I am so excited to return for my second year of mission with FOCUS at Indiana University! Go Hoosiers! I will be on a team with 5 other missionaries (Sophie Zell, Mark Zara, Will Basta, Will Patrick, and Cori Martin).

Despite being raised in the Catholic Faith, learning to translate the Gospel of John into Latin in middle school, and attending daily Mass at my Catholic high school, faith was nothing more than a box I checked off every Sunday or an assignment I turned in at school. But even then, Jesus was at work on my heart by gently forming me and preparing my heart to encounter Him more deeply in college.

When I moved to East Lansing to begin nursing school at Michigan State University, I found myself desperately lonely when the academic success and relationships that I thought would fill me fell short. In that longing, Jesus pursued me. He placed faithful friends in my life who persistently invited me to retreats, my first Bible study, and daily mass. It was in those small yeses that I encountered the Lord and His desire for more than just my Sunday obligation. He wanted my heart. He wanted a relationship with me, His beloved who He has been pursuing since the beginning of time. That invitation to more changed everything.

But in His goodness, Jesus doesn’t stop at encounter—He invites us to deeper transformation through being part of His mission to bring others Himself. At MSU, He invited me to share the joy of the very relationship were were made for with my friends and classmates. Despite the demands of nursing school, my heart was drawn again and again to leading Bible studies, retreats, and discipleship groups—not because of anything I could do, but because of the joy, fruit, and transformation He brought through it.

When I was introduced to FOCUS at the end of my junior year, Jesus extended a new invitation: to follow Him more radically by stepping completely into mission and making it my full time job. I said yes. Now, in my second year on mission at IU, I continue to watch in awe as He transforms hearts, calling the women I walk with into deeper freedom, joy, and relationship with Him. Every day, he continues to invite me to say yes to relationship with Him, to mission, and to transformation. I want to extend the same invitation to you!

As a FOCUS missionary, I rely on the spiritual and financial support of my mission partners in order to be fully dedicated to mission. It is your yes that allows me to continue to give mine. Without the generous support of others, I will not be able to reach the students at Indiana University. Please contact me if you are interested in learning more about FOCUS, joining my support team, or how you can be a part of what God is doing on college campuses! You can reach me at [email protected] or (248) 212-7429. It would be an honor to have you join me on mission!

“Some give to the missions by going, others go to the missions by giving.”

-Pope St. John Paul II