I am very loved by a merciful and good Father. That sentence alone can sum up my conversion and my daily encounter with our lord. He is the reason why I love and am Loved.

I am blessed to say that I was baptized into the faith but from a very young age I experienced the lack of truth and catechesis in my life. I experienced the absence of fatherly love, because of my lack of knowledge of the lord and who he was, I choose from a young age to try to live a life without him because I could not believe God was a loving Father. so,I concluded Christianity must be false. I am grateful for everyone in my life who said yes to the Lord before me and invited me to know him. When I attended my confirmation retreat at 15, I encountered the Lord through the blessed sacrament.

I was expecting to finally walk away from the faith after this retreat and receiving confirmation. Thankfully, that was only the beginning of my relationship with Christ. I encountered real love that pierced my heart that day, and I looked at Jesus and I remember telling him. ” I do not know who you are yet, but I will follow you for the rest of my life.” I have been on that journey since, of being a disciple of Jesus. I was blessed to go to Benedictine College and receive a double major in Theology and Evangelization where I fell more deeply in love with Christ and his church. I encountered more of his desires for me and my desire to share him with the world grew in me.

After College, I served as a Campus Minister/Missionary outside of the organization of FOCUS at the university of Platteville Wisconsin for four years. I encountered the Lord’s healing hand in my life during these years and have experienced what love really looks like. To lay your life down for the other for the sake of someone encountering Christ. It has been some of the most sanctifying years of my life. I have been able to share Christ with people who do not know him, who have never met him, who rejected him. I got to witness many people lay down their lives to Christ.

My time on campus brings me to now, serving with FOCUS. I could not have loved and served each student that I encountered those four years if it was not for each person that said yes to praying for me and my students. For everyone who said yes to financially supporting me to be on campus serving the students. Time and time again I have been able to provide opportunities for students to encounter the lord through someone’s generous gift. Students who couldn’t afford SEEK or a mission trip but was able to because someone on my support team helped. These students had the opportunity to have an encounter with Christ.  I do not take lightly the mission partners that have walked on mission with me for my time on campus and it is my joy to enter into a role with Philanthropy for FOCUS as a Philanthropy engagement officer where I get to love and serve those who will continue to be an instrument for the lord to encounter students on campus. I get the joy to walk with mission partners and minister to those who are impacting our campuses.