One of our parishioners, Shannon Zurcher, is a FOCUS missionary serving at the University of Illinois - Chicago (UIC) the following is from her fall newsletter:The beginning of the school year is always one of the busiest times for a missionary. We worked hard to make sure students knew where the Newman Center was and invited them to continue growing in their faith while in college. This included many nights in the dorms, being at new student events, and planning events to get to know more students.
All these efforts to spread our nets wider bore much fruit. There are many new students involved in the Newman Center and seeing that living a life in relationship with Jesus is not only a normal thing to do, but something that brings real joy, peace, and happiness. It is wonderful to hear students talk about how they can sense their lives changing in just the few weeks they have been back. They are almost surprised to find that there is a community at the Newman Center that will help them to grow in their faith. I am so excited to be here with them to guide that process and watch them discover their faith more profoundly through the power of the Holy Spirit! Thank you for your commitment to support and pray for this ministry which is truly changing the lives of college students!
Because of the success of our Fall Outreach we were able to start up 12 new bible studies giving us a total of 21 weekly bible studies! Most of these bible studies are student led. My 3 disciples are all leading freshmen in their bible studies. The goal of FOCUS is to bring college students into a deeper relationship with Jesus, through discipleship, that will lead to a desire to share that relationship with their peers. Please pray that each of our student leaders will find 2 students from his or her bible study to invite into discipleship, and begin to mentor them.
The three women pictured are Shannon's disciples Cathy, Deb, and Bernadette. They meet at least once a week to grow in the Faith. Each is leading their own bible study, and will be mentoring two girls by the end of this school year.
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