We were both twenty-seven, broken in different ways, but attuned to beauty, chasing the glimmers we’d encountered in music, books, and fleeting moments of transcendence. Though we met as strangers from different parts of the world, it felt like we weren’t really strangers at all, but two sides of the same coin, connected all along in a solid yet unseen way. I wasn’t looking for marriage or religion, and I certainly wasn’t interested in Christianity, but this new connection unsettled what I thought I knew. While Ben, who was raised as an atheist, had come to believe in God and appreciated Christianity intellectually, I had cordoned off my heart from God. Raised marginally Catholic by divorced parents who didn’t follow Jesus, and educated in liberal, secular settings, I considered religion deceptive, flimsy, and unsophisticated.

How I stumbled into a story much bigger than my own – and found my way to the Bruderhof.