We serve the Bitterroot Valley, the region where the Gospel first entered Montana through the heroic witness of the Jesuit missionaries to the Salish and Kootenai peoples. Over a century later, the Bitterroot is now populated with families who epitomize the pioneer spirit, whether they be traditional Mormons, transplants from the West Coast, or fifth generation Montanans. Many people are drawn to Montana for the adventure they seek; some are drawn for the pain that they seek to leave behind. For all people, the love of God is the Good News that they desperately need and the Kingdom of Heaven is the home that they earnestly seek. My job is to help them make that connection—to help the unevangelized connect the deepest desires of their heart with the healing Gospel of Jesus Christ and to help practicing Catholics become fruitful Catholics—disciples who are being transformed by the power of the Gospel and know how to share that joy and power with their neighbors.

As a middle school student, I had my first taste of missions while evangelizing and serving the poor in Memphis, Tennessee. From that day forward, my prayer was that God would allow me to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with as many as possible and that they would know the love of God and the freedom that comes from adoption as his children. The call to missions eventually led me to brief international service during college, which is how I met the love of my life, Lauren.

My desire to proclaim the Gospel compelled me to ensure that I was truly apostolic—truly sent by the Lord Jesus Christ, in the sense that I was bringing his Gospel and not my own ideas or the opinions of a particular sect. This restless search for truth led me to study not only Sacred Scripture, but Church history as well, since I was looking for a faith that was universal (catholic) and historic. This quest eventually brought my wife and I to the Anglican Church, in which I was ordained a priest and commissioned as a church planter.

Through varied means God made his call for Lauren and I to go to Montana very clear. Although I was sent with the understanding that I would plant an Anglican Church, God had other plans. Instead, I discovered the Catholic Church, and stepped down from ordained ministry in order to be received as a son of the one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church along with Lauren and our (then) four sons. Although I did not know what I would do for a job, I trusted that God did, and God was faithful to our family.

Years since then, having served in a diverse variety of ministerial and managerial roles in the Catholic Church, I rejoice in a renewed call to serve as an evangelist and leader in Montana but now in full communion with the Church that my Lord and Savior started. It is a beautiful honor to proclaim the Gospel to men and women as a Catholic missionary.

More of my story can be found on the Journey Home:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRFSWQ16850

Your gift allows us to continue the work of evangelization in a profoundly secular region that hails adventure and seeks refuge but knows very little of the wild heart of God, the peace of Jesus Christ, or the comfort of the Holy Spirit. By partnering with us, you demonstrate that the Gospel has power even in “non-religious” regions to demolish strongholds. We are unashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation.