It is my joy to be serving my fifth year with FOCUS as Team Director at the University of Tennessee! There is truly no better cause I could be giving my life to and I am so grateful to share that with you.

As Mother Teresa taught me, the greatest hunger in this world is not for food, but for Love and arguably some of the most malnourished places are college campuses. As a missionary it is my deepest desire to meet this hunger in the hearts of our young people and bring them to encounter the source of Love Himself as someone once did for me. Please enjoy reading part of my story below and I look forward to sharing the rest with you!

My team 2022-23!! My teammates from left to right are Justin Irish, Blake and    Morgan Chapman, and Isabella Grado! Thank you for praying for us as we grow together and serve college men and women at the University of Tennessee!

As a missionary, my greatest desire is to lead all students to Christ. When I was a student at the University of Alabama I was a “good” girl. I was active in my sorority, held leadership positions on campus, went to Mass on Sundays, worked hard in and out of class, didn’t go out as often as most people, and sought to be everyone’s friend. I had a deep desire to be known. I tried to become all things to all people in order to find myself. It wasn’t until my junior year of college when a sorority sister of mine entered into my life profoundly that I realized I had it all wrong. That day in early August she crawled under a bathroom stall door to sit with me as I cried on the floor, encountered me in genuine friendship and spoke truth to my heart. I thought I was doing everything right – then why did I feel so empty? It was then that I realized that I was building my life upon what the world said would make me happy, not the Love that truly satisfies. This woman not only invited me into friendship with her and other virtuous men and women, introduced me to the missionaries, and taught me to pray, but she brought me to the most important relationship of my life: my relationship with God the Father.

Up until my junior year, my pursuit of being loved, while I might have said was rooted in God, was really rooted in myself and others’ acceptance of me. It was not until I understood His unconditional, unchanging love for me personally that I truly found the happiness I was seeking. My life has been transformed by Jesus and I want nothing more than to bring this joy and freedom to others and introduce them to the life-changing message of the Gospel. In His ministry on earth, Jesus humbled Himself to meet us on our level, taking on our humanity, and spent most of His time investing deeply in a few to reach the many. As I look to Jesus example of love, and that of my friends’, I recognize that God never wanted me to be all things to all people in order to save myself.

I encountered the truth Pope St. John Paul II speaks of when he said, 

It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you.

Christ has called me to live in relationship with Him and share it with others so that they may know the one true God and answer to all they desire. 
Our God is a good Father and in His goodness He made us for relationship not only with Him but others as well. As a missionary, I get to encounter college students with the joy and hope of the Gospel, invite them into virtuous friendship, help them pursue lives of freedom found in a loving relationship with Christ, and form them as leaders in the faith who can share it with others.

I am extremely passionate about serving students in Greek life because it was encountering virtuous sisterhood that led me to Christ. On college campuses, fraternities and sororities can be extremely dark places that desperately need the light of Christ. I am so grateful to be growing with a community of men and women on fire for the Gospel who have one foot in their chapter and one foot in heaven so as to be a bridge for others to encounter true sisterhood and brotherhood. Here is a photo with some of the sorority women I work with from this past spring!

When I answered the call to join FOCUS, I made the decision to rely on the spiritual and financial support of mission partners to help me through this mission. I’ve been blessed with the most amazing people who have journeyed with me as I serve on campus. Trusting in God to provide through the generosity of others, I cannot serve alone. If you are interested in partnering with me, please let me know of the best way to reach you and I will schedule an appointment. I am always available at [email protected] and (408) 316-2344. I’d be honored to share this mission with you.

Let’s be compassion in action and serve together on mission. Thank you!