The rambling road...

The journey started long before the plane ticket was purchased, before the generosity of the grantor was realized, and before the packing began. The journey can be traced back to my parents’ insistence that without a good education people are unable to advance and progress in this world. The journey can be traced back to my mother’s constant pursuit of justice, peace, and her desire to provide a better way for the “stranger” in our midst. The journey can be traced back to my time spent on the Navajo Nation learning about, living with and witnessing the way an oppressed people are able to thrive and survive in beauty despite the odds being stacked against them. And, the journey can be traced back to a classroom at Emory University where I was first introduced to the educational pedagogy of Paulo Freire and words of truth spoken by liberation theologians which for the first time in years seemed to redeem Christianity in my eyes. Through my work at First Presbyterian Church, the long rambling road finally brought me to PRECE, an educational movement in northeastern Brasil that seeks to create opportunities so that children and adolescents can achieve the education they need in order to enter the university and in turn empower their communities. The children, the communities, the culture and the methodology of PRECE have grabbed my heart and for the first time it appears that all my passions, talents and years of education will be woven together as I move to Fortaleza, Ceará, Brasil to work with PRECE, teaching English, establishing partnerships around the world and helping to bring technology to the schools in the rural areas. I am thrilled to be granted the opportunity to live, learn and grow with the PRECE communities.