Hello everyone – Happy 2024! I hope you had a memorable holiday season with friends and family. We spent our holiday here in Almaty soaking up the marvelous wintery wonderland atmosphere and crossing a few more local activities–like the cat cafe!–off our to-do list. Here are a few highlights:
This Christmas was made all the more special by the fact that I’d found my way back to church this fall. It wasn’t planned. I wasn’t even searching really. My friend Sandra just happened to hear me singing to myself (as I’m known to do when feeling happy) and said something to the effect of, “You aren’t Catholic are you? Because we could really use a singer at my church.” Honestly, it didn’t take much convincing because I’d been feeling the pull to go back for awhile now. I’m not sure how I drifted so far from the church, but it’s been surprisingly hard to find communities that resonate with me when we’ve lived outside the U.S.
Despite our family’s lack of formal church-going, Nia has been exposed to an incredible variety of religions in India and Kazakhstan. She’s known classmates or been invited to religious functions for Christians, Hindus, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists, Sikhs and Muslims. As she’s learned more about those faiths, it’s naturally made her want to compare and contrast them to Christianity, which frustrates her because she doesn’t remember her D.C. mass experiences from 2015/2016 or the Christian school she attended for Kindergarten in Malawi. The intensity of the latter experience (which was a bit too fundamentalist for our liking—lots of talk about the devil and God the punisher), led us to back away from religion in India. But now that she’s older, I would like very much for her to be re-exposed to Christianity, both for contextual purposes, and so she can make an informed decision about whether organized religion is something she wants in her life.
Church was a central pillar of life in my middle and high school years. It influenced my education (K through Master’s were all done at Catholic schools), shaped my community (most everyone I spent time with was from church or school), introduced me to service, and perhaps most importantly—provided me with my first leadership experiences as a lector, altar girl, eucharistic minister or soloist. I loved being part of something bigger than myself and knowing that my presence mattered (and would be noticed if I missed too many weeks in a row). It was a place of belonging and joy for me. It felt very uncomplicated in those early years and shaped the young woman I was becoming. I can’t help but want that for Nia, even though my feelings toward church have grown more complicated over the years.
All that to say . . . I was delighted when Nia agreed to join me each week. Stay tuned for my next post, where I’ll tell you about our shared experience. It’s been nothing like any church I’ve ever attended and it’s been so perfect for this time in my life. Be back soon!
