Cindy Howie was born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. She is currently on leave from her teaching appointment and is studying at Trinity College Queensland.
I was in Year 7 when we moved to Brisbane from Africa. The highlight was to be reunited with my beloved grandmother. Nearly every time I go past Indooroopilly Uniting Church I smile because I can almost feel her squeeze my hand.
During my high school years at Brigidine College, four friends and I joined a Christian youth group called Antioch. Over a five-year period, life-long friendships were built and during this time I was confirmed into the Catholic Church.
When we were 16, my friend suggested that our faith should be more than sharing stories; that we should start journeying with people experiencing life differently. We approached the Wesley Hospital because we could get the train to Auchenflower after school. Volunteering from a young age at the Wesley was such a blessing.
I am interested in ministry work journeying with people from all walks of life. Several years ago I participated in a two-week Community Orientation Course in West End. Listening to people’s stories really opened my eyes and heart. I learnt about Indigenous spirituality, sexuality and gender issues and mental health concerns, heard from refugees and ate with the homeless on Turbot Street.
From 2012 until 2018 I accompanied a small group of high school students overseas on an immersion or journey of solidarity. To live in villages interacting with the locals and encountering the many and varied faces of God is phenomenal.
Every year of my teaching career I’ve taught business but the subject I love most is religion. In 2016 I completed a course at Tantur Ecumenical Institute in Jerusalem. I knew after this experience that once I had saved enough money, the next time I took a year off work it would be to study God’s word further.
My long-term hope through my study path at Trinity College Queensland is to complete a Master of Theological Studies and to one day spend a term at a school in Zimbabwe, with the hope of setting up an immersion program connecting young Australians with the faith-filled Zimbabwean locals.
My time at Trinity is preparing and guiding me in many ways. I’ve never really had a “home church” because I prefer to float—any church, any time. Trinity College is the closest I’ve been to having a home church. There is a real sense of being a community of faith, from our weekly chapel worship to sharing time together over lunch.
Studying at Trinity has brought me inner peace—knowing that I am exactly where I am meant to be.
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