A chance to do a Work of Mercy

…specifically, help somebody Instruct the Ignorant. A reader writes:

A friend of mine, Tricia Lester, is going to be a FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) missionary at the University of Connecticut starting this fall. FOCUS missionaries are supported through the donations of caring souls. I was wondering if you could post a link to her donation page http://www.focusonline.org/site/TR/Events/Missionaries?pxfid=3050&fr;_id=1070&pg;=fund as well as her fundraising pitch, giving some background on what FOCUS does and her own personal story:

During my freshman year of college, a few people really changed my life when they showed me examples of young people living the faith in a dynamic and powerful way (we didn’t have a youth group or anything in my parish at home… it seemed like the only people who cared about Jesus were old). By sophomore year, a FOCUS missionary at Mount St. Mary’s had challenged me to seriously develop a prayer life, and (because prayer is dangerous 😉 this opened the door for Jesus to work in my life in a way He never had before. As I prepared to graduate, I knew I wanted to offer that same example and hopefully have the same impact on others.

While in college, I saw the challenges of living out the faith on campus, and saw many of my peers lose their faith in the face of these challenges, surrounded by a culture that is often so counter to Christian beliefs and values. At the same time that I saw some of my peers lose their faith, I was also blessed to see some of my peers really come to the faith for the first time or to grow more deeply in it through the influence of someone really living their beliefs and willing to spend the time to share them. What finally convinced me to serve on FOCUS staff was recognizing how much a life can change when someone shares with them the love and truth of Christ!

This is exactly why FOCUS exists: to build relationships with students and introduce them to Jesus Christ and His Church, help them to fall in love with the faith, and empower them to do the same for others. As an on-campus missionary, I will reach out to students by leading Bible studies and mentoring them one-on-one, as well as working to build up a good community on campus where students can find a group of friends who influence their decisions positively, instead of the other way around.

In order for us to work with the students full-time, all of the financial support that enables us to do this work comes from generous people who want to help with this mission in some way. Through their monthly support, our “mission partners” enable us to do things such as pay our rent each month so that we can live near the campus that we are assigned to (I will be working with the students at UConn this year :-).

FOCUS does great work. If you can, throw some shekels in the hat for her.