I’m on mission at Northern Michigan University in the incredible Marquette, Michigan until I graduate in December. Then I’ll be sent to another campus to serve for the next few years! I’m just beginning to understand what a real gift it is to be able to serve the people at NMU, some of whom I have known for 4 years. There are SO MANY people on campus who I already know, but I’ve been too scared to share the gospel with. Well, alongside my teammates I’m able to serve them and invite them to know Christ personally. Here’s the team:

My entire life I’ve loved adventure. Growing up I wanted to be a jungle explorer (or a teacher… I still go back and forth about that)! My faith was fostered in a Catholic parish that had a lot of exciting opportunities for young people to encounter Christ, I even spent time with Jesus in Eucharistic Adoration weekly. And each time I went to an event I felt a massive rush of happiness, that kind of “Jesus high”. I was always waiting for the next event or experience to refill my fleeting happiness.

As I started at Northern Michigan University in the fall of 2020, I showed up to our Catholic Center ready to discover that same happiness in college! I struggled in my freshman year amidst a lot of change, a dorm room constantly full of fruit flies, and some difficult friendships, meanwhile everything I’d been expecting from the faith just didn’t satisfy. I was lonely, anxious, uncomfortable, and I threw my hopes for God away in exchange for counterfeit happiness elsewhere. When I’d hit the lowest point though, the Lord put some FOCUS missionaries in my way.

Over the next 3 years they continually showed me how to live for Christ regardless of whether life was comfortable or really hard. They invited me to go to a conference with about 22,000 Catholic college students in St. Louis and it was there that my heart was convicted of mission.

There in adoration I complained to God about how the hard things I was enduring at the time really had worn me down, feeling like I wasn’t good enough to do his work. I told him, “Lord, it would be so much easier, and I could reach so many more people for you if I didn’t have all these things in the way. Just take all my discomfort away.” In that moment I heard him speak back to me the words of Pope Benedict XVI, “You weren’t made for comfort. You were made for greatness”.

He assured me that there are people out there who he has set in my path; people who need me exactly as I am, with all of my flaws, fears, and failures so that they can come to know Jesus. I go out on mission knowing that this isn’t just another adventure for me, but rather that Christ himself has called me to serve his people, to enter into the darkness as a light, radiating His love to all. Everyone deserves to know they are perfectly and personally loved by God beyond all understanding.

As a missionary, I get the great joy of being a light of Christ’s love in the darkness that many college students don’t even know they’re in. To do this though, I need a team of people like you who are willing to be a missionary with me in your own way. By supporting my mission you are taking an active role in sharing Christ’s love on campus.

I have taken the responsibility to raise all of the funds required for my mission and I also deeply rely on your prayers to be able to enter into students’ lives and meet them where they’re at – both physically and spiritually. If you are interested in supporting me, please reach out to me. I’d love to hear your story and share mine more deeply! I would be honored to share this mission with you!

Please email, call, or text me at [email protected] or (269) 438-1443.