I’m a 6th year on staff and currently serving as the Team Director of Montana State University!

“Man cannot fully find himself unless through making a sincere gift of himself” – St. Pope John Paul ll

All my life I’ve had big dreams; a singer/songwriter, a novelist, a coastguard, a super sleuth like nancy drew. As I got older and began to form a daily relationship with God, this desire to do something great with my life became significantly stronger. To my amazement, I began to find that the more I sought God, the more my desire grew!

After returning from my 1st FOCUS mission trip to Mexico City  my sophomore year at Arizona State University, I felt the call in my heart to venture deeper into Christ’s mission. It was shortly after that He gave me the opportunity to study the deeper truths of our faith through theological studies at the University of Mary satellite campus in Tempe. This is where my heart was truly set on fire for God. The knowledge I was learning lived alongside a daily prayer life completely changed my life. With my psychology background at ASU, it was particularly in studying human anthropology through the lens of these truths that God allowed me to see that this thirst I was feeling was really an invitation. In fact, I began to realize that my whole life, every suffering, every joy, and every desire was an invitation to live the greatest adventure set out for every human person: the call to holiness (allowing ourselves to daily be transformed by Christ and saying yes to His will for us)! I knew very quickly that if my life wasn’t lived with and for God, I would never be satisfied but always be searching. How many people in the world, especially college campuses are living this way? Constantly searching, looking for the next hookup, the next party, the next acheivement, thing or person to make us happy yet never truly content with ourselves. We’ve all done and experienced this to a  degree in our own way, and it’s possible some of us have never truly encountered how transformational giving our yes to Christ can truly be. I found a treasure that no suffering can steal in the person of Christ and His church, which nothing else has been able to offer me. This is what led me to say “yes” to being a missionary disciple with FOCUS. Since my time in FOCUS, I’ve gotten a front-row seat to seeing the transformational grace of God at work in people’s hearts and lives, and it’s my greatest joy. I’m so grateful for the ways I’ve been equipped to thrive in my relationship with Christ and live life-long Catholic mission wherever I go!

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 be radically available for students on campus. St. Theresa of Calcutta said it best when she proclaimed, “some people give by going, and some go by giving.” Not everyone has the opportunity or means to give 2 intentional years of their life to building the kingdom of God and helping those in spiritual poverty. However, each of us has been made for mission and is called to be a missionary disciple. This is, in fact, the very reason the church exists, to evangelize! Whether or not you are called to financially give to FOCUS, how are you helping to advance the spread of the Gospel? If you feel called to answer your call to “go” on mission through FOCUS, please reach out to me and I’d love to walk with you!