The West River Catholic sat down with the Fellowship of Catholic University Students team at Black Hills State University to meet the new team members, find out what their new goals are and to get to know them better. FOCUS was founded in 1998 and uses campus missionaries to invite college students into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ, equipping them for a lifetime of Christ-centered evangelization, discipleship, and friendships in which they lead others to do the same. The goal is to have students take the skill, formation, and encounters with Christ and share them for the rest of their lives. Missionaries are college graduates that range from newly graduated, to families, to adults who feel a call in their lives. Look for the missionaries at the Newman Center — Sunday Mass is at  6 p.m. followed by dinner — and around campus promoting Jacket Catholic or the Newman Center. Want to reach out? Email Andrew at andrew.noah@focus.org.

Andrew Noah, Team Director
Originally from Iowa
Number of years with FOCUS: 8

Ann Endres
Originally from North Dakota
Number of years with FOCUS: 3

Victoria (Tori) Skiba
Originally from Minnesota
Number of years with FOCUS: 2

Ryan Vanvooren
Originally from Wisconsin
Number of years with FOCUS: 1st year

WRC: What are you looking forward to this year?
Andrew: I am excited for the year ahead. We finished last year with 186 students who came to Bible study at least one time, and our hope is to continue to keep growing — inviting more students into Bible studies, discipleship, and a relationship with Jesus. We’re off to a really good start. 

We’ve got some exciting plans coming up in October. We have “Gospel Week,” which is going to be focused on sharing the Gospel with as many students in our Bible studies as we can and inviting them into a growing discipleship relationship. Then there’s a retreat the first week in November, which we’re excited to be bringing students to. We’ve got SEEK, which is always on the horizon. We’ve got plans for our big SEEK week — promoting, sending invites, hosting some SEEK related parties at the Newman Center. So, there’s a lot going on. 

Ann: I’m excited because this is my second year here. I’m looking forward to continuing to walk with the girls that I’ve already been investing in from last year, and just going a lot deeper with them and helping form them so they can evangelize their peers. I have a girl who’s going to lead on the track team, and then I have two sophomore basketball girls who will hopefully take over the basketball study for me a little later in the year.

We’ve had Bible studies up and rolling. Discipleship has just started up. Seeing some new faces with freshmen and transfers on the athletic teams that I work with is exciting, as Andrew said, hopefully inviting them into discipleship. 

Ryan: I’m excited for everything! This is my first year on mission. I’ve got some Bible studies started and those are going great. I’m excited to continue Bible studies. Gospel Week will be nice to get into discipleship with some new guys. I’m excited to meet more student athletes. I’m working with the football team and they’re great. The track team members that I’ve met are pretty awesome.

Tori: I’m looking forward to deepening my relationships with the girls who I was walking with last year and helping them lead others through their own Bible studies and then discipling others as well. That’s what I’m most looking forward to. 

I’m also excited to have Father Max Vetch this year. He’s already been great. He’s typically here on Thursdays.

Andrew: He’s a great asset to our team. The students love him. We love him. He’s very mission-minded, and mission focused and driven. He’s here on Thursdays and has a little bit more of a consistent presence around here, which is something new this year that we’ve not had. That is already making big waves. 

WRC: What do you do on Thursdays with Father Max?
Andrew: We took an idea that the University of Mary is using. We gather together as a community for Adoration from 5-6pm, Mass at 6, and then there’s a light dinner provided, with a topic for discussion. There will be nights with a formative theme to it along with some spontaneous fun nights. 

For our discussions, there are three themes that will continue to cycle through with various topics fitting within those themes — how to be a gentleman or a lady, how to be a good friend, and how to be a saint. Those nights will start with a 10-to-15-minute talk and then opportunity for discussion afterwards. Father Max and I really sat down and structured them all out. We’re excited to pilot it this year. 

WRC: Tell us more about “Gospel Week.” What is that?
Andrew: We’re sharing the kerygma — the heart of the Gospel message that we’re made for a relationship with God. That relationship was broken through our rebellion with sin. Jesus came to reconcile the world to himself through his death and his resurrection on the Cross and through the graces that he merited for us which we receive in the Sacraments we become a new creation and him. We become his sons, his daughters, and ultimately, that demands a response on our end. We can’t just sit on the sideline and say — oh, that sounds great, but we actually have to choose, “yes, I want to make Christ the center of my life. I want to be his disciple.” 

WRC: Do you plan on incorporating the lives of any of the new Saints into your year?
Andrew: Funny, you should mention it. I was in Rome a couple of weeks ago because I went over for the canonizations. I’ve enjoyed coming back and having conversations with a number of my guys about the experience. It paves the way to be able to share more about the lives of these young men. Both of them are inspiring because they’re Saints from fairly modern times, especially Carlo. For me, and for so many of the men and women here, I think that that idea of “I’m called to be a saint” really clicks, perhaps for the first time. It’s, “these guys were pretty normal dudes.” This idea of sanctity and striving for virtue, it doesn’t need to be super abstract. This is for me too. It’s certainly something that I plan on using, and I think we as a team will, too. It’s easy to capitalize on the excitement of these new Saints. 

WRC: Ryan, how did you become involved in FOCUS?
Ryan: I went to Marion University, in Wisconsin. We did not have any FOCUS or any missionaries on campus, but I found out about it through a local campus near us. We knew people from there going to SEEK and got a couple of students together and we went.

I was running Bible studies and trying to grow the faith of my campus, and then I felt called to mission. I researched a couple missions, found about FOCUS through, SEEK, and as my dad said, ‘I drank the Kool-Aid.’ What FOCUS was doing and what they are still doing is absolutely amazing, and I wanted to be a part of it, so I applied. 

WRC: What was the application process like for you?
Ryan: It’s all been kind of a whirlwind. The past two years of my college career I really gave my life to Christ, and then things just kind of happened. I can see God pulling me through this and it’s exciting. I’m going to follow what he’s telling me to do. 

WRC: What is one thing about FOCUS (being on campus) that you want parents to know?
Ryan: When I was in college, I did not have this, and I greatly wish I did. I came to college wanting to grow my faith, and if someone was there to walk with me, that would have changed my life drastically. I think it’s just great to have people around that care about you and your salvation and want to walk with you. I think that’s great for the students. 

Ann: I think for myself, I grew up a pretty lukewarm Catholic going through the motions, going to Mass with my family because it was what I had to do, but coming to college, getting involved in a Bible study, getting to know the missionaries, getting involved in discipleship helped me learn so much more about my faith. It helped me be more convicted and live it out. I’ve developed more of a relationship with God and have come to really love my faith more. 

Tori: College students are the next people entering into the workforce. They’re going to be the ones who are the future doctors, lawyers, and people serving others — faith is a very important aspect of human formation, of knowing how to interact with others, care for others. It does form them spiritually, which is so important as we know as people of faith, but it also gives an extra level to it. It’s going to help set up family life, too. We’re talking about the future generations here. Eventually, they will have children and having their children obviously involved in faith is the most important. 

Andrew: This is my eighth year with FOCUS now and over the years I’ve spoken to hundreds of parents who are grieving their children falling away from their faith and FOCUS has been an answer to thousands of parents’ prayers. Oftentimes, when we have a loved one who’s fallen away, they don’t really listen to us. Sometimes it takes a friend to come along and invite them to Mass or invite them to a Bible study. We are in a unique spot — to befriend college students and invite them into a life-changing relationship with Jesus.