Celebrate offering case histories
Hannah Zafar
I am 26 years old and have been working as a full time youth ministry coordinator in a Catholic parish in Leeds for four years.
I serve young people in parishes, schools and retreat centres, encouraging them to turn to Jesus as they long for authentic freedom, truth and love. My involvement with the charismatic renewal has also given me the opportunity to lead worship in prayer groups, conferences (including Celebrate) and pilgrimages. This has been a really privileged way in which the Lord calls me to greater humility by leading others to Him through music.
In the last 12 months my desire for evangelisation and renewal in the church has grown deeper, and I feel the need to make a greater commitment to my own formation and prayer. I want to know more about the faith so I could defend it with authority and clarity, I wanted to love more so that I could reach out to others in a way that truly ministers the heart of Christ, and I wanted to pray more so that I can be, as Pope Benedict XVI says, ‘familiarised with the Holy Spirit!’ This is what led me to the Emmanuel School for Mission, which Celebrate has helped to fund.
The ESM is a nine month course, run by the Emmanuel Community in Rome. It is an intensive programme of community living, prayer, study and mission work, designed to better equip young adults in their love for Christ, their knowledge of the faith, and their approach towards mission and evangelisation. Through community life and prayer, I will be challenged to love and adore the Lord and His people. Through my study of Scripture, Church teaching, the liturgy and pastoral and moral theology, I will deepen my intellectual grounding in the faith. Through regular opportunities for mission (three ten-day parish missions across Europe, and weekly street evangelism work in Rome) I will grow in confidence as a ‘preacher of truth in my own place’ (Bl. John Henry Newman).
On my return, my parish work will continue and I will be enriched by my experience, able to serve Him more faithfully, responsibly and whole-heartedly. I have a desire to see the lives of this country changed by the love of God, and I plan to come back and commit myself to this work after completion of the Emmanuel School for Mission.