Walk to Emmaus

A gentle rain was falling last night at Camp Florida in Brandon, FL as I gathered with other Christians from the Tampa Bay area to send 35 female Pilgrims on a journey of a life time ... an experience that they have never had before. These ladies ranged in age from early 20s to early 60s (here I am just guessing as to their ages). The two young women who are in their 20s were mere children when I served their home church as a pastor.

This 72-hour journey that they began is called Walk to Emmaus. In other denominations it is called Cursillo. The teenage version is called Chrysalis. There is also a unique prison version called Kiaros. But, they are all basically the same. Maybe you have seen an Emmaus bumper sticker “De Colores,” which means “Of Colors” – it is a Spanish word and speaks of the many colors of God’s love and grace.

Cursillo/Walk to Emmaus began in the Catholic church in Spain and was later brought to the United States. Nearly every major denomination has embraced this rich and dynamic religious experience.

The Walk contains 15 twenty minute talks about God’s grace, the disciplines of discipleship and what it means to be the church. In reality they will not hear anything that they haven’t already heard before, but it is the context in which they will be hearing these familiar concepts that makes the difference. The context is Fellowship – true, loving, caring, non-judgmental, fellowship … an experiential fellowship that defies words of explanation.

As the gentle rain felling I remembered an old gospel hymn, “There shall be showers of blessings sent from the heaven above …” and so my pray became just that for these pilgrims on a journey that will change them spiritually as well as emotionally.

Quote for today: “I want the whole Christ for my Savior, the whole Bible for my book, the whole Church for my fellowship, and the whole world for my mission field.” John Wesley