Born and raised in the States, I lived for two and a half years in a slum in India and now reside in Vancouver, Canada. Moving across the world again has meant learning about a new context and all the specific history and cultures that shape its present. But despite many striking differences between South Asia and North America, the issues of poverty, injustice and violence--and the ways my life intersects with those things--are remarkably similar. No matter where in the world we find ourselves, our lives impact the lives of people on the margins. We are not always aware of the roles we play in systems of oppression.
I write about poverty, justice, development, faith, culture, and daily life in the tension of seeking the upside-down Kingdom which has already begun, while waiting and working toward the full realization of justice and love which is not yet here. Following Jesus has led to a lot of unlikely places, and the journey has been alternately hilarious, heartbreaking, confusing, and just downright awkward along the way, but we push on through our many mistakes and misconceptions, relying on the grace (and laughter) of the people who have become our friends to keep us from taking ourselves too seriously. My hope is that through the stories I share, your world will be connected with the world of our global neighbors; that community will grow as we come to better understand our lives, and the ways in which we impact one another.
As we have crossed boundaries of culture, class, religion, and geography, my husband and I have often found ourselves challenged by the new realities we have discovered. Relocating from the Christian West to the Muslim East, and from the Global North to the Global South, we began to see the world from radically different angles. New questions have deconstructed old paradigms and reshaped the way we see things. Insights have come from unlikely places, and unlikely people. At times this process has been disorienting, but ultimately I have come to believe that in many cases, gradually "living our way into the answers," as poet Rainer Maria Rilke would say, is the only way to find any answers at all. How else to continue forward in the face of doubts, mystery, and apparent contradictions? Some of the major questions we have grappled with are:
What is poverty, what causes it, and how should we respond?
What forces at work in culture and society bring about inequality and injustice?
What does Jesus' life, death, and resurrection mean for humanity now?
How do we respond to the cycles of violence at work in our community and in our world?
How do we understand suffering in the world, and what does God have to do with it?
I write about poverty, justice, development, faith, culture, and daily life in the tension of seeking the upside-down Kingdom which has already begun, while waiting and working toward the full realization of justice and love which is not yet here. Following Jesus has led to a lot of unlikely places, and the journey has been alternately hilarious, heartbreaking, confusing, and just downright awkward along the way, but we push on through our many mistakes and misconceptions, relying on the grace (and laughter) of the people who have become our friends to keep us from taking ourselves too seriously. My hope is that through the stories I share, your world will be connected with the world of our global neighbors; that community will grow as we come to better understand our lives, and the ways in which we impact one another.
As we have crossed boundaries of culture, class, religion, and geography, my husband and I have often found ourselves challenged by the new realities we have discovered. Relocating from the Christian West to the Muslim East, and from the Global North to the Global South, we began to see the world from radically different angles. New questions have deconstructed old paradigms and reshaped the way we see things. Insights have come from unlikely places, and unlikely people. At times this process has been disorienting, but ultimately I have come to believe that in many cases, gradually "living our way into the answers," as poet Rainer Maria Rilke would say, is the only way to find any answers at all. How else to continue forward in the face of doubts, mystery, and apparent contradictions? Some of the major questions we have grappled with are:
What is poverty, what causes it, and how should we respond?
What forces at work in culture and society bring about inequality and injustice?
What does Jesus' life, death, and resurrection mean for humanity now?
How do we respond to the cycles of violence at work in our community and in our world?
How do we understand suffering in the world, and what does God have to do with it?