Mennonite Action’s next mass call on Thursday, August 22 at 8 pm ET / 5 pm PT. We’ll hear personal reflections from participants in the march and our summer mobilizations. Please sign up here.

“How did I end up here?” That question came up often as I joined the last few days of the march. It came up during conversations with interfaith friends as we joined together in prayerful protests. And it has been something I have been marinating on in gratitude and hopefulness.

I grew up in a very atheist family, but fell deep into the evangelical Christian space in high school. Faith was the most important piece in my life and I attended church or church activities 3-4 times a week. As the years went by, I became more disillusioned by the American church, especially as I experienced more of its posture towards those on the margins, the “other.”

But nothing wrecked me more than when I had the opportunity to live and study in Bethlehem and Jerusalem for 6 months. Almost everything I believed about the church (and the world) was turned around when day after day I saw my Palestinian friends harassed and humiliated by IDF soldiers, when I hugged the bony skeleton of someone who was starved and tortured in prison without cause. When I realized that Christian leaders I looked up to supported illegal settlements and the destruction of homes; when it became apparent that my community of Christians in the United States have been, and continue to be, one of the biggest enablers (spiritually, politically, financially) of the occupation. When I came back to the United States, nothing felt more disgusting, hypocritical, and violent than these church spaces I had once loved.

I moved to Chicago two years ago, and though I still deeply longed for it, had given up on the possibility of finding a spiritual home in a church community. As the horrific events of October 7th and Israel’s genocidal response unfolded, I continued to feel betrayed and let down by the deafening silence and blind support of Israel among my Christian brothers and sisters.

One January evening, I was scrolling through Instagram when I came across a video of 135 Mennonites getting arrested while protesting and singing in the Cannon rotunda. Tears rolled down my face as I sobbed in shock, hope, and gratitude—I did not think I'd see the day when a community of Christians would put their love into action like this. In the following weeks, I googled "Mennonite churches Chicago," started attending Living Water Community Church, and most recently moved down the street from my church before hopping on a plane to join Mennonite Action this July.

I'm still processing it all, but I think I ended up here because Love yearns to be embodied, to be in sacred community. And I am so grateful to have found beloveds who are courageously listening to that Love.

To hear more stories like mine from our movement, please consider attending Mennonite Action’s mass call on Thursday, August 22 at 8 pm ET / 5 pm PT. Please sign up here.