Wes and Sherry Koop

We have been married for over 40 years, raised two daughters, and now have seen them married and parenting their own families. In all those early years, we knew we would be overseas but didn’t know exactly where God was calling us. It took over 30 years to fulfill this word we had from Him—and He couldn’t have picked a better place for us! Although it’s not easy, as we are far from family (we all live in 3 different countries), we know this is where we are supposed to be.

We are running a small non-profit café and food truck on the Camino de Santiago–an 800 km pilgrimage in northern Spain that hundreds of thousands come from every continent to walk each year. In the village of Viana—right on the Camino Frances route—we have a small but comfortable café where we care for ‘pilgrims’ physically with ice packs, foot baths, and our snacks and drinks, as well as spiritually in conversation, during a time of meditating on the Word, providing prayer if needed, and simply just a space to be refreshed in a relaxing environment. We love meeting pilgrims, but we also connect with locals at the café, as we host conversational English classes a couple of times a week, an art class weekly, and other events.

We also have a food truck, a half hour before Viana—also on the Camino Frances—between 2 villages where there was nothing available for over 12 kms. We not only provide some shade and a peaceful place to rest in the open farmland, but also sell drinks, sandwiches and snacks to fuel hungry walkers. It is here where we first connect with amazing pilgrims from around the world, who are often looking for more than food.