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CONTACT: Leslie Prevish, 303-630-1893, [email protected]

Nearly 100 FOCUS Missions Trips Open Eyes and Change Lives

Special World Youth Day Trip Planned; Summer Applications Close January 15

DENVER, Colo., December 15, 2015 — Traveling abroad for a mission trip changes the lives and perspectives of those taking the trip and the people being served. Since 2004, nearly 3,500 college students and FOCUS staff have traveled the world on nearly 200 FOCUS mission trips. During the 2015 – 2016 academic year, FOCUS Missions will host nearly 100 trips in 38 countries.

Niru De Silva, FOCUS team director at New York University, went on mission this summer to Blessed Mother Teresa’s Home for the Dying in Kolkata, India. In his inspiring article, How India Taught Me the Cure to Our Families’ Problems, De Silva shares how the experience opened his eyes to the importance of the family and especially fathers.

“The house for the dying would cease to exist if people could do one thing: love the people closest to them,” said De Silva. “On my last day in India, I knelt before the tabernacle and made a vow of commitment to the virtue of Fatherhood. I know if I develop the character of a good father, God WILL enable me to affirm TRUE identity in my bride and my children.”

FOCUS Missions is hosting a special trip for up to 235 participants next summer to World Youth Day in Poland. Preceding the trip, FOCUS (in conjunction with Catholic Christian Outreach of Canada) will host an international conference for university students at a monastery in Gaming, Austria. Other mission trip destinations for 2015 include many locations in Latin America, Southeast Asia, Africa and Europe. FOCUS Missions organizes sports camps to Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Panama and St. Lucia and also arranges medical mission trips to Argentina, Mexico and the Philippines. A full list can be found on the FOCUS Missions website.

Participants must apply for the summer trips by January 15, using the application on the FOCUS Missions website. Oftentimes parents and grandparents encourage college-aged family members to go abroad to experience and share Christian values through service. All participants fundraise for their trips with easy-to-use tools from FOCUS Missions.

Many benefactors support students because they see it as a tremendous investment in a young person’s future. “On returning and listening to Alec share his experience, it was clear the trip had enkindled a flame in his faith,” said Steve Walsh, who supported Alec Weed on his mission trip to the Dominican Republic. “The whole experience had transformed this young man’s life and priorities.”

To help send students on mission or to learn more about a corporate sponsorship, visit the Donate to FOCUS Missions page.

About FOCUS
FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) is a national outreach founded in 1998 that invites college students into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ and His Church, inspiring and equipping them for a lifetime of Christ-centered evangelization, discipleship and friendships in which they lead others to do the same. During the 2015 – 2016 academic year, nearly 500 missionaries will serve full-time on 113 college campuses in 36 states and Washington, D.C. More than 20,000 FOCUS alumni have been prepared to evangelize parishes throughout the U.S. Within this number, 547 have made decisions to pursue Catholic religious vocations. By 2022, FOCUS expects to launch 75,000 alumni into America’s 17,000+ Catholic parishes. FOCUS missionaries are typically recent college graduates who devote two or more years of their post-collegiate lives to reach out to peers on campus. To learn more, visit us at www.focus.org.