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A Community of Relationships

Robert L. Gallagher (MA '91, '92, PhD '98)

In 1990, my family and I came from Australia to study at the School of Intercultural Studies for one year--and stayed eight years. I had spent considerable time pastoring in a multicultural inner-city Pentecostal church, with an educational background from state universities with large classes and remote lecturers. Relationships were not a high priority in my learning experience.

On coming to Fuller, I was immediately embraced by the warmth of the community: professors who cared about my Christian call and spiritual development; an International Student Service office that became the center for daily coffee chats; the Fuller housing experience of the world at my back and front doors; student leaders in All Seminary Council who strove to represent the student body and better the conditions of the learning environment; staff and faculty who learned your name and showed interest in your life; lunch discussions with friends eating refectory burritos in the Garth; the Fall Festival; ice cream socials; and so many more warm reflections of relationships and a caring community.

This treasure of belonging became even more significant in the last few years, while serving on the Alumni/ae Council. During this time, my late wife traveled a difficult eight-month journey with colon cancer. And the response from the Fuller family provided a buoyancy of strength and hope: so many supportive emails and cards and prayers; a Fuller trustee traveling to talk and pray with us; a key administrator spending loving time with my wife when she was in hospice care at our home in Wheaton; and a memorial service in Payton 101 with so many of the Fuller family.

Thank you, Fuller, for your many loving relationships.