Katie began traveling to the Holy Land eighteen years ago on a pilgrimage similar to the ones she now leads. She quickly fell in love and returned every summer to live and serve in Bethlehem in the West Bank. She lived with Palestinian Christian families, taught music to local children, spent a summer living with nuns and serving people with special needs, and studied Arabic, the local language in Bethlehem. While she was there, she watched thousands of groups traverse through Bethlehem, passing by the local population and spending only an afternoon in the West Bank. She had the unique opportunity to sit in the homes of the local people and discuss this phenomenon with them. The message was always the same: They wished that groups would get to know them, that travelers would listen to their stories, and that pilgrims would stay in Bethlehem longer. Local Arab Christians were among the most hurt, as they felt that international Christians were ignoring them, seeking to step on the holy stones, but not caring about the living stones. These conversations planted the seed for Katie's future pilgrimages over to the Holy Land.

 

Katie moved to Chicago to study Music and Middle Eastern Studies,  gathering as much information as she could about the people groups living in the Holy Land, the history of the area and the current political climate. At the same time she began her career in liturgical church music, leading as an instrumentalist and vocalist. The more she studied Jesus, the more convinced she was that Jesus cares deeply about PEOPLE. And it was in this understanding that she decided to join in this mission of connecting unlikely groups of people together through the avenue of pilgrimage. 

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Katie is convinced that 99% of Holy Land pilgrimage trips are not doing justice to the local, indigenous population and is determined to provide an alternate path for Americans to travel ethically and respectfully. She wants to give back to the local people who showed her such overwhelming hospitality in her summers living there by responding to their requests for groups to spend time with the local population, humbly learning from them, and spending more time in areas where most groups ignore. 

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Katie uses her professional skills as a musician to add another unique layer to her pilgrimages. Catholics get to experience full Masses including music with a trained liturgical musician. Protestants get to worship at every site, singing praise songs on the Sea of Galilee and worship music at the Jordan River. And Katie adjusts the music to incorporate the most popular songs of the church with whom she is leading. 

 

One favorite memory Katie has is when she led a group down to the place of Jesus' birth in Bethlehem during peak tourist season. An angry security guard was counting the seconds that each person spent (only 3 seconds!) in prayer and then asking them angrily to move on. Katie pled in Arabic for him to give the group more time but he would not budge. Finally, she began to lead the group in Christmas carols and the tone in the room shifted. The man, with tears in his eyes, began to soften, allowing the group to spend as long as they wanted. By the end of the night, he was asking them to stay, just so he could listen to the music.

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Katie lives in San Diego with her husband, Patrick, and her yorkshire terrier, Finley. Both Katie and her husband have suffered from chronic Lyme Disease for the entirety of their 14-year marriage. After losing so many years to the disease and treatment, they are grateful for every moment alive, in health, and in community with others. Katie credits the psychospiritual model of Internal Family Systems (IFS) for helping her stay centered through the years of loss, grief, and treatment for chronic Lyme Disease. Determined to help other Lyme patients, she became an IFS-informed relationship coach. Katie now spends her afternoons in sessions with Lyme patients and non-Lyme patients alike, learning about her clients' parts and helping to bring more harmony and peace to their internal world. Her clients report feeling lighter, grounded, and more at peace. Those clients have healthier relationships and spread peace through their interactions with others, ultimately having a ripple effect of healing throughout the world. Katie now incorporates her IFS training into her pilgrimages, recognizing that the root cause of external conflict is internal conflict between our own parts inside of us. 

 

Katie is on staff as a musician at six different churches in the San Diego area, keeping her days busy with lots of music when she is not in IFS sessions. For fun she plays and sings in a music duo, Voices Two, and a cover band, Katie and the Killer Queens. She also directs the Pacific Beach Community Choir. Katie organizes her days around sunset time, hoping to catch the perfect camera shot with colorful clouds. And finally, she loves some good ol' southern white queso dip. If any one finds some in SoCal, she'd appreciate the heads up. 

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