A reward beyond measure

By Miro Heyink

Miro Heyink arrived in the United States from Germany 10 months ago after graduating from high school. He came to volunteer at Shalom Catholic Worker House, a homeless shelter in Kansas City, Kan. and to learn about the country, culture and the English language. After hearing about CFCA from a friend who works there, Miro got an internship and learned more than he expected.

Here I am at CFCA working with beautiful, like-minded people who believe that we can make a difference in the world through compassion. It seems as if everyone here has been in a developing country, built relations with the poorest of the poor and made it their responsibility to change something.

I work in the child services department and most of the time I help update records and scan photos of children and elderly from 25 countries. By reading their stories and seeing their faces, their lives become part of mine. I care and pray for them, and when I hear that a child or a child’s parent dies, it strikes me just as if it happened in my own neighborhood. That thousands of children die from hunger everyday is not something I can ignore anymore, just like I can’t pretend there are no homeless in my city.

I was inspired when I learned about Walk with the Poor (WWTP), a youth movement started by CFCA. Students like me have financial aid and scholarships and often times, it is taken for granted. A lot of people our age in developing countries don’t have that aid and by joining the movement, we can enable others to achieve their full potential. Wherever I go, I tell people about WWTP and CFCA to hopefully inspire them the way I was.

Because of my experience working here, I decided that I want to go to college to further my education and become a part of the solution as a teacher. I realized that education can be the tool to break the cycle of poverty. Understanding that education in developing countries means supporting siblings, a meal for the day and a greater future for the entire family, made me choose my career path as a teacher for the neediest of society. I want to teach the poor to give them the tools to lift themselves out of poverty.

No matter where life leads me, I will work for social justice because I’ve learned at Shalom House and CFCA that we can make a difference and “gently shake the world”. We can volunteer in our local area, join student organizations, sponsor children, raise money for scholarship funds or help one WWTP student finish school and make a huge impact in their communities. Whatever we choose to do, once we decide to become part of the solution, nothing can stop us, because I have found that working for justice is rewarding beyond measure.