To leave home, your comfort zone, your homeland and your family out of love. The experience of crossing oceans and opening your heart to new experiences was the decision that Hanna Funke, originally from Arnsberg, Germany made. The youngster, who on the afternoon of January 6th visited the Shalom Headquarter (Diaconia Geral), Ceará, Brazil, shares a little about how she encountered the Community and explains what made her offer one year of her life in service of the Church and those most in need.
“I met the Community in Germany, but I had never experienced living with the missionaries. Now that I have arrived in Brazil, I am living with the Life Community in the mission of Sobral, Ceará, and it is a whole new experience. The daily routine is different, we pray in the morning and go to work in the afternoon. It is very good, in Germany I was a member of the Shalom Work, so I was not exposed to the Life Community’s way of living”, says Hanna.
The young girl, who will begin her vocational path, met the Community through the Shalom Youth Congress of Paris in 2015 after accepting the invitation made by a cousin who had been frequently attending the Shalom Work. The following year, she attended the World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland with the Community.
She recently finished her studies and decided to use some of her youthful years to care for those most in need, going in mission as a youth to Brazil. “Shalom is different to everything that I had previously seen in the Church back in Germany, and I was really able to identify with the Community”, concluded the youngster.
In the city of Sobral, Hanna is a missionary with the “My hand is the shelter” project, which is an initiative of Shalom developed by the Human Promotion Counsel. The St Francis House welcomes orphaned children who are in at-risk situations between the ages of 0 to 6 years. There, the children are cared for and looked after by the missionaries of the Community.
Translation: Gabriela Gois
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