The Lord has called me to serve my first year on mission at Florida Atlantic University! Go Owls Hoot-Hoot!

Here’s me with my team Claire, Nick, and Kevin!

I grew up a cradle catholic and went to Catholic school from Pre-k 3 to 9th grade. I had an understanding of who God was and could tell you certain stories from the Bible. In elementary school I loved learning about these stories and had a deep love of Jesus. However, through high school I lost sight of that deep love and questioned where He was in my life. I questioned who I was “supposed” to be and tried to find my identity amongst friends, achievements, and other things.

My senior year of high school COVID hit, and it forced everyone into isolation, we all know the story. For me I wasn’t experiencing any self-discovery or growth in religion, if anything it pulled me more away. I questioned even more where God was while all this was happening. It wasn’t until I went off to college at the University of North Texas (Go Eagles! Yee-Caw!!) that I truly began my journey back to the Lord! As I was moving into my freshman dorm, my mom told me to go to the Catholic center on campus because it was familiar and would help me make some friends. I remember telling her that was the last thing I wanted to do.

By the grace of God and feelings of loneliness I finally decided to go to one of the events the Catholic center was hosting. As I sat listening to a talk, I told myself I was not going to meet anyone and would leave. As soon as the talk ended, I turned around to grab my things but instead met a woman named Krysta who was a FOCUS missionary. I truthfully didn’t know what that meant and thought she was a nun for a while. That night she invited me to her bible study and by the grace of God I said yes.

Slowly but surely, Krysta began inviting me to more events and eventually asked me if I wanted to make Christ the center of my life. I wasn’t sure why, but I said yes, not knowing what that truly meant. I started meeting with Krysta weekly and began to notice I was becoming more curious about my relationship with Jesus. She taught me that relationship with Jesus did not have to be a cookie cutter by the book one, but a real and deep relationship. My favorite piece of advice she ever gave was to throw a book in prayer (I highly recommend). At the time, I was still choosing other things to try to fulfill myself, and it wasn’t until I had hit rock bottom that I began to question why I wanted to keep living the life I was. The next day Krysta invited me to come to a catholic conference called SEEK.

While at SEEK, I got to know more about how Jesus loves us and why we should make Him the center of our lives. One of the nights of the conference I got the chance to be prayed over by the missionaries, and one of them told me he could see my heart. He said it seemed sad and covered in the color black, but underneath it was a little girl crying out for her Father’s love. Since that night I have never gone back to the way I was living before.

I chose to put Christ at the center of my life and come to Him to experience His healing love. I began praying every day, wanting to be at the catholic center, and ultimately feeling a call to mission. Since that night at SEEK, I have felt the call to help other young women know that His love for them is never ending and freely given. Through my relationship with Christ, He has shown me my identity of daughter so beautifully and I want other women to know and love this for themselves. I led a bible study while on campus and have enjoyed so much spreading the gospel to college women.

This is a picture of the first group of women I led in a bible study! They inspire me to keep spreading the love and joy of Christ! When working with these women on UNT campus I felt the Lord calling me to continue spreading the gospel longer than just while I was a student. When I applied to FOCUS, I still was not at 100% percent “yes” to do mission. However, while in my interviews I remember someone telling me that I would find myself on campus and I remember thinking to myself I’m ready for that challenge. I want to find that girl and show her that what she is searching for can be found in Jesus. I said yes to FOCUS immediately and knew that the Lord desired for me to go seek out more women and proclaim the good news to them.

I’m so excited to go to campus and encounter all the women the Lord desires for me to!

“Be who God wants you to be and you will set the world on fire.” – St. Catherine of Siena

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 the best way to reach you and I will schedule an appointment. I’d be honored to share this mission with you.