What happens when you decide to revisit the hard places and events connected to your imperfect, albeit meaningful journey? For me, it was a deep inward dive, pouring over old journal and scrapbooks, taking a road trip to stand in familiar spaces and a re-imagining of myself through a longer lens of kindness and compassion. This project was more than just a pilgrimage of redemption. It is what chasing hope looks like for me.
ABOUT THIS PROJECT
This project was undertaken in fulfilment of the requirements to receive my Master of Arts in Christian Studies from ACTS Seminary (2021).
I invested 10 years of my life in graduate studies and decided to explore this last decade of learning as the basis for my final project. How was I changed? What had I learned? Was it worth the cost and investment of time, energy and money? I became curious about the idea of pilgrimage as I felt my journey these past 10 years was in fact, a personal pilgrimage of brokenness, disappointment, healing and chasing hope.
Rather than writing a traditional paper, I envisioned the story of my journey as a series of chapters, with photos and other artifacts significant to me that would flesh out the details of the very personal narrative that I was wanting to share. So I created a website to contain the work I produced in a format that allowed me to be expressive, engage my creativity as well as curate meaningful content in fulfilment of the requirements for this final project.
I am kind of proud of the how it turned out.
And I wanted to be able to share my work with others. I am also hopeful that the enormous amount of time and energy I have invested to date will be a springboard for developing these ideas into future workshops, writing projects and interactive content.
This project is divided into three sections:
Part 1: Chapters 1-9. This section explores notions of pilgrimage…why I was interested in the idea of pilgrimage, what pilgrimage is and looks at examples of pilgrimage in both the Old and New Testaments of the Christian Bible. Chapter 7 briefly examines the rise of early Christian pilgrimage. Finally, I wrote about two fascinating women pilgrims. Margery Kempe (1373-1438?) was a 14th century Medieval mother of 14, mystic, mischief maker and writer of one of the earliest English autobiographies. My friend, Fiona Koefoed-Jespersen (1984-) is a spiritual director, sacred writer and practitioner of contemporary pilgrimage.
Part 2: Chapters 10-15. These chapters are my personal stories of pilgrimage, starting from my early years, growing up Baptist, loving and leaving the church and how I continue to chase hope as a former evangelical, a middle-aged, white woman still deeply committed to following Jesus and practicing an evolving faith.
Part 3: Chapter 16. This section concludes my final reflections on pilgrimage…what I have learned from my research, my reflecting back over my life journey and some of what I will take away moving forward.
A bibliography of all works cited and consulted in this project are also included. Unless otherwise noted, all scripture is taken from the NRSV. All images and photos are used with permission either by this author, Unsplash or Creative Commons license-free images. And finally, all views, perspectives and ideas expressed in this project are solely those of the author and creator, Brenda-Lee Sasaki.
ABOUT THE CREATOR
Brenda-Lee Sasaki grew up on the West Coast of Canada. Recovering from perfectionism, growing up Baptist and finding her voice in public & private sectors, Brenda-Lee brings her Enneagram 8 self to tables set before her, playing big to create movement in people’s lives so they will be inspired to flourish
Specifically, she has leaned into perplexing questions about the intersectionality of culture and community, how to engage crucial conversations and accountability both personally and professionally and deconstructing faith, gender and sexual identity. Each of these interests have brought her into meaningful conversations that have informed the work she is involved with and the organizations and people she chooses to journey alongside.
The last 10 years she has been immersed in graduate studies (MA Leadership, MA Christian Studies), research, teaching, writing and coaching in the areas of transformational leadership, theology, strategic thinking, identity, feminism and finding your voice.
Married for 30 years to the same stellar human, de-parenting 3 adult kids (who all live at home…still), she is a bit of a wine snob, enjoys single-malt scotch and quad americanos, and is attempting to become an ethically informed traveler to as many places on this planet as she can while she can (afford to).
Contact Brenda-Lee for more info.