With a passion for arts and culture, interior design, and basically anything that is beauty-related, Hanna’s current path in life is different from what she initially thought. What started as a dream to study arts and culture ended up leading her to Bible school, studying theology, and being part of her second church plant as we speak. Although the Lord called her to one of the darkest places in Europe, Hanna’s light shines ever bright. How? Through abiding in the Lord and letting Him break her heart over and over again for the lost and hopeless.
Hanna Sewing (25) is a student and missionary who has been living in Berlin for five years. With a grandma who originated from the capital city of the country, she fell in love with the city from an early age and always dreamed of living there one day in the future. However, as that day in the future approached, the Lord asked her to give up this dream.
Called to Pioneer in Berlin
Just weeks later, the Lord asked her to move to Berlin to attend Bible school. Never having had it on her heart to do Bible school, this was a costly decision for Hanna. But she was faithful and obedient, so she said yes to the Lord and made the move. After finishing Bible school, the Lord stirred her heart for something long-term, and in obedience, she was led to start her Bachelor’s in Theology, Sociology, and Innovation. Through this, she discovered that she loves to build things up from the ground. Since beginning her studies, she has spent a season working with a church plant and is now actively involved in another church plant in Berlin, called Awakening Berlin.
Awakening Berlin
Six months in, the pioneering team planned everything in their team apartment. They welcome around forty-five people each Sunday in a church hall, upstairs from where they live. “We are being faithful to what the Lord has entrusted us with.” But the question is, how do you stay faithful in such a dark place that many European Christians would not want to say yes to? As a pioneer, where do you draw from that makes you want to passionately dig into the ground and go after the kingdom zealously, yet filled with love and compassion for the environment and the people?
Connection to the Vine
The main thing that you need, Hanna says, is to stay closely connected to the Lord and His heart for this city and the people, especially. “You have to be willing to let Him break your heart, over and over again, to be able to continue to have His perspective.” It is necessary to have Him remind you that He placed you there, and because of that, there is a purpose in it. The remedy to apathy and lack of purpose is abiding in Him.
Approaching People Like Jesus Did
“When you see so much darkness around you every day, everywhere you go, it gets so easy to not see the people anymore and to be drawn into indifference. I personally had so many moments when I passed by someone and realized I had blinders on and didn’t see or didn’t want to see that person. It comes in so quickly that you don’t even notice. And since you can’t talk to everyone and change everyone’s circumstances, we must learn to be closely connected to the Holy Spirit and to recognize and obey His voice, so that we approach the ‘right’ people—like Jesus did also.”
Overturning Statistics with Holy Spirit-Given Vision
Another way the group of pioneers stays on fire to bring the gospel to Berlin is by knowing when to strategize based on statistics and when to recklessly obey acts of faith. Hanna says, “It’s good to look at the statistics and work strategically from that, but sometimes the statistics can hinder or slow down things that the Holy Spirit wants to do. We, as humans and especially Germans, tend to look for those statistics as guides to lead the way and tell us what to do because we want to do the right thing. But when we learn to obey and lean into the Holy Spirit, we see quite often that He does things in the total opposite way of how we think things will be reasonable, or right, or would make sense.”
She recalls a German saying that roughly translates to: “Everyone said: ‘That’s not possible!’ Then someone came along who didn’t know and just did it.” Hanna explains that this is what the church plant is experiencing right now. They are doing things differently than what would be logical from a statistical point of view. And oftentimes, God tells them: “I wanna surprise you.” She smiles as she says, “When we are willing to be used by Him, to be undignified and obedient, He will surprise others around us and us in the way that He works.”
Taking Care and Holding on to Encouragement
For others who are working as pioneers in dark places, Hanna shares two important final insights that have guided her on her own journey in this field. Firstly, in order to live sustainably in the environment that the Lord placed you in, “you have to figure out with the Lord and yourself what (you and) your soul need to be refreshed on a regular basis.” For Hanna, in the big city, it was, for example, noise-canceling headphones and regular time spent in nature. Secondly, she encourages herself and others to hold on to the prophetic and encouraging words. In the first year that she lived in Berlin, Hanna recalls asking the Lord, “How in the world are You gonna move
in this place?” The Lord answered with one sentence that struck her: “If I would tell you today what I’m about to do in this city and in this place, you wouldn’t believe it.” Hanna says, “I realized that it’s an option for me to choose whether I want to be part of this. Do I want to say yes to what He’s about to do?” If so, she says, “then I have to look out for myself in order to be running with it for the long term.” Just like Hanna in Berlin, dark and hopeless places can be transformed through anyone who is willing to be a faithful, diligent pioneer who is determined to give their yes to the Lord again and again.
