Hello friends! I’m writing to you from Toledo, Ohio, a sparkling gem on the banks of the Maumee River we locals call “Glass City.” I’ve spent my whole life here, but that’s about to change. 

 I entered adulthood with a distinct notion lodged unavoidably in the front of my mind. I received the notion from a poster that hung on a wall outside a chemistry laboratory in my high school in Toledo Ohio. The poster featured a marker drawing of Martin Luther King Junior preaching. Beside him was a quote: “The most important question in life is: what am I doing for others?” As I discerned what opportunities I would take now that I was a legal adult with a high school diploma, I could not turn over a single idea in my mind without going back to Dr. King’s most important question. The question led me to prayer, and prayer led me through a series of convolutions to Con-solatio ministries. Two years ago I was in the pocket of a recruiter for the Reserve Officer Training Corp at the University of Toledo. There was an email in my inbox from him with a title along the lines of “Next Steps.” I don’t think I ever opened that email. The preacher had pointed me towards my own heart, my heart had pointed me towards the Eucharist, and it was in His presence that my soul found a surrender too docile for a soldier.  I recently completed my first year of college, studying nursing. The nursing program at the University of Toledo is solid, but there is one thing absent from the curriculum that I think is crucial. There is no class, lab, or recitation at the university where the first and last subject is love. But every step I took towards this mission was peace. Every step taught me how to love more deeply. 

 I am thrilled to be going on mission to the Philippines for eighteen months, leaving later this year. I feel God’s call pulling me out of myself and towards himself in a community I will soon call my home. I invite you to support me on my mission. Nothing is too small and nothing goes unnoticed. Whatever sum or intercession is deeply appreciated. 

 God bless!