Spain — Camino

For more than a thousand years, people have walked the Camino de Santiago. The Way of St. James winds across Spain, and pilgrims have worn the path smooth with their feet, walking to clear their heads, mend their hearts, and meet God. Now it's your turn to lace up and join them.

Spain is gorgeous and complicated. The birthplace of one of history's first global empires, the home of tapas and town plazas and ancient cathedrals on every corner. It also sits on the western edge of the only continent on earth that has largely walked away from its faith. Most Spaniards still call themselves Catholic, but only a fraction set foot in a church in a given month. This is a land of deep passion that's quietly searching for meaning outside of tradition and religion.

What you'll actually do

On the Camino, the trail is the ministry. You'll walk for days alongside other pilgrims from all over the world, people carrying questions, griefs, and a hunger they can't quite name, and you'll have the kind of long, unhurried conversations that only happen when you're tired and walking and there's nowhere else to be. Worship will happen out under the open sky. Discipleship will happen in your own heart, one mile at a time. And in the cafes and plazas of cities like Madrid, Seville, and Toledo, you'll share a faith that's alive in a place full of empty cathedrals. This is the road that teaches you to listen. Few things will mark you like it.

Romania

Romania feels like stepping into an older, slower world. Castle ruins crown the hilltops, the Carpathian mountains roll green to the horizon, and the faith here goes back centuries, woven deep into the Orthodox rhythms of everyday life. You can climb the 1,480 steps to Poenari Castle, wander Old Town Bucharest, or stand quiet in a place where people have been worshiping for a very long time.

But Romania isn't only ancient. There's something new stirring. Faithful Romanian missionaries are out evangelizing, discipling, and planting churches, and people are choosing to follow Jesus, including among the Roma, who remain some of the least-reached people in the country. In hard places like Razboieni, one of the poorest neighborhoods in Pitesti, local believers are fighting for families and children the rest of society wrote off.

What you'll actually do

This is a stop for community and discipleship. You'll come alongside Romanian believers like the folks at Hope Church and Living Hope Church, helping with children's day camps, evangelism, and practical care, and learning what it looks like to give your whole life to a place. You'll sit in their homes, eat their pastries, drink their cheap and wonderful coffee, and let their faithfulness rub off on you. Pilgrimage isn't only about the trail. It's about the people who teach you how to keep walking, and Romania is full of them.

Greece

Greece is holy ground for anyone who loves the story of the early church. This is where the Apostle Paul carried the Gospel into Europe for the very first time, and you'll be walking the same land he walked. Athens and the Acropolis, ancient ruins, island paths above the bluest water you've ever seen. Few places make you feel the long arc of God's story like this one.

There's a gift here that fits this route perfectly: hospitality. In Greece, welcome is sacred, an honor and a duty, and they even have a word, kefi, for the joy that comes from gathering and sharing life together. Beneath the postcard, though, Greece has carried real weight, through economic crisis and years as a doorway for people far from home, and the country is in need of fresh hope.

What you'll actually do

This is a stop for reflection and community. You'll trace the steps of Paul and let the ancient story sink into your own. You'll serve alongside local believers and learn the Greek art of the table, the long meal, the open door, the conversation that goes deep. Hospitality becomes your ministry, and the Aegean becomes your sanctuary. Slow down here. Let the place where the European church was born do something in you.

Nepal — Trek

This is the second trek, and it's the stuff of dreams. Nepal sits up near the roof of the world, crowned by Mount Everest, the tallest mountain on the planet. You'll climb into Himalayan villages along trails that wind through some of the most jaw-dropping country on earth, the kind of place that makes you feel small in the best way and pulls your eyes upward.

There's a sweetness in the air here. Racers keep describing the same thing: a quiet revival stirring in a land that is mostly Hindu and Buddhist, a sense that God is doing something tender and real. After the great earthquake shook this country, hearts have been opening.

What you'll actually do

The climb itself becomes worship, and the obedience of simply putting one foot in front of the next becomes its own kind of prayer. Off the trail, ministry is slow and relational: heartfelt conversations over milk tea, walking beside a Nepali church planter, connecting with young people through soccer and camps, sitting with people learning to hope again. You'll partner with believers who are reaching villages that almost no one else can get to. This is adventure and intimacy fused into one. The mountains have a way of stripping you down to what's real, and that's exactly where God likes to meet a person.

Vietnam

Vietnam is quieter and gentler than its history. After French rule, a war that split the country, and decades as a communist nation, this is a land whose whole story has been one long search for freedom. Most Vietnamese claim no religion at all, freedom to worship is limited, and yet the people you meet are warm and remarkably hospitable.

It's also beautiful in a way that slows you right down. The lantern-lit old town of Hoi An. The Marble Mountains and their trails near Da Nang. The still, otherworldly waters of Halong Bay. This is a place that rewards paying attention.

What you'll actually do

Because Vietnam is a sensitive country, the ministry here is humble and hidden, which is its own kind of discipleship. There are no big crowds or flashy outreach. There's presence. There's friendship. There's the slow, faithful work of loving the person in front of you and trusting God with what only He can do. You'll learn that walking humbly, the way the prophet Micah said God actually wants, is a real and powerful kind of mission. For a pilgrim, Vietnam is a teacher. It shows you that obedience often looks quiet, and that God is just as present in the hidden places as the loud ones.

Cambodia

There may be no better place to end a pilgrimage than watching the sun come up over Angkor Wat. Cambodia is full of wonders like that: ancient temples, dusty village roads you travel by tuk-tuk, houses on stilts over flooded rice paddies, a beauty that feels old and unhurried.

Sit with the older generation, though, and you'll remember what this country survived. A genocide tore through Cambodia and took close to a whole generation, including most of its teachers, leaders, and pastors. The Church here is young because so much was lost. And still, the Cambodian people are some of the most hopeful and generous you will ever meet. That mix of deep wound and stubborn hope is holy ground.

What you'll actually do

This is a stop for community and discipleship. You'll walk alongside national believers who are rebuilding the Church from the ground up, with ministries like Mission Development Center planting churches and the team at Ezra Ministries in Battambang building relationships through their school, library, and cafe. A lot of it is simply being present, sharing meals, learning names, and joining the slow, faithful labor that real ministry is made of. After all the miles, Cambodia teaches the final lesson of the road: hope rises in the places that looked the most hopeless, and God is always already at work before you arrive.