For my second year on mission, God and FOCUS are sending me to Western Kentucky University as a full-time Campus Missionary. My new team has a passionate vision for mission at WKU and we’d love for you to share in it!

As you’d expect, I first got involved with FOCUS as a student during college at Florida Atlantic University, but Jesus was already preparing my heart for an encounter with Him many years prior.

Growing up, my parents took our family to Our Lady of Lourdes parish in Boca Raton – a church I continued attending through college. For the most part, I hated going. I didn’t understand the purpose of the visits every Sunday, and couldn’t even say I really believed in God’s presence. However, that changed after I went to my first Catholic conference: Steubenville Orlando. At that weekend retreat, right before my freshman year of high school, it finally sunk in that Jesus Christ died on the cross for me personally.

After those couple days, I was super pumped to live out a life with Christ. I was just missing one thing: Community. All throughout high school, I didn’t know who I could really walk with in my faith as a friend and leader, and pretty quickly I began to fall back into the same lifestyle I had been living pre-reversion. But, by the grace of God, I never lost the desire to be a good Catholic. 

Going into college, my heart was very receptive to the idea of being in Catholic community. The second day of freshman orientation, I ran into the Catholic Newman Center during a massive FAU tabling session. Once I started going to their events, I realized the FOCUS missionaries present within the Newman Center were there to walk with me and lead me in a life for Jesus Christ. I began to weep at the realization that Christ was answering my great longing for Catholic community and authentic friendship.

The rest is history! I soon began going to bible studies, FOCUS events on campus, FOCUS national conferences, and I eventually started leading my own bible studies and joined FOCUS’ discipleship chain where I learned how to grow in virtue and holiness. Sharing the faith with my fellow students on campus became a main priority of mine all throughout my sophomore-senior years in college.

All of this was a reality because Jesus presented FOCUS to me at the right place and the right time, and that was possible because the missionaries at FAU had a team of partners like you who freed them to fully dedicate their time to do Christ’s work.

With your generosity, I will be in countless student’s lives at the right place and the right time, and by the grace of God they will receive the transformation Christ wills for their life by our intercession and efforts together. I’m glad you’re answering the call alongside me.