![\"Ill-push-you\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/524\/2017\/11\/Ill-push-you.jpg\")
<\/a>In June 2014, lifelong Idaho friends Justin Skeesuck and Patrick Gray took on what seemed like an impossible mission \u2014 to hike the 5oo-mile-long El Camino de Santiago, a k a The Way of St. James, over challenging terrain and through rough weather in Spain.<\/p>\nNow, this sounds difficult, but not necessarily impossible, unless you realize that Justin pushed Patrick \u2014 who has a rare neuromuscular disease that weakens the muscles in his arms and legs\u00a0 \u2014 the entire way in a wheelchair.<\/p>\n
In theaters across America tonight \u2014 there may still be tickets available here<\/a>! \u2014 \u201cI\u2019ll Push You,\u201d the documentary record of their epic journey, premieres as part of a Fathom event, in partnership with the Muscular Dystrophy Association.<\/p>\n For those who don\u2019t know, the Camino de Santiago <\/a>is a network of Medieval Catholic pilgrimage trails. They lead to the shrine of Saint James the Great in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northern Spain, where tradition holds that the remains of the saint are interred.<\/p>\n Today, the Camino has become popular with many travelers who are not on a religious pilgrimage, but more seeking personal fulfillment.<\/p>\n I recently sat down with Justin and Patrick \u2014 who are both non-Catholic Christians \u2014 and director Terry Parish, and here\u2019s some of what they had to say.<\/p>\n Patrick:<\/strong> We knew it was going to be a struggle and at the end of the day we just knew it was an adventure we wanted to do together \u2026 but out of the whole journey, you experience so much raw human connection and you encounter a lot of hurt and pain people have experienced. A lot of revelation people have experienced.<\/p>\n It really reshaped my perspective on faith and on God. For me, in particular, I walked away with a greater appreciation for our capacity to love one another and what the implications of that are. I mean, I believe that so often people\u2019s opportunity to experience God\u2019s love is through the hands and feet of others and we don\u2019t necessarily as a society embrace that to its full degree.<\/p>\n Justin:\u00a0<\/strong>My bar was really low coming into this. So I was like, I don\u2019t know how this is gonna go, so we\u2019re just gonna try, but after looking back on it, my faith in humanity was restored.<\/p>\n We met so many people from so many walks of life and to be able to see that there are just really good people in this world and there\u2019s some \u2026 unfortunately, there\u2019s some bad, lot of things, we\u2019re just bombarded by it, just the horrible things that are happening.<\/p>\n You know, they make good news but, you know, so unfortunately that\u2019s just the way the world that we live in now, so to see fellow man coming together to help me to help us get from St. Jean (Pied de Port in France) to Santiago (de Compostela)\u00a0<\/b>and even beyond, beyond that, is something that I never really, didn\u2019t expect.<\/p>\n I knew there\u2019d be some help along the way but to what degree, yeah, we didn\u2019t know. And just to see how much good there is still in this world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Terry:<\/strong>\u00a0 I think their faith is on display in action, and certainly there were more than one prayer brought up. There was probably a conversation or two about God but, you know, I think for Chris (Karcher, the co-director) and myself and our own faith backgrounds, we were interested in taking up the action and being the observer of the action versus the observer of the \u2026 pontificating about the action.<\/p>\n So, and we, in doing so, we\u2019re hoping that makes the film more accessible. There are plenty of films out there that will make the hard asks to go down to altars or to accept sacraments or to do something of that nature and this, that wasn\u2019t the intention here. That\u2019s not the road we chose to travel.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Patrick:<\/strong> What\u2019s interesting is that everyone that I met \u2014 I don\u2019t want to speak for these guys \u2014 but that I met on the trail, regardless of what their starting point was, what their original goal was, if it was just to see if I could do it. They have a moment of, oh my word, there\u2019s so much more to my life than what I thought there was, there\u2019s so much more capacity to love, there\u2019s so much more potential in human interaction.<\/p>\n It becomes a moment where, whether they acknowledge the source or not, they\u2019re seeing God for who He is, and you can\u2019t run from the pilgrimage aspect regardless of your intention.<\/p>\n Terry:\u00a0<\/strong>And the question naturally becomes, well what is God or who is God? And then, and then if I start to answer those questions for myself, it becomes apparent that whatever the intention is, there\u2019s almost no choice but to orient towards what my understanding of God is on that Camino.<\/p>\n God is love, and there\u2019s patience. Patience with one\u2019s self, patience with others. Kindness. Goodness. Faithfulness. Gentleness. Self control.<\/p>\n Justin:\u00a0<\/strong>Yeah, I don\u2019t know if I can say it any better than these guys, because my experience is the same. There\u2019s no avoidance of orienting yourself towards God and being in some way, shape or form, a vessel for either receiving God\u2019s love or trying, or being able to give it to somebody else.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The official Website for the movie is here<\/a>. Skeesuck and Gray\u2019s original book is here.<\/a>\u00a0Be warned, the movie is a raw depiction of the struggle along the Camino, and it is rated PG-13.<\/p>\n The friends now tour the country as motivational speakers. No doubt, the movie will become available later on DVD or maybe even streaming.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s their TED talk:<\/p>\nOn why they did it:<\/h4>\n
On why Christian faith is not heavily featured in \u201cI\u2019ll Push You\u201d:<\/h4>\n
On what they learned about their fellow travelers who didn\u2019t start out on a religious journey:<\/h4>\n