Earlier this month, Word on Fire blog contributor Ellyn von Huben took a life-changing trip around the world. It was a divinely inspired amalgamation of talent, happenstance and support that led her to the journey, details of which she shared with us for today's Word on Fire blog.
It was a journey to the bottom of the earth, set in motion by God.
And Lady Gaga.
Writer, church secretary, former stay-at-home mom, and Word on Fire contributor Ellyn von Huben recently returned from a whirlwind trip to Auckland, New Zealand where she was a featured speaker at the country’s 19th annual Eucharistic Convention. She gave two nearly-40-minute talks, one about her conversion experience and the other about raising children in a world rife with spiritual detachment and technological attachment. The crowd of 800 ate it up.
It was a big development for von Huben, who blogs for Word on Fire and her own site. The convention’s director, John Porteous, happened upon the first piece she wrote for Word on Fire that first ran back in June 2010. It was a funny but thoughtful essay [link] about Lady Gaga, her misdirected relationship with Catholicism and her undeniably catchy music. Porteous thought conference goers would relate to her brand of humor and experience. He was right.
“The people there were wonderful,” von Huben said of reaction to her two original talks. “I was so happy to be there.”
The two-and-a-half-day convention featuring nearly 10 speakers culled from around the world took von Huben on a 7,000-mile journey that lasted a scant three days, five if you include the flight duration...