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I am a Mennonite writer and Spiritual Companion interested in contemplation and community, discernment and healthy group dynamics. I have been offering spiritual accompaniment since 2008. In addition to my Anabaptist/Mennonite roots, I have been deeply influenced by a period of worshiping with Quakers, and by reading in the Christian spiritual classics. You can catch a glimpse of some of the influences in this photo of some of the shelves in my prayer room.
BA from Goshen College in Psychology, 1979
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I have been peer or facilitator in many groups in the past 50 years, including weekly fellowship, lectionary and writers' groups, clearness committees and a plethora of congregational committees. From 2012 to 2022, I served as congregational doula for Open Table Mennonite Fellowship, an emerging house church in Goshen, and was licensed for that pastoral role through Central District Mennonite Conference. I continue to be involved there as a regular member. I am currently serving as a Board member for Pathways Retreat Center.
I grew up in the heart of midwestern Mennonite culture, in Goshen, Indiana, and returned here as a young adult, but also carry cross-cultural interests, having lived for a time in Peru, Nepal, Belgium, Poland, Costa Rica, and Canada, thanks to family sabbaticals and other assignments. My Masters degree in cultural/social anthropology focused on the dynamics of social and cultural change. While my experiences abroad were all a year or less, I have a special heart for Third Culture Kids, those who have spent their formative years in places that are not their parents’ homeland and who often feel a bit adrift in either culture, having their own unique hybrid home culture.
I grew up in the heart of midwestern Mennonite culture, in Goshen, Indiana, and returned here as a young adult, but also carry cross-cultural interests, having lived for a time in Peru, Nepal, Belgium, Poland, Costa Rica, and Canada, thanks to family sabbaticals and other assignments. My Masters degree in cultural/social anthropology focused on the dynamics of social and cultural change. While my experiences abroad were all a year or less, I have a special heart for Third Culture Kids, those who have spent their formative years in places that are not their parents’ homeland and who often feel a bit adrift in either culture, having their own unique hybrid home culture.