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FOCUS Missions: Spreading the "Great News" of Love

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"I am so loved. This is what I’ve been longing for." This is what Allie Fitzsimmons hopes to help other people say. To do this, she has committed to working as a full-time missionary on the campus of Indiana University - Purdue University of Indianapolis. I met with her on a humid day after class in a small house close to campus where she lives with the other female missionary, Sidney Snyder, and where they invite college students to make themselves at home.  While the idea of missionaries can be foreign and sometimes controversial, these women live out their calling peacefully and joyfully right here in the city of Indianapolis. 

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The Fellowship of Catholic University Students (commonly referred to as FOCUS) is a Catholic outreach program that ministers to nearly 200 college campuses in five countries ("Find My Campus"). According to their website, their mission statement is, "To know Christ Jesus and fulfill His Great Commission", referring to Christ's command in the Gospel of Matthew to "make disciples of all nations." They work towards this by sending missionaries out in teams of at least four (two men and two women) to colleges across the world, particularly in the United States. There, they seek to "win the hearts of college students, build them up in the faith and send them out into the world" ("The Main Thing"). 

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I sat down with Allie in the missionaries' house in September to discuss her experiences with the missionary life. She greeted me at the door, feeling a bit under the weather but graciously keeping the appointment. She offered me water and tea and asked about my day. After chatting for a bit, we got down to business, sitting on one of the couches in the front of their adorable little house. As of 2019, Allie Fitzsimmons is entering her third year at IUPUI as a FOCUS missionary (Figure 1). Asked about what led her to join FOCUS, she shared that she was not involved with any faith in high school, but her perspective changed when she attended SEEK, a nationwide conference hosted by FOCUS. She explained, “I encountered love in a very real way. Going back to campus, I realized that my college campus had FOCUS missionaries, so I followed up and connected with them. It turned into a snowball effect of getting involved.” She joined various meetings and Bible studies and started discipleship, a one-on-one mentorship. Through these, she explained, “I kept experiencing a love in which I had all my desires fulfilled, finding happiness and true friendships which I will cherish forever.” 

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Another turning point came on a mission trip to Mexico. “It was my first time to serve the poor,” she remembered. “It was hard seeing people in such poverty, but I got to love and serve them, which brought me so much joy and fulfillment. It changed my worldview.” This left her wanting more. “Returning home, I remember walking and thinking ‘Jesus, I want to serve the poor.’ There certainly were people in my town who were less fortunate, but it was harder to serve in the way I had experienced.” She was left looking for an opportunity to serve others.

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In this time, she thought of the words of Mother Teresa, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for her charity work in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), India: “Stay where you are. Find your own Calcutta. Find the sick, the suffering, and the lonely, right where you are — in your own homes and in your own families, in homes and in your workplaces and in your schools. You can find Calcutta all over the world, if you have eyes to see ("Good Advice").” Based on this idea, Allie said, “I felt like the Lord told me, ‘Look around you.’ When I did, I saw students who didn’t know or have the love that had brought me such freedom. They were spiritually poor, trying to find fulfillment in the party scene, but I had found a fullness I couldn’t explain, and I wanted to share it.” This changed the way she viewed the people around her.

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People who choose to dedicate themselves to a religious life of service seem to have many ideas and motivations in common. Sister Joan of Arc, born Kelsey Wicks, who is a religious sister with the Nashville Dominicans, shared with NPR, “When I came back to the U.S. [from a medical mission trip to Africa], I saw our true poverty of the heart and of the mind. And I saw the loneliness...It really made me give my life to the church” (Hagerty). Allie had a similar realization, concluding at the end of her experience of poverty that, “The Lord said to me, ‘These people around you are the poor I want you to save.'” Encountering poverty abroad is what opened the eyes of these women to the needs in their own communities.  

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From there, joining the ranks of FOCUS missionaries was the obvious place to turn for Allie. She was already familiar with and drawn to their model of small group investment. “It was what I was familiar with already. The missionaries I knew had such joy, happiness, and excellence that attracted me. I felt that FOCUS provided them that space and investment to help them become excellent, and I wanted that. It seemed much more tangible and doable than other options. They help everyone be known, loved, and cared for.” Having experienced the benefits of their approach, she wanted to be a part of it.

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This kind of authentic friendship is a key concept FOCUS emphasizes; getting to know people, loving people for who they are, and supporting them unselfishly. Rather than traveling across the world, they look for ways to serve others right where they are through Bible studies, discipleship (or mentoring) meetings, small group meetings, and helping with campus ministry. Allie continued, “We try to be a strong presence for the students, so we enter the lives of college students again. The hope is that who I am and how I live can help bring others to the Lord, so we emphasize the relational side in our outreach, studies, time with students, and just living life together.” I have seen this in action when I met Allie and Sidney at a meeting of the IUPUI Catholic Student Organization on the first day of class. They were quick to invite other freshman girls and I over for a game night the upcoming weekend. After providing pizza and ice cream and joining us in card games, they shared a bit of their faith background and introduced the larger purpose of their organization, inviting us to join a Bible study and sharing opportunities available at the local parish. 

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To facilitate these connections and build those relationships, these missionaries live in a charming little house (Figure 2) located a few minutes off campus (more pictures here), with the male missionaries' house just a couple doors down the road. This house is meant to be a center where students can gather together and build community. All over the walls, they have hung signs with encouraging messages and religious artwork. A piano sits in the living room, adorned with some sheet music and picture of Jesus and the saints. There is a shelf in a corner filled with cheery mugs, waiting to be filled with hot tea and coffee for visitors (Figure 3). The atmosphere is welcoming and cozy, making me quickly feel at home.

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As both Allie and Sidney Snyder, the other female on the missionary team who answered my questions over email, admitted, however, this lifestyle comes with its own unique and sometimes unexpected set of challenges. Sidney explained, “We have a routine, but it is often very fluid, and things change, so we have to adapt very quickly. It’s also a very social lifestyle, so if we are not making time for ourselves, it can become very draining. We also have to sacrifice for our family and friends back home. Our priority is the students at IUPUI and so we are not able to go home as often as we might have.” As I suspected might be the case, Allie shared that a hard reality of their lives is that they sometimes face challenges with those they want to minister to: "Because my mission is so relational, I encounter incredibly different people from many walks and stages of life. It comes with some natural conflict at times... people don’t always agree. It can be emotionally taxing." In addition, even when people are more willing to listen, these missionaries still are not always able to see their actions bear fruit. Allie acknowledged, “What I’m doing might not have an effect for years. I have to trust that even though I can’t see the impact, it is there, even if it doesn’t show up until years down the road.” These obstacles can be discouraging.

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Sacrifice is often difficult, but to these women, it is always rewarding. Allie and Sidney are living out a calling that reaches beyond themselves, because of a choice made freely and joyfully. Dedicated, they weather the ups and downs of living as missionaries on a secular college campus. For better or for worse, the choice to serve others stands out (modeled after Percy).

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Despite the varied challenges they face, these missionaries showed that they remain determined in their purpose, telling me with joy about the rewards they are finding in the midst of hardship. Sidney explained, "The world needs people who will stand up for the truth and will lead others to experience the same...We hear about joys and struggles and then we get to step into that and pray with them. The whole job is about love… What could be more important than that?” Having found this "great news" of love, they are excited to share it. Allie concluded, “Even in small ways, I know it’s worth it. Every soul is worth it.” 

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Works Cited 

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Chidiac, Anthony. "The Spirituality of Mother Teresa."  The Australasian Catholic Record, vol. 93, no. 4, 2016, pp. 469-477. ProQuest, ulib.iupui.edu/cgi-bin/proxy.pl?url=http://search.proquest.com.proxy.ulib.uits.iu.edu/docview/1856847449?accountid=7398. Accessed 7 Oct. 2019.  

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"Find My Campus." FOCUS, focusoncampus.org/find-my-campus. Accessed 29 Oct. 2019.

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Fitzsimmons, Allie. Personal interview. 19 Sept. 2019. 

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Hagerty, Barbara B. "For These Young Nuns, Habits Are the New Radical."  National Public Radio, 22 December 2010, www.npr.org/2010/12/22/131753494/for-these-young-nuns-habits-are-the-new-radical. Accessed 7 Oct. 2019. 

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"Good Advice for the Ages: Find Your Own Calcutta." Asheville Citizen - Times, Sep. 10, 2016. ProQuest, http://ulib.iupui.edu/cgi-bin/proxy.pl?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1818066176?accountid=7398. Accessed 16 Oct. 2019.

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"Mother Teresa." The Nobel Prize, Noble Prize, www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1979/teresa/facts/. Accessed 7 Oct. 2019. 

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Percy, Jennifer. "My Terrifying Night With Afghanistan's Only Female Warlord." The New Republic, 13 Oct. 2014, newrepublic.com/article/119772/my-night-afghanistans-only-female-warlord-commander-pigeon. Accessed 4 Nov. 2019.

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Snyder, Sidney. Personal interview. 30 Sept. 2019. 

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"The Main Thing." FOCUS, www.focus.org/about/the-main-thing. Accessed 29 Oct. 2019.