Hello, I’m Caitlyn Sechuk and I am excited to begin serving my eighth year with FOCUS, starting a new role as a Parish Missionary. My husband Jon and I look forward to moving back much closer to home as we will be serving at Sacred Heart Parish in Bridgeport, PA. In this role I will have the same wonderful opportunity to continue to walk with people as they come to encounter a deeper relationship with God in their lives and accompany and model discipleship and missionary outreach for people in all walks of life. I am grateful for the opportunity to devote myself to this important work full time with the help of Jon who also served as a missionary. He will be moving into the restaurant industry but above all we hope to be witnesses to the grace of the sacrament of marriage as we learn to live it out ourselves. Thank you for your support in this mission, it is not possible for me to do it without your prayers and financial partnership. God has truly blessed the last years of mission and I am looking forward to what he has in store in this new assignment.

It was in college at the University of Vermont where I met FOCUS missionaries who led me to encounter Christ personally and showed me a different way to live; a life of radical trust, joy and fulfillment. I learned the message of the gospel, that each person is made for a relationship with God but the relationship was broken at the moment of original sin. But in God’s love and mercy he sent Christ to pay the price of our sins and by Christ’s sacrifice, we are all able to be forgiven and restored in our relationship with God. We are offered eternal life and the fullness of life on earth that we were created for. We all must accept or reject Christ’s gift of forgiveness and relationship but God desires for us to love him and receive his love. Unfortunately, most college students have no idea that God loves them and that a relationship with him is possible. Most live instead with an emptiness and longing for truth, beauty and goodness that nothing the world offers can satisfy. I was a person who didn’t know that it was possible to have an intimate friendship with God but it has been the best and most joyful thing that has ever happened to me and this has given me a great zeal for sharing the transforming love that I found in Christ. I strive to live out Jesus’ example by investing in others through authentic friendship, facilitating opportunities to encounter Christ and be transformed by his love, and giving those who desire to share his love, the tools to share with others what they have received.

I am so grateful to be able to serve as a full-time missionary in at Sacred Heart Parish and be radically available to meet parishioners and local people where they are and to see all of the AMAZING things that God has in store. It will certainly be a big change from my experience on campus but I could not be happier or more confident this is what God has asked me to do!

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. 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’d be honored to share this mission with you.