I am so excited that God is sending me back to Georgia College and State University as a Team Director for my fifth year! I served at Georgia Tech during my first two years as a missionary and will be serving my third year as a team director at Georgia College. I can’t wait to see what God has in store for our campus this year! 

This is my team from this past year! This year we focused on inviting our students into a Christ-centered community through our friendships.We are about to get some new teammates!

I entered Georgia Tech as an ardent atheist with a mission to make everyone an atheist. Clearly, God had different plans for me. During my first semester in college, a friend told me that she would pray for me and that started long discussions and friendly debates about Christianity. The more I tried to disprove Christianity, the more I found myself failing. Eventually, I concluded that God did exist and Jesus was real and I wanted a relationship with Him. So, I looked at all denominations except the Catholic Church. I did not want to be Catholic because I would have to switch my life around. Due to a bizarre turn of events, while trying to go to an Episcopalian service, I ended up at Mass at the Georgia Tech Catholic Center. Fr. Josh s homily about turning over a new leaf spoke to me. However, at consecration (I had no idea what that was back then), I felt home. I just knew in that moment, that there was something there. Something that I desired. I knew I had to be Catholic. Within two weeks, I was in RCIA and on Easter Vigil of 2015 I got baptized, received first communion and got confirmed. After this experience, all I wanted was for others to have it. In my second year, one of the missionaries, Stephanie Shipley, took me under her wing (I am Aerospace, hehe) and taught me how to give myself to others and share my joy so that they too might find Christ.

Stephanie and I. Stephanie discipled me for 2 years at Georgia Tech and really taught me how to live out mission on a college campus.

I knew I wanted to be a missionary before I even knew that the words ‘missionary’ and ‘mercenary’ didn’t mean the same things. I knew I wanted to be a missionary before I got baptized and once I got baptized I knew he was calling me to be one. The desire didn’t come in a lightning bolt or anything, it simply came in seeing how God had saved me in college from the Atheist and immoral life I was leading. It wasn’t my just my ‘yes’ to Him that brought me close to him but the ‘yes’ of so many others. Once I found Him, or rather he found me, I knew I wanted to be one of those people. But why specifically FOCUS? Because I have seen the change it can bring to a college campus. It will give me an opportunity to make my job loving college students.

I have fallen in love with Christ and He has called me to FOCUS. However, he has called all of us to this mission. If you feel that God is calling you to be on mission with me, please feel free to reach out to me to schedule an appointment. I would be honored to have you as my mission partner! You can contact me at [email protected] or 404-901-3771.