"There was a lot going on last summer when I applied for the Newbigin fellowship. My husband and I had just bought our first house - a real fixer-upper in a "transitional neighborhood." We had moved in but not unpacked. My son was about to turn two and was starting to show signs of the terribleness to come. And I was still in the morning sickness (and afternoon and night sickness) stage of being pregnant with my second baby - a baby who would be born right in the middle of the Newbigin year. Was there any way I was going to have time for this? Was this really the right time of my life to dedicate a year to study, community, and spiritual discipline? Plus, would they even want me? Did they let stay-at-home moms into the fellowship? Didn't they really want young professionals, people of influence in business and technology?
Now that the year is over I realize that those questions were mostly silly. Over the year we talked a lot about being God's presence and living faithfully anywhere and everywhere God places us. There's no perfect time to follow God. There is no perfect job to serve God. All stages of life are included in a life lived for God and all professions and all undertakings are valuable to God and should be dedicated to him. We have been created in God's image and that image should stand for the presence of God - for his rule, his justice, and his peace. Everywhere we go, every job we have, every city we live in, through all the seasons of our lives, we are called to be builders of God's kingdom, signposts of his shalom, creating glimpses of Eden wherever we go... even if it's just to the playground."
- Katie McMullen
Newbigin Fellowship Alumni 2010-11
Applications now being accepted for
Newbigin Fellowship 2011 - 2012