A Deep Dive
By Mark Olson
Member of Christian Formation Team
The recent Ken Burns series on the American Revolutionary War revealed to me how little I actually knew about that war waged long ago.
Similarly, participating on the first Sankofa immersive experience offered by the Evangelical Covenant (our denominational family) 26 years ago revealed to me how little I knew about the civil rights movement and the lived experience of African Americans even today. The three day experience brought us to places that frankly, I would never have thought of going: Selma, the Edmund Pettus Bridge, Birmingham, and more.
Now, 26 years later, hundreds of Covenant people, including scores of leaders, have made a Sankofa journey. Additionally, new immersive opportunities have developed: Journey to Mosaic (a dive into Asian, Native, Black, and Island cultures), Journey to the Border (experiencing the crisis at the Southern border), and Weaving Justice and Peace in a Wounded Land (an indigenous learning experience). These provide opportunities to grow spiritually and culturally. Our regional conference offered one for high school students just a few months ago, and 50 students participated, along with 20 leaders. Click here to view a video recap.
These are immersive experiences: intense, confrontative, challenging. A variation on the practice of retreats, long a staple of Christian communities.
A surprising number of people at BCC have participated in one of these opportunities, including John Kerl, Letha Kerl, Dave Benedict, Kathy Sellereit, Christine Keiper, Diane Hawkins, Pastor Adria, and Doreen Olson. Doreen co-led several when she was working for the Covenant.
The next Sankofa is scheduled for February 19-22, 2026. It originates and concludes in Atlanta. You will visit museums, historic sites in the civil rights movement, churches, and more. People are paired with someone else, preferably a person from a different ethnic background.
Here is what a few of the BCC prior participants have had to say about their Sankofa or Journey to Mosaic experiences (and feel free to ask them questions you may have):
“This experience was life changing for me in opening my eyes to the past and current suffering around me, and began to teach me about the spiritual meaning of lament: break my heart for the things that break yours, Jesus.” — Diane Hawkins
“‘Walk a mile in his shoes’ is just a cliche until you've actually done it; to visit the church where children were killed in a KKK bombing and to walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma with an African American friend, and then to process together late into the night changes you.” — Dave Benedict
“I participated in Journey to Mosaic in November 2019. Listening to stories and visiting the sites of several ethnic groups in the PNW gave me a window into the lives of people who have suffered from prejudice, and then in turn how I can be a part of the healing process of reconciliation in the Body of Christ. Being able to look back at history and lament the wrongs while at the same time look forward to the future with hope is what the experience meant to me." — Kathy Sellereit
“Being the son of a remorseful Southern mother, who grew up in white privilege in the midst of the Jim Crow South, whose grandparents owned slaves and fought from start to finish for the Confederacy, I had only heard about the South through the stories my mother told me (since I actually grew up in Edmonds). Climbing on the Sankofa bus in Chicago on a cold January afternoon and finding my seat next to my African-American, Covenant pastor began a journey that took me to the other side of life in America for our African-American sisters and brothers. This was one of the most powerful, impactful and deeply meaningful experience of my life. — John Kerl
For more information, visit the Sankofa page on the Covenant website. Or talk to one of the people above who have done Sankofa. Partial scholarships are available and Pastor Adria can help access those resources. Dates have not been announced yet for the next Pacific Northwest Conference Journey to Mosaic.
When I was working at North Park University the University Ministries office began sponsoring an annual Sankofa experience for students. The trip filled up every year. A decade or more later I would sometimes come across a graduate and would ask if he or she did Sankofa. Without exception, if the answer was yes, they would say something like this: “It was the most important experience of my life.”
Photos:
Letha Kerl and her trip partner in front of the The National Civil Rights Museum, located at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. John Kerl and his trip partner on the group bus.