Notes from the Field: After spending five and a half months teaching English to young adults at a technical/vocational school in Dilla, Ethiopia, it was time to make the trip north to Geneva to begin the second part of my volunteer mission.

Fiction and poetry hold a mirror up to ourselves, show us who we are and who we might be. We are characters in a book called Life. We face moral dilemmas, grow in grace, and recognize choices writ large in stories.

In the 25 years that Sister of St. Francis of Mary Immaculate Juanita Ujcik worked in jail ministry, she says she learned a lot about what she believes is complicated system. That's why, in October, she published Let None Walk Alone, a guidebook for the family and friends of incarcerated people.

"What if we talked together instead of at one another — building bridges of hope?"

"Let us shift diminishment language to the language of evolution, so that we focus on our renewal as a prophetic life form, to our growth and development. Life and death are cyclic. One organism dies, another is reborn."

GSR Today - It may be hard to believe, but the crisis caused by Boko Haram in Africa is getting worse. The Islamic extremists' terrorism and the fighting have destroyed livestock and food stores, brought the economy to a halt and forced millions to flee.

Overcoming their own fears, 86 Nigerian sisters did what they have not done before: express their dissatisfaction in public. At the gates of the National Assembly and to Police Headquarters, they found support for their message of solidarity with suffering Nigerians.

Simple moments of connection and the support of life in a strong Catholic community during the volunteer experience have proven influential for former volunteers who moved on to pursuing a vocation with a religious order.

"Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter, but beautiful, struggle for a new world."

During this National Migration Week, I've been reflecting on these opportunities I've had to "migrate" out of my comfort zone and to be welcomed as "stranger" in other lands. I reverence those crucial parts of my life. They have made me a better Christian.