Deb Byler shares how having a spiritual director at various points in her life has led her to share the gift and provide direction to others, across cultures, on their spiritual journeys.
Deborah Byler, after about 16 years working with Kekchi women in Guatemala and 17 years working on staff with Mennonite Mission Network, is now living in Goshen, Indiana. She is the faculty of record for resilient leadership for the new Doctor of Ministry program at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, and she continues to relate to a small group of Kekchi women leaders through a weekly WhatsApp Bible study group. Deb is an active member at Hively Avenue Mennonite Church and Piedra Viva Mennonite Church, both in Elkhart, Indiana.
________________________________________
In the early 90s, when I was a student at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, in Elkhart, Indiana, I began receiving spiritual direction. I was going through a very difficult time, and it felt so good to be able to talk about how I felt about God and my life journey. I continued to receive spiritual direction as long as I was at AMBS. But when I returned to Guatemala, to serve with Eastern Mennonite Missions and the Kekchi Mennonite Church, in 1993, I no longer knew how I could receive spiritual direction.
Yet I missed those opportunities to speak with someone about God and all the questions I had about myself and the way I was living my life in light of my desire to follow Jesus faithfully.
When I returned to the United Sates, in 1997, I, again, attended classes at AMBS and, again, received spiritual direction. I also attended spiritual retreats sponsored by the seminary and found those very helpful as I continued to make my way through difficult and painful life issues.
As the years went on, and after graduating from seminary, I continued to receive spiritual direction. Three different spiritual directors helped me in very important ways as I began to find my way in life and on my healing journey. I eventually began working with Mennonite Mission Network and became the director of worker care. In this role, I strove to support mission workers in many different countries, as they served God where they lived.
As I continued to heal, and as I reached out to others, I received the vision that, perhaps, I could support others by learning to be a spiritual director myself. So I studied with Dan Schrock at AMBS during the 2015-2016 school year and developed my skills, under supervision, as I worked with three mission workers in other countries. And I continued to receive spiritual direction myself with, by now, my fourth spiritual director. It was a joy to work with people as they served God in their settings.
In September 2016, I received a surprising, but clear, call from God to return to Guatemala, where I served with the Kekchi Mennonite Church through Mennonite Mission Network
As I returned to Guatemala, in January 2018, to work with women leaders, I wanted to maintain my practice of spiritual direction. I did not know if it would work to try to provide spiritual direction to Kekchi women — the Kekchi people are a group of Indigenous people of Mayan descent, who have an animistic worldview through which they are aware of many spirits. I tried spiritual direction with about six different women, but some did not continue very long. It was difficult for them to make the trip into the town where I lived. My supervisor did not have cross-cultural experience, but because of her many years of practice, she was able to guide me through learning how to support these women with spiritual direction.
Two Kekchi women in particular clearly valued the experience of spiritual direction. And a third woman received spiritual direction as often as she could make it into town. Of those three women, one stood out by sharing very openly and growing in obvious ways in her spiritual life.
When I returned to the United Sates again, in fall 2022, I continued to provide spiritual direction to one of the Kekchi women by WhatsApp. Additionally, while in Guatemala, I had begun to provide spiritual direction to a woman from the United States, using Zoom. Since returning, I’ve added a local Hispanic immigrant friend, with whom I meet in person, in addition to an English-speaking woman, with whom I relate by Zoom.
So now, my spiritual direction ministry includes one woman in the Kekchi language, by WhatsApp, two women who speak English, by Zoom, and one person who speaks Spanish in person. This makes for a very rich cultural exchange for me. There has been much to learn in working cross-culturally. For instance, I have been challenged by how to work with people in other cultures regarding the spiritual content of dreams. But I enjoy the variety of women, cultures and languages.
I continue to meet, now, with my fifth spiritual director, as well as with a supervisor, who helps me sort through a variety of issues I encounter with these four women of different cultures. God has blessed me through this rich ministry of spiritual direction.
Learn more about the Mennonite Spiritual Directors Network at mennosdn.org.
You can find links to the Spiritual Directors Network website and other congregational and ministerial resources on MC USA’s Church Vitality webpage: https://www.mennoniteusa.org/
The views and opinions expressed in this blog belong to the author and are not intended to represent the views of the MC USA Executive Board or staff.
Interested in submitting a blog for Menno Snapshots? Please see our blog guidelines here.