How does one best care for marginalized people, those who have been isolated from community, stigmatized by society, and even neglected or wounded by the Church? This question has dwelt within my soul. It has inspired me to study the Bible in deeper, more focused ways. It led me to seminary and while there, it lingered on. It led to me taking courses which explored issues of individual and social brokenness that bred marginality and isolation. I asked hard questions within these courses, inquires which could not be pacified by the prototypical Sunday school responses. I read, researched, and wrote on these issue, all in a diligent pursuit to answer this one question.

Along the way, I had a few revelatory moments, but I also became intrigued by a biblical character who I believe personifies everything I was wrestling with, the nameless Canaanite woman of Matthew 15: 21-28.