Editor’s note: Kallyne Araújo Harder from Recife, Brazil participated IVEP in 2014-2015 and was assigned to Mennonite Friendship Communities in Hutchinson, Kansas. Kallyne is now serving as a pastor in Witmarsum, Brazil. She is married and currently pregnant with her second child.
Top photo: Kallyne Araújo Harder (middle, in white top), along with her husband and son, visits her host family, the Wengers, during the 2024 Christmas season in Hutchinson, Kansas. Photo courtesy of Kallyne Araújo Harder
I look back 10 years ago, and I try to wonder how my life would be now if I had quit the idea of going to this exchange program. I am pretty sure I would be a completely different person, in a different setting, and for sure with completely different people around me.
During my volunteer time in Hutchinson, Kansas, I worked as a dietary aide at Mennonite Friendship Communities retirement home, which made me grow in so many areas. I learned and I have continued to learn to be humble and always available to reach out to the needs of my neighbor. I’ve learned to be open to listening to peoples’ histories and embracing the human chaos we face, before trying to act on it. I’ve learned to seek God’s presence as I never did before, and I am confident that as an IVEPer I had deep experiences with God that shaped my faith and path. I’ve learned to love my host family and foreign friends as my own people. I actually feel that I left a big piece of my heart there! On the other hand, I brought so many new recipes and extra pounds home with me.
Once I was back home, I felt pretty lost and without meaning. However (or due to that), I tried to keep myself aware to follow God’s lead in that exact moment I was living. I graduated college and felt a very deep calling to start studying theology. Since I wanted to study in a Mennonite college, I moved to south Brazil, to a city called Curitiba, where I started my pilgrim journey. I faced many challenges there to adapt, from housing and scholarships to culture and racism. I found out that Mennonites here in south Brazil have a different background from the ones in the U.S., although they share the same history. Here they carry much more the wounds and traumas from war, as they stayed longer in Russia. It was a huge cultural shock getting to understand the boundaries and walls between us and yet not be stopped by them.
Since I had the experience of living abroad with people of various ideas and backgrounds, I’ve gotten to the point of understanding that even if we share the same faith, we will disagree and have different worldviews. And that’s fine! On the other hand, I’ve also reached a deeper understanding of the dignity we carry as human beings, so I cannot quietly accept the many ways people underestimate and try to silence others who don’t quite fit in. That’s why I didn’t let racism, sexism or ethnocentrism keep me from following the calling to graduate from my theology studies and serving Christ with excellence.
In the seminary I met the guy who is actually my husband. Jurgen was raised in a Mennonite colony here in south Brazil called Witmarsum, where we currently serve as pastors. That’s also a big challenge as we battle against these walls that keep us from fulfilling Jesus’ intention for his disciples to be one, as he is one with the Father.
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We continue believing his church should be the one living organism able to show the world how his love and wisdom are amazingly great, as we live as one despite our differences.
Throughout the years and the many challenges I faced, I could still count on my host family. They kept supporting me with advice, visits and even financial help. Part of the family came to visit me twice, and I also got the opportunity to visit them three times. On my last visit, I took my husband and our 1-year-old son along. It is a huge blessing to have them close to my heart over all these years and especially as I build my own family now!
I also built a strong friendship with my fellow IVEPer from Indonesia who served in the same nursing home that year. Our bond was so great that we felt like sisters. Five years into our friendship, I had the honor of standing by her side on one of the most special days of her life—her wedding. We still nurture our friendship as time goes by, even though we’re on different paths and so far apart. We know the love we share for each other will remain.
While I reflect about that precious time as a foreign volunteer, I remember the advice I received during my first orientation week: “Be adaptable and expect to be faced with the unexpected. Do not be too quick to judge the culture or situation. God will probably use/challenge/change you in unexpected ways.” I still don’t know who wrote it. What I know is that I kept this note on my mirror through all that year. I am pretty sure God loves to surprise us with the unexpected, and I am happy to recognize today that the IVEP program is like a tool in his hands for that.