My first real encounter with Christ in the Eucharist was just a few years ago. I grew up in the Northwest suburbs of Minneapolis to a Christian family, and at the age of two my parents divorced. It was when I turned four that my mom met my stepdad, who was Catholic, and my mom and I converted to the Catholic Church. Going forward, I went to several different Catholic schools, but I never understood that our faith was so much more than just going to church every Sunday.

In high school, I had many friends who were involved with the youth group at their church, and it was obvious that they loved Jesus! I found how important they made the community at their church, and I found I desired the same thing, so I went to my first youth group at my parish. It was at this youth group that I found other Catholics who had a relationship with the Lord, and they wanted to bring others to Him. After a few months, I learned of this five-day summer faith camp that was packed with time for prayer and daily mass. While it was an extremely fun camp, it was here that I first experienced the Lord. I may have not known it then, but it was here that my faith truly began, and it is where I found myself desiring for more in my relationship with God.

I was continuously told about the retreat high where eventually I would find myself slipping from the faith, falling back into the old way of life I was living before camp. I did not want this to happen, so I tried to ask questions to my youth director about how to start reading the bible and how to start praying. This was going well for a few months, but eventually I started losing steam, and it wasn’t long before the pandemic hit. I stopped going to Mass, and really didn’t continue going until my first week of college that Fall.

I began college in the Fall of 2020, and it was at the first Mass at our welcome weekend that I first encountered FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students). My desire to live for God quickly came back to my heart and I spent the next two years trying to balance my faith with my Commercial Aviation classes. During the Spring semester of my Sophomore year, I began to think of my future and how I desired to spend my life. Looking at the desires of my heart, I just couldn’t see myself continuing along the path of becoming a Commercial Pilot. I felt the Lord’s calling to serve His people in a different way, but I just couldn’t figure out what way that was. I knew I wanted to finish getting a degree, but I didn’t know where to go next. A couple weeks after I withdrew from my classes, I went on a mission trip to Baltimore to live a week in the life of Source of All Hope. I quickly fell in love with the mission of this organization and felt this would be an incredible time to take a year off of school to spend a year on mission. After some time in prayer after the mission trip, I was accepted! Now I joyously await the start of the mission year!

If you are reading this, I graciously ask for your prayers going into this year! At this time in my life, I have many decisions to make, and any number of prayers would be greatly appreciated! I look forward to sharing all of the stories from this upcoming year of mission!