Walking with the people of East Timor

Sister Julia Shideler had no idea what to expect as Afina, one of her students in East Timor, led her on a four-hour walk to her home village in the mountains. When they got there, many of Afina’s relatives and neighbors were happily surprised that Shideler had walked all the way to visit them. They saw it as an act of humility that she had not come by car, though she had the means to do so, but had chosen instead to walk in their footsteps. “Her family graciously received me and opened up their way of life, their poverty and culture to me,” says the missioner from Spokane, Wash.