Shalomie Feature: Hilina
Written by Kaitlin Abrahams, 2018-19 participant
Hilina (center) in her office at Church World Service.
When she saw “serve God in Lancaster” on The Shalom Project’s website, Hilina’s plans changed. Hilina, a first generation immigrant from Ethiopia and more lately from Washington, was attending college in Lancaster at the time. She was studying biology with every intention of going straight to medical school. But when she ran across the name of The Shalom Project while doing a public health internship and googled it, she found an unexpected nudge in another direction.
“God placed [The Shalom Project] in my heart,” Hilina says, describing her response to reading about the program. She was drawn not only to the service aspect, but also to living with a household of people who were committed to growing spiritually. However, not everyone in her life understood this change of plans. After discussing the matter with trusted professors, Hilina discovered that taking a year off to do service was a great way to show her dedication to caring for people while she waited a year before starting medical school.
So far, this year has been a welcome break for her from school. More importantly, she has learned how to compromise, grow in humility, and serve with a true servant’s heart. When the going gets tough, Hilina reminds herself of the words of Richard J. Foster, “Service banishes us to the mundane, the ordinary, and the trivial.”
Hilina’s service internship has focused on refugee resettlement. She was drawn to this position both because of its fast-paced environment and its focus on social work, an aspect that makes it quite different from her past biology internships. Hilina states that within the first two days she was so impressed by the selflessness and cooperation of her coworkers who were open to serve all, not just “their” clients. Along with her coworkers, she has been challenged to make do with little and to deal with stress when clients ask more than she can provide. Interpreting Tigrinya (a language spoken in Ethiopia) has also stretched her, yet it has also been an amazing way for her to become more fluent in her first language and bond with her parents as they help her to learn it. Because of a seminar, Hilina learned that she is a two on the enneagram, a caregiver, so it can be easy to stretch herself too thin. She says that Nathan Grieser, director of The Shalom Project, has often encouraged her to remember that she cannot solve every problem, and that she needs time for herself as well. He has also reminded her that sometimes she needs to pick between two good options, like taking care of herself and taking care of others.
Balancing self-care and selfless service has not been the only struggle of the year. As a cultural orientation instructor, she was once busy with appointments and ESL classes, but the current crisis has changed the way these tasks can be accomplished. Hilina will be working from home for the foreseeable future. She has adjusted to virtual work, but misses the camaraderie of her coworkers.
Social distancing has been hard because Hilina misses the strong community connections she had been building. Coworkers no longer invite each other over for meals at their houses and she can no longer attend the local church with which she had connected. Still, the relationships remain. Hilina has been pleasantly surprised by the connections she easily made with former Shalomies and how this led to friends in other intentional communities around Lancaster, including one just a walk away on Poplar Street.
Hilina is also realizing how much joy walking around the city brought her. She misses being able to walk downtown to enjoy a warm cup of tea in a cafe. Hilina is currently staying with family in another state while continuing her internship remotely and staying in touch with the Shalomies and other Lancaster friends via video chats. Even though she’s far away from Lancaster at present, Hilina is glad to stay connected to the community The Shalom Project helped her build and continues to find ways to serve God in Lancaster.
Learn more about a year with The Shalom Project
Contact Nathan, and we’ll schedule a 15-30 min phone call to answer any questions.
