Missionaries' focus: campuses

Brenda Harter had a good-paying job in a nice city, working as a clinical dietitian at a St. Louis-area hospital.

"I was happy where I was, but I wasn't completely satisfied," she said. "I knew I could do more."

Harter, who was 29 at the time, thought it might be too late to try something else.

But she took a chance and went on a retreat hosted by the Fellowship of Catholic University Students, or FOCUS.

Eighteen months and another FOCUS retreat later, she's trying something else.

She and five others are starting a mission this month in Omaha with FOCUS, a national organization that has about 260 missionaries at 60 college campuses in 27 states.

Four of the missionaries, including Harter, will spend at least a year of their two-year mission at the University of Nebraska at Omaha; the other two will be at the College of St. Mary.

FOCUS also has missionaries at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Drake University in Des Moines and Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa.

The organization sends groups of missionaries to campuses to help students with their Catholic faith during college, sometimes a time for binge drinking and sexual promiscuity for students.

Each missionary receives more than 400 hours of training. The missionaries, typically recent college graduates, work with students in large groups, Bible studies or one-on-one mentoring.

"We think the Catholic Church has a lot to offer college students," Omaha Archbishop George J. Lucas said during a luncheon meeting with the Omaha missionaries Friday.

Harter and the five other missionaries will be in Omaha for at least this year and may request new assignments for their second year. The missionaries are not paid; they raise money to cover their expenses.

"Students ages 18 to 28 are going to make a lot of decisions that will affect the rest of their life," said Adam Ybarra, the FOCUS team director at UNO. "Being at a college campus, we have such an opportunity and such a responsibility to form the next generation."

Omaha's missionaries come from all over the United States, and they all see a unique opportunity to influence students during their college years.

College is often the first time students are away from their parents and their faith life at home. They're around new people who might not share the same values, the missionaries said.

"Rare would it be to find more potential than on an American college campus for future leaders of society," said Nick Porretta, 23, a missionary at UNO from Southern California.

Some of the missionaries have been thinking about this type of work for some time. They've considered going to another country to serve.

While developing countries have material poverty, said Jessalyn Rashid, 23, a missionary at the College of St. Mary, colleges have their own type of poverty.

"A poverty of the heart and soul and something — we're in need of something," Rashid said. "We believe the answer to that question is Jesus Christ."

The idea of keeping one's faith is especially pertinent for Mary Kate Murphy, 21, who will serve as a missionary at UNO.

Murphy grew up Protestant but converted to Catholicism during her senior year of high school. Her mother left the Catholic Church while she was in college, though she has since returned to the faith.

At Hillsdale College in Michigan, from which Murphy graduated a few months ago, she often saw people wavering in their faith. "There's such a spiritual poverty."

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