Why FOCUS?

I have recently decided to accept a position as a campus missionary with the organization FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students). I was extremely blessed to have several opportunities for mission programs and teaching positions at different middle schools and high schools. However the Lord made it clear that FOCUS is where I am called.

What is FOCUS? It is a Catholic program that sends teams of missionaries (usually 2 guys and 2 girls) to a university somewhere in the U.S.  The missionaries first go through 5 weeks of summer training before being assigned to a team and campus. Once on campus they lead bible studies, evangelize on campus, disciple students one on one and help the local Catholic Church and Newman center to thrive. Just over a decade since its launch, FOCUS has grown from four missionaries serving one campus to over 260 missionaries serving nearly 60 campuses in 28 states across the nation. 

But why did I choose this over other options?

Well let’s look at some facts about college:

·    85% of Catholic college students do not attend Sunday Mass

·    Binge drinking, sexual promiscuity, moral relativism and academic hostility towards the Catholic faith

·    General lack of knowledge or understanding of faith

·    Scarcity of faithful young people to lead the Church into the future

As a Catholic myself, I fell away from my faith in college, joined a fraternity and was quickly living the “frat star” lifestyle (anyone seen animal house?).  A good friend of mine once said; “When I see the alcoholism and sexual promiscuity on college campuses I don’t necessarily see the evil in it, as much as I see the desperate search for identity that is only found in Jesus Christ.” That quote describes the majority of my four years in college. Students are searching trying to find themselves and trying to find happiness. This often leads to momentary pleasures such as drinking, sex and seeking material possessions. All these things seem to fulfill this desire for true happiness and true fulfillment but all leave you empty and just seeking more of it. As CS Lewis put it;

“If we consider the unblushing promises of reward promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea. We are far too easily pleased.” 

Let’s face it; College is probably the most pivotal time in someone’s life. Students are experiencing true freedom for the first time; they are faced with major decisions; choosing a major or career, maybe meeting their future husband or wife. This is also the time in people’s lives where they start asking those important questions; who am I? What do I want to do with my life? What do I believe? Is Christianity really true?  The college campus is truly the battle ground for Souls.  And no one is doing a better job of fighting this battle than FOCUS.

I had the opportunity to do a yearlong mission trip abroad or to go to Peru for the summer and then teach at a Catholic high school, but decided to do FOCUS instead.  I have always had a passion for mission trips and traveling and I will have opportunities through FOCUS to fulfill those desires. However, I felt the area I could be used best and would find the greatest fulfillment in serving was on a college campus. Mother Teresa during an interview once said: “The spiritual poverty of the Western World is
much greater than the physical poverty of our people. You, in the West, have millions of people who suffer such terrible loneliness and emptiness. They feel unloved and unwanted. These people are not hungry in the physical sense, but they are in another way. They know they need something more than money, yet they don’t know what it is. What they are missing, really, is a living relationship with God.”  Mother Teresa often dealt with hundreds of people wanting to come and help her and her sisters in Calcutta India. She would have so many people requesting to come abroad and help that she often had to turn down request. She would do so by encouraging the person to “find your own Calcutta.” Basically, saying, go and find your own area in the world that desperately needs to see the face of Christ. Anyone who has ever stepped foot on a college campus knows that it is a spiritual Calcutta that desperately needs Jesus. And as Dr. Bill Bright founder of Campus Crusade said, "If we can win the university today, we will win the world tomorrow.".....Why not FOCUS.

I had the privilege to attend the 2011 FOCUS conference in Nashville Tennessee and saw the type of impact FOCUS is making. That year they hosted four regional conferences with about 2,000 college students at each. This year they will be hosting a national conference in Orlando with 6,500 college students attending. Teaser below