Cauldron

Issue date: 9/20/07 Section: Features

Media Credit: Jessie Martinez FOCUS MISSIONARIES Ed Rubin, Pamela Ocampo, Brian Miller and Danielle DuPre are recent college graduates ministering to UST students.

Missionaries often visit third-world countries to address material poverty, but the missionaries in the Fellowship of Catholic University Students work to address spiritual poverty. Through national outreach to both secular and Catholic campuses in the United States, FOCUS members are first-world missionaries, according to missionary Ed Rubin.

The two male and two female FOCUS missionaries who began serving UST this semester are recent college graduates, who have pledged two years to bringing college students closer to Christ. The missionaries live near campus and minister to UST students full-time through small group Bible studies, large group leadership training and one-on-one discipleship.

Danielle DuPre, who is in her third year of FOCUS after graduating from Illinois State University in 2005 with a psychology degree, said college can be a confusing environment where it's easy to lose sight of religion.

"There is a great divide on college campuses between Christ and the college student," she said. "FOCUS tries to bridge the gap and heal that wound."

FOCUS missionaries help students stay connected to their faith by building positive relationships with students.

"Our ministry is not about getting out in front of Crooker on a soapbox, but having real friendships with people that are fruitful," said Rubin, who graduated from the University of Nebraska in May with a math degree.

Although it may seem strange to send Catholic missionaries to a Catholic university, Rubin said conversion does not just mean changing religions. "I can still convert to being a better Catholic," he said.

In addition to organizing Bible studies and other programs, missionary Pamela Ocampo, who recently graduated from the University of Redlands in Southern California with a degree in communication disorders, said they try to be present on campus as much possible to get to know students as friends first. Missionaries might be found playing ping pong or helping people move into the dorms.

"As missionaries, we can be good reminders that Christ is with you in your studies and in the midst of being a student and in your relationships and family," Ocampo said.

Continued...

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