayer walking, I would consider every step to be a prayer, and I hoped He would receive it as such!  I wouldn’t have to say the need aloud, nor even think it in my head.  

Since that time, I have refined it a bit so that sometimes I simply breathe the name of the person I’m praying for. Step after step, mile after mile - “be with and bless first name, last name, first name, last name, first name, last name, first name, last name. 

(Some of those steps may have already had your name attached. )

And sometimes if the need seems more significant to me, I write little chants and repeat that for Km after Km. 

I have a friend and colleague who is awaiting a double lung transplant in the coming days. This week he got a half day of intermittent chanted prayer:

   Lord be kind 

   To (first name, last name)

   Help him to find 

   If you don’t mind

   His strength and peace in thee

A couple days ago a younger mother, struggling with addictions and recognizing “that’s not what I want from my life” wrote and asked to be added to the list of prayers. She immediately got a half day. 

These are just a couple of examples to show why I “Prayer Walk.” The needs are real. The needs are significant 

If you have any interest in being included, send me a private message. (Facebook or thurland@gmail.com) There’s a lot of steps left this month. Some of them could be for you. 

And what a beautiful place to be doing a Prayer walk. The Camino De Santiago has been a religious pilgrimage for Catholics for centuries.   Here are just a few of the views I was able to enjoy as I walked today. 

A very welcome sign 16 mountain km into a walk

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