Featured Fellow: Annabeth Larrabee
Annabeth moved four times when she was growing up (“it’s a bit complicated when people ask me, ‘where are you from?’”), but has lived in North Carolina since she was 10 years old. She graduated from UNC Chapel Hill in May 2020 with a degree in Global Health and Medical Anthropology.
She was born in Phoenix, Arizona where her father was a pastor. Her first memories are from her family’s home in Auburn, Washington, where they moved when she was five for her father to get back into the engineering field. “In order to take care of his family, he had to leave the church but never stopped being a pastor-his congregation was just a bit smaller...namely my two brothers and I! My Dad was extremely formative in my faith, even if I wasn't aware of it at the time.” In Auburn they lived in a quaint little neighborhood with two cul-de-sacs and a park and would walk to school any day it wasn't raining. She enjoyed art, swimming, and hiking, and loved getting to go whale watching with her father on the Washington coast. When she was 10 years old they moved to Mooresville, NC, and then finally when she was 12 years old they moved to Huntersville, NC, just outside of Charlotte. “Although still protesting against the death-water cloud you guys call ‘humidity,’ I have fallen in love with North Carolina and most certainly consider it home!”
Annabeth and family!
When Annabeth was much younger, her first thoughts for a possible vocation included being a doctor (“I think mostly because I thought the stethoscopes looked cool!”). Though she’s always felt this pull to the sciences, it ended up being the arts which really captured her heart. “It allows the more practical side of me to be free and tells my brain, ‘Relax, slow down, stop worrying about your coffee budget and the poverty of the world and paint something.’” She especially enjoys doing watercolor and calligraphy pieces for friends. As she grew a bit older, she learned more about the difficulties that artists often have in “making a living for themselves,” and so decided that being an architect would solve that problem--providing an outlet for both her artistic passion and the necessity of monetary provision. However, while Annabeth still enjoys painting and the arts in general, she was drawn back into the sciences during her time at Chapel Hill.
Some of Annabeth’s calligraphy and watercolor art!
She entered college in 2014 thinking that she might major in biomedical engineering since she was interested in prosthetics and cochlear implants, but she realized early on that physics and chemistry weren’t her thing. Toward the end of her sophomore year, she began experiencing a host of terrible symptoms which none of the doctors she visited could tie down to any one illness. She was eventually misdiagnosed with chronic Lyme’s disease, and the medication they put her on caused her to grow even sicker, remain bed-ridden for 5 months, and thus have to drop out of school in the middle of her junior year. Annabeth got off the medication and after seeing a host of other doctors was diagnosed properly with Ehlers-Danlos Hypermobility type--a condition which means there is an extreme laxity in Annabeth’s connective tissues which then causes other strange symptoms across her body. “I will have this the rest of my days here on earth, but with treatment, my symptoms are way less than they used to be, and I feel more or less ‘normal’ most days. I have come to a place where I am truly thankful for this. As a person that struggles with pride, it is extremely humbling on days that my joints are aching or my stomach is acting weirdly and I can't do everything I would want. It reminds me that this body is temporary, I am not in control, and there will be a day where my God gives me a completely new and perfect body in heaven.”
Her time at Chapel Hill was formative in her faith in ways she wouldn’t have expected before. She grew up in the church and was baptized when she was 8, but she describes college as the time when she truly claimed her faith as her own. She joined a Christian sorority and was elected the chaplain. “I had the most fruitful year of growth in my life thus far. I was in the Word daily, had to prepare weekly 20 minute long ‘talks/sermons,’ led Bible studies, and informally counseled girls through the sorority. All of this had brought me close to the Lord, knowing his voice and his truths.” It was towards the end of this year when Annabeth started experiencing symptoms from her illness, and when she experienced the Lord’s love in the midst of intense trial. “God broke down my ideas of success, and reclaimed my identity as His daughter. I needed to do nothing to earn his love and to be ‘worth’ something.” During this time, the passage of Scripture which became most important to Annabeth was Paul’s vision and thorn in 2 Corinthians 12. “ I remember thinking how much I related to Paul--I too had a thorn that I pleaded with the Lord to have leave me...and I didn't have an answer until I read this passage. It was as if God was answering me in my darkest time saying, ‘My Grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ I had for so long believed that power was power, and I needed to be stronger, try harder, do more in order to be good and earn God's love. But my pride was broken along with my body, and I gave in. The Lord showed me how even if I was unable to get up from bed another day of my life, that His power was perfected in my weakness and that I can and should boast of my weaknesses. That I could get to the place where I could say that ‘I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.’ It is still influential to me on days I forget that I am weak and am humbled yet again by our patient and gracious God. This passage makes me want to pursue weakness all my life, in hopes of the Lord's power emerging instead.”
“I asked the Lord three times about this, that it would depart from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is enough for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ So then, I will boast most gladly about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may reside in me.”
-2 Corinthians 12:8-9
After returning from her illness, Annabeth decided to major in Global Health and Medical Anthropology. When she took her first class in this field, she was shocked by how much she was unaware of the experiences of even other Americans regarding the healthcare system, as well as the experiences of those across the world. She began to see how truly complex healthcare systems are, how they change across cultures, and how they interact with other factors such as politics, environmentalism, and economics. “More than anything, I recognized in class how we try to place band-aids on medical problems across the globe instead of getting to the root. We will bring medicine, but not consider what is making people sick in the first place. What could the world look like if we invested in the health of entire communities and their lands rather than temporary cures (which of course we still need as well!)? I just like the idea of making a lasting impact on people.” After healing significantly from many of the worse symptoms caused by the misdiagnosis, Annabeth was able to return to school part-time and finish her degree in the spring of 2020.
Annabeth heard about the idea of a Fellows program from a friend who had done one in Washington, DC--she liked the idea of a gap-year in which both a job and community were provided. As a part of the Greensboro Fellows Program, she has worked as the executive assistant to the Rev. Canon Dr. Dan Alger at Church of the Redeemer, assisting with scheduling, planning events, and a whole host of other tasks. Two of her larger projects have been organizing Umuganda Work Days at Redeemer and designing a church planter’s workbook for Rev. Dan to use when he travels cross-country to train Anglican church planters (“that was awesome and a fun blend of work and my creativity!). She has loved working and laughing alongside Rev. Dan, Rev. Alan Hawkins, and the 3 other Greensboro Fellows (Lucinda, Shaye, and Ana) who worked in the church office this past year as well.
Annabeth, Hazel, and Ana
Shaye, Annabeth, and Lucinda
This love speaks to the love of community that she has developed further across the wider Greensboro Fellows community. “I have loved the COMMUNITY of the fellows program. I have had trouble in the past allowing myself to need others. I think many of us struggle with this--keeping people at arms length and going it alone. However, the Lord has really broken me in so many ways this year that have put me in the arms of my friends and church. After being displaced from a host home and then replaced after several months, a fire happened at my newest host homes family, destroying practically everything they owned. I lost all of my clothing, bedding, art supplies, books, and many sentimental items. The fellows came around me in a way that helped me to see God's love in the middle of it. This year has shown me what community looks like and what to look for and help build in all of my future communities.”
Some Greensboro Fellows fun!
Annabeth and Josh!
Annabeth is moving to Nashville in June 2021 where her boyfriend Josh and brother Davis currently live. She will be living with two alumna of the Fellows Program in Nashville, and is currently praying for the Lord to provide her a job--she hopes to enter into the global health field. Annabeth and Josh have been long-distance since May 2020, and so are looking forward to living in the same city and getting to explore together.
Annabeth’s humor, deep faith, and care for those who are suffering have been such blessings to all those in the Greensboro Fellows community. We will miss her when she moves to Nashville, but will look forward to her visits back to Greensboro and pray that the Lord blesses her richly in her new city!
