Katieaw

More Reflections from Bossey (The Ecumenical Institute for the World Council of Churches) 2010: My courses are challenging and eye-opening, but I think the day to day living with one another is just as much or more enlightening… My studies are going well. Each day I experience new blessings and become aware of more challenges as all of us here journey together in pursuit of unity. I think I had this fanciful idea that in order to achieve unity we just needed to gather the gumption to live into the various exhortations throughout Bible that tell us to do so. However, you can't just go and do that if your definitions of unity are different, if the criteria for achieving unity entail completely different doctrinal and ecclesiastical beliefs and practices, and if your definition of what ... read more

So, it has officially been a year and 1 day since my first entry. Things got a little busy and I stopped writing...my apologies. Though, that means I have plenty more fodder for y'all to chew on! Have I been living in the South too long? So, once I get all that organized I will be putting up entries about my adventures from January to now. There are been quite a few I'm happy to report! For now, I leave you with an entry I just discovered I saved, but accidentally never published. Whoops! Enjoy :) ---- From: Nov. 3, 2010 My studies are going well. Each day I experience new blessings and become aware of more challenges as all of us here at Bossey journey together in pursuit of unity. I think I had this ... read more

After a long, but thankfully easy journey, Denys and I arrived in Brunnadern on Friday evening greeted by chilly winter air, a blanket of snow, and the warm grinning face of Rev. Catherine McMillan Haueis, our host for the weekend. Thankfully, she recognized us immediately from the pictures we had sent her. There is nothing more welcoming or reassuring than to arrive in an unfamiliar place and to be greeted by someone who is overjoyed to see you. It was a wonderful surprise to be paired with a Presbyterian pastor from the United States, a woman from the South, no less, and who happens to love to sing Gospel music, as I quickly learned! She brought us to her home, a beautiful 250 year old, four story manse just down the road from the train station. ... read more

No longer do I have to, "wait until the cows come home," I got to see them do it! Parading through the street of the alpine village of Saint-Cergue I watched the cows come down from their summer grazing to their warmer winter abodes. When we first arrived I feared we had missed them because no cows were in sight. The only the sight...and stench was of the brown "muck" that they had trailed behind them down the full length of the road. But no, soon enough another group of them clamored down the hill. Now, this was no ordinary cow herding event. At first I thought someone had stolen Chiquita Banana's headdress...then realized oh no, wait, those are flowers not fruit. We're talking 21/2-3 foot tall floral headdresses crowning the heads of already massive cows. ... read more

Bonjour! Greetings from Switzerland, finally! It has been a week now, though it feels like a month! I have already seen beaucoup (many) sites, met so many amazing people from around the world, and had quite a thorough orientation. Thankfully, our daily 10-12 hour sessions were broken up by three meals, two chapel services, and two coffee breaks. That sounds like a lot of stopping and going, but as fascinating as the orientation sessions were, the breaks never seemed long enough. Thankfully, I found ways to get my own personal “breather” time in during the week. From Bossey I went toward the nearby village of Founex on exploratory walks and adventurous bike rides through rolling vineyards, past luscious apple orchards and almost “as-high-as-an-elephant’s-eye” corn fields. Simply spectacular. Another exciting event occurred on Thursday—I celebrated my 25th ... read more