I will be serving for a second year at the University of Illinois!

I-L-L!

I went to college with some simple goals: to study and go to medical school, get married, and set myself up to be comfortable and hopefully a pretty good person. I wanted to be the type of man that leads his community, takes time to serve others, and follows Christ. There was only one issue: I didn’t know how or why I would get there.

Through the friendship and investment of a few good men, I started to understand what it would take to become the man I always wanted to be. Now I’m committed to sharing that with as many men as possible.

Here’s how that happened:

During my first couple weeks at Northern State University the goal that I had for my life started to be challenged. While I wanted to be a “good man,” I simply didn’t know what that really meant. My natural desires of popularity, comfort, and fun combined with a lack of a definitive moral standard would lead me to an inconsistency in my ability to love and receive love. I became more selfish and less passionate. I lost a sense of discipline and fortitude. I also became anxious about my self-image. This lead to an inward spiral to pride and self-love. While I was still going to Sunday Mass when I found the time, the rest of the week I was struggling to live out healthy relationships with those around me and found myself putting all of my worth into the way in which I thought that other people perceived me. The first week that I was at NSU a FOCUS missionary reached out to me so that we could grab coffee. Eventually I did, and he invited me to Bible study. While I was reluctant, I went to Bible study for the next couple of weeks.

In that Bible study I encountered Christ in Sacred Scripture in a way that I never had before. I had some incredible moments growing up Catholic and going to a Catholic high school, but this time I really understood that Jesus was calling me to live life differently. From there I would continue to be more and more involved at the Newman Center on my campus, and went to a SEEK conference during my freshman year. This conference was extremely impactful in my relationship with Christ and helped me to see that I could live out virtue without giving up on fun and friendship.

The more that I began to understand God’s love for me and the depth of His grace, the more that I desired to share it with the people around me. The missionaries that helped me to grow in my relationship with Christ also taught me how to do the same thing for the people in my life! While the personal experiences that I’ve had with Christ have truly formed me as a beloved son of God, having the opportunity to share in His goodness for the men around me has equally showed me His great love for us.

These experiences made me consider what was truly important in my life, and I began to wonder what it would be like to truly devote my entire life to the person of Jesus Christ. In this consideration, I decided that one of the best ways for me to learn how to do this was to become a missionary just like the missionaries that had helped to encounter Christ, who freed me from sin and death.

At the University of Illinois I hope to encounter as many hearts as possible in the name of Jesus Christ “so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father,” (Phil 2:10-11). This is an insurmountable task without the grace of God working through the prayer and support of many incredible people like you! If you would be interested in learning more about my mission and how you can support it, please reach out!