November 2020 – Written by small group participant Andrew Hudson, student at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Indiana.

“This group is so helpful to me because I have been feeling my/our health being pulled apart for years.

My bodily health, good relationships, contributing to the health of the ecosystem of which I’m a part – these are parts of health that pull on each other. I can’t PLAN all these into my life separately, in the way western culture acts like they are separate areas.

Treating the health of body/social groups/earth as an integrated whole is incarnational. It is also counter-cultural. (But worth it!)
I’m glad to be part of a group where we support each other in this holistic approach to our health!”

September 2020 – Written by small group participant, Susan Hagood, Decatur, Georgia.

In Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 it says, “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” There was no time in my history that I found this Bible verse to ring truer than during this time of the COVID 19 pandemic. You might think that COVID could have taken my joys of life from me, but rather, the opposite happened, despite facing the virus at full-fledged capacity. Instead, I experienced God at work in my life. 

Going back some years ago, I had a yearning to begin a new habit, one that could enhance my health. My goal was to increase my overall physical activity. I always had a reason as to why I put exercising on hold. My excuses ranged from “I don’t have enough time” to “I am too tired to think about exercising, much less doing anything about it” to “the weather is uncooperative.” So, the story became a familiar one for me in not overcoming my perceived obstacles. 

When I retired in November of 2019, my hopes were bolstered that I would finally be able to make lifestyle changes for which I had been waiting such a long time. But, by March 2020, to my total dismay, I had not made one measly lifestyle change! What would ever be different? 

It was at this precise time that I received an email from Karen Webster, who I had known through contacts from Columbia Theological Seminary, asking if I would be interested in taking an online course called Health and Wholeness that she had developed to improve the health of busy seminarians. I knew of Karen’s non-profit organization, Healthy Seminarians-Healthy Church, which she and her husband had established. Initially, I debated whether this course would be worth my time. After all, I just retired from being a clinician in the medical field and had received education several times over on “mindfulness.” After thinking about the possible benefit this course might provide, I decided, “why not” – after all, it would be good to be part of a group during a time in quarantine. 

My first encounter with Karen’s course was a surprise for me; it was not a totally didactic course as I had expected. It was a course that included a significant amount of discussion and introspection. I soon realized that all of us taking this course were frustrated about making permanent lifestyle changes. As we shared our stories, I felt a fellowship growing among us. 

Karen presented us assignments between sessions. The questions posed in our assignments were broad in nature, allowing us to move in our own direction. The Bible verses offered, the readings and references noted, the prayers shared, the discussions we had, and the freedom to laugh began to take hold by seemingly releasing me from some of my old thoughts. Might it be that a change in me could be happening? 

It was an early evening with clear weather as I looked outside. I asked our dog, “Would you like to go on a walk?” As I think back, I do not remember any response one way or another from her. When I put on her leash and headed to the front door, she became excited. What fun, I thought, to have a partner for walks! 

It has been about four months since the beginning of Karen’s course, and I can say without reservation that I HAVE developed a new habit, one that I had been hoping to cultivate for an exceedingly long time. Nearly every day, my dog and I set out for a walk around the neighborhood. With each walk, I expand my boundaries, increasing the benefit to my health. Now, when I say the word “walk,” my dog knows the meaning. 

So, as I finish writing my testimony in tribute to this course, I listen to the YouTube video of Turn, Turn, Turn by the Byrds. From now on, when I hear these lyrics taken from Ecclesiastes 3:1-2, it will give me pause to remember this special time in my life.

By Lucas Mburu, Kenya, HSHC Summer Intern 2020

Generally, when people come together to formally create a community, commitment is one of the principle factors for achieving an objective that involves a group people. Commitment helps members remain focused on an organization’s purpose amidst the fluctuations of individual interests and environments. Commitment is highly associated with healthy family relationships, company/institution/organization’s high productivity, and the political stability of a nation.

Nevertheless, getting people to commit has been a challenge for many organizations. Scholars such as John Meyer, Natalie Allen, Jeffrey M. Adams, and Warren H. Jones share several reasons why people shy away from commitment, some of which include:

• Traumas experienced from past commitments (e.g., childhood abuse, memories of loss as a result of being swindled of hard-earned investment, and failure can all leave prints of fear on people which make them shy away from committing themselves to any corporate project)

• Fear of lifestyle change (e.g., in marriage commitment, a partner’s preferences on time and other resources shift from the individual to a couple’s agreement)

• Fear of responsibilities (e.g., in a community project, every individual will have assignments and duties to carry, one will be held accountable in line with duties and power bestowed upon them where there a corporate objective that calls for working with others)

These authors go on to advise organizations to cultivate commitment by addressing fears and deficiencies that people they interact with portray.

This summer, I encountered a scenario that I believe demonstrates another aspect of why people shy away from commitment. As an international student, I had planned to travel back to my home country and be with my family for the 3-month break. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted all my plans. As I was figuring out how to spend my long summer break, I encountered other students who were in the same dilemma of having a lot of time with very few planned commitments.

This situation brought to my mind the unfortunate reality for many young adults in Kenya, who have a lot of time without planned commitments due to the unemployment challenges in the country that have negatively affected many young adults. When I coupled this thought with my passion for human flourishing, specifically for the unemployed young adults, I decided to reach out to my fellow students who had expressed feeling the same struggle as I had been feeling. I suggested a project that focused on creating some healthy living practices to help bring about greater flourishing in our own lives and that we could ultimately share with our communities back home and beyond. I was optimistic as it appeared that my idea for this small group attracted almost 100% commitment judging from the interest and promises I got from the students I contacted via email. However, this translated into 0% commitment at our first meeting… no one showed up. I sent out a follow-up email twice outlining the anticipated objectives, activities, and time commitment (2 hours weekly), which ended up with only one person out of ten agreeing to commit to this group. As a result, I terminated the project, took some time to reflect on the experience, and came up with another project I could do as part of my internship with HSHC.

Just shortly after experiencing disappointment with the small group project due to people being unwilling to commit, the US Department of Homeland Security released ICE regulations that stated the F1-Visa status of international students who planned to take virtual classes in the fall 2020 semester would be revoked. It questioned whether these students should be allowed to stay in the United States if they were not taking classes in person (even if they had no choice but to take the classes online) and threatened the possibility of them being sent home if their schools did not comply with the new regulations. The ICE regulations were threatening to the health and safety of me and my fellow international students and created a lot of anxiety, uncertainty and frustration. Despite my very recent experience of not being able to get students to commit to my small group project, I suggested to them that we come together and seek our “survival/flourishing” in the reality of the ICE regulations. I was surprised because all of the students I asked committed themselves to the idea; even though the notice was abrupt and the agenda was unclear. When I compare this later commitment with the former, especially considering that in both instances I asked many of those same students who had turned down my project on flourishing, I came to discover that commitment could also be influenced by how people interpret the information and data they encounter.

In recent protests, some have stated, “We (people) are not mere statistics.” The former secretary-general of the United Nations (UN), Ban Ki-moon, in his opening remarks at the UN conference in New York, said, “We all understand that people can never be reduced to mere numbers.” (UN, Press release, April 11, 2016). Inferring that the UN conference represents policymakers of nations in the world, who often deal with data and statistics, I see Ki-moon’s statement as affirming the idea that humans may be vulnerable to the interpretation of statistics as “mere numbers” rather than seeing the reality that data represents real people and the occurrences that affect them. Health risks, disease, disasters, and human struggles are all often communicated through numbers instead of ways that humanize their effects, through statistics instead of stories.

Analyzing my experiences related to the commitment of seminarians involved in the flourishing project and international students’ flourishing in the reality of ICE regulations, I see a binary of non-commitment and commitment. What causes contrasting results? I presume commitment could be influenced by a human’s relationship to the data they are processing as well as whether or not a person’s wellbeing/flourishing is affected by that data; their wellbeing is threatened and so they respond, which then changes the statistics from “mere data” into something embodied by real people and the real occurrences that affect them. These people then demonstrate total commitment to courses that seem to safeguard their wellbeing and survival, and vice-versa, showing that people are often most often reactive instead of proactive. Commitment is at the foundation of social life, often where well-being, health, wholeness, and flourishing meet. Moreover, people commit themselves when data directly affects them. It therefore seems that to earn the commitment of seminarians to a course of wellbeing demands addressing the challenge of seeing data as “mere numbers” and instead connecting it to the well-being of those being asked to commit. In Luke 10:25-37, the parable of the Good Samaritan, one sees Jesus contend with the human tendency to treat people and real occurrences that affect people as mere statistics. In verse 26, it seems that Jesus points to the problem of how people are interpreting the data (in this case, Law): “What is written? How do you read?” Moreover, in verses 29-37, Jesus unmasks how interpreting statistics (here, the neighbor – a man beaten by robbers and left half dead) as a “mere number”, as opposed to a flesh and blood person, influences how a person commits themselves. Jesus didn’t give the identity of the man beaten by robbers, probably to let the lawyer interpret that he could likely fall into the hands of robbers just as easily as the man. It seems, then, that sharing stories of how people are vulnerable to threats against their wellbeing could help people see themselves represented in the statistics. I suspect that people’s connection to the data is a key factor in how people commit themselves to human well-being and flourishing.

Work cited:
 Adams, Jeffrey M. and Waren H. Jones, Eds. Handbook of Interpersonal Commitment and Relationship Stability. New York: Springer, 1999.

Meyer, John and Natalie Allen. Commitment in the workplace: Theory, Research and Application. Thousands Oaks, California: Sage Publications, 1997.

United Nations. Press Release: Secretary General, SG/SM/17661-POP/1047, 11 APRIL 2016. https://www.un.org/press/en/2016/sgsm17661.doc.htm Accessed on 08/31/2020

August 2020 – Written by Norma, London, England

I recently attended an online plant-based cooking party led by Karen Webster, cofounder, and executive director of Healthy Seminarians Healthy Churches (HCHS). HSHC’s approach to eating seeks to enable people to live healthier lives by taking care of God’s earth (environmental), and thereby getting the proper nutrition (plant based) that God has provided for us. I initially learned about the workshop through my church’s weekly newsletter. I did not know much about plant-based cooking and wanted to begin learning about ingredients that are often used and get some recipes, so I signed up online. 

Karen is passionate about plant-based cooking and her demeanor was relaxed, nonjudgmental, and approachable. She creates her own recipes and tweaks others to obtain the best result. She said she often takes plant-based recipes to gatherings and there are never any leftovers, so no one notices they were not made in the traditional way. It was great to see her in the kitchen with some of the dishes she created. They looked appetizing and I was delighted (and relieved ) to learn that the ingredients were easy to obtain, the recipes were not complicated, and the food tastes good! 

I found the resources Karen emailed to us as a follow-up to the workshop particularly helpful. Those included sources for obtaining ingredients, recipes, and other helpful information such as the how to stock a plant-based pantry and plant-based substitutes for some traditional ingredients. 

HSHC is a treasure-trove of information about plant-based eating and so much more. I would recommend that anyone who wants to live a healthier life through using the resources God has provided us to attend a plant-based party, sign-up for the newsletter, and visit the website. You will not be sorry. 

Introducing HSHC’s Summer 2020 Intern – Lucas Mburu!

June, 2020 – Lucas will be working with us part-time in partnership with Columbia Presbyterian Church, which is located across the street from HSHC’s office, and Columbia Theological Seminary (Decatur, GA).

Snapshot Bio

Home Country: Kenya

Studying: This fall, Lucas will be a second-year student in the Master of Arts in Theological Studies program at Columbia Theological Seminary, emphasis on the New Testament.

Family: His wife Eunice, daughter Grace (13 years old), and son Timothy (8 years old).

Personal Statement: Each human is God’s work in progress, whom God created “sovereign,” able to imagine and create meaningfulness in their environment for flourishing.

Vision: To build a community that lives into this “sovereignty.”

Mission: To live my call, passion, training, analytical, and stewardship potential by exercising love, faithfulness, professionalism, and ethical conducts in communicating God’s love to humans in their day-to-day matters, for the glory of God.

Slogan: Doing good to as many people as I can, in as many ways as I can, in as many places as I can, and as often as I can.

June, 2020 – “Why does it always seem to take our world being turned upside down before we recognize ourselves in each other? . . . A thoughtful reflection written by a Lenten Challenge participant & HSHC supporter Ann M. Frensley.

The Lenten Challenge was timely for me and affirmed much in my spiritual journey of the past two years. While it is easier for me to avoid the difficult questions, to even deny the necessity of them, what I learned by staying with those questions during this season of Lent is significant. I prayed for deeper discernment and wanted to reflect with greater intention on the questions. I did not want to throw down rote responses.

What did my relationships look like? Did they feel authentic? Had I been authentic, i.e., honest, patient, present, vulnerable, forgiving? God knows I lack patience sometimes, especially with family. I thought I knew what to expect by asking for deeper discernment. Ha! After reading the daily reflections, I wrote them in my journal to revisit later. I was surprised by my responses as the prayer for depth began to open up to me. But I was uncomfortable. It had not always been easy to be honest with my thoughts and feelings, even to myself. I experienced life differently from others.

The Challenge offered an opportunity to be authentic, my true self before God, my family, and friends. It might be too much to ask from me. Could I allow myself to be vulnerable, answer honestly, even to myself? The ugly and uninvited, vicious and deadly coronavirus thrust itself into the midst of Lent, taunted and dared me to reexamine my relationships and my responses to the Lenten Challenge with more urgent intention. The cause and effect that the pandemic was having on so many lives was affecting me, my community, and the entire world. The event was expanding exponentially and holding humanity emotionally hostage. Why was this happening? How long will we have to be separated? Life will surely be different. But how? No answers. Doubts? Many. I missed my weekly interactions with people I had come to know and was aware of how much I had relied on facial expressions, gestures, and body language in conversations. Visual cues and tone of voice do not exist in emails and texts. Virtual face-to-face encounters are helpful and can brighten my day, but nothing compares with the actual presence of a loved one, a friend, a confidante. It has not been easy for me to accept the loss of physical presence, and I grieve it like a death. Whatever the pandemic serves up, I can still choose how to respond, but I’ve had a hard time with that.

The unexpected has burdened me with many questions. How can I communicate with others in a clearer and more conscious way? How can I create new ways to be present from a distance and celebrate meaningful moments of intimacy in my relationships, and for how long? What’s next? Why me? Why us? Why now? Can I manage to be kinder to myself? Maybe the seasons of Lent and Pandemic occurred together so I can appreciate how fragile and interconnected my relationships are. I must celebrate them now in as many imaginative and creative ways as possible. Why does it always seem to take our world being turned upside down before we recognize ourselves in each other?

Easter was celebrated differently this year, and I celebrate the Resurrection from a new perspective. I have another chance to renew my relationships, soften tough scars, forgive and be forgiven, reconcile with and be kinder to others and to myself. I continue to hold the questions with no answers in tension with hope and the expectation of clarity.

In Letters to a Young Poet, Rainier Maria Rilke wrote, “…be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and… try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”

Ann M. Frensley April 2020

June, 2020 – Anna Grace Clauch, HSHC intern, interviewed Maggie Burgess, a seminarian spouse who originally hails from Wyoming. She is passionate about health equity, immigration, and coffee. Maggie has worked a variety of positions in the non-profit sector and is involved on campus with the HSHC small group and SAGE (CTS students group) community garden. Here is what she said when I asked her about her experience with HSHC this past semester…

Small-Group Participant Maggie Burgess
“Attending HSHC’s small group each month was a breath of fresh air — a much-needed time of honest conversation and new perspectives on daily living. I felt welcomed as a non-student and LOVED each plant-based meal we shared together. I especially enjoyed our discussion of rest and the expectations we place on ourselves and our churches. I’m grateful for the diverse perspectives of the group and the thoughtful leadership of HSHC. “

– Maggie