By Maria Bunkers
Focus Missionary

Growing up in a loving Catholic home, I was given a great foundation of faith in which I always had a desire to know Jesus more. I went to the University of Mary in Bismarck, N.D., where I came to not just know about the Lord, but to actually know him and live out a personal relationship with him where my heart was being set free and filled with joy; a relationship that we are all made for.

Through the gift of FOCUS missionaries on my campus who helped lead me to Jesus, I felt the Lord calling me to also say “yes” to him in this way of serving him as a FOCUS missionary. At the core of this was a deep encounter of his love for me that led to a burning desire for others to know him and his love for them. The past three years of being a FOCUS missionary have been the most transformative years of my life. It was the time in which the Lord really revealed to me how my heart was made to love and be loved.

I was placed at Colorado State University for my first two years as a missionary (2022-24), and Jesus came flooding into my heart in ways I never could have imagined. My team director asked me in my first week of being on campus, “How many people would you need to reach for you to consider your time as FOCUS missionary ‘worth it?’” I replied, “Even if it be for just one soul, that one person is worth it to me.” Her words have forever changed my life, as she responded with the question, “What if that one person is yourself?” That response was hard for me to receive, because I didn’t say yes to being a missionary for myself, but for others! However, in his great mercy, the Lord transformed my heart and revealed to me what my team director meant by this; that my personal holiness is the greatest gift I can ever give someone, because it is then Jesus shining on others through me.

As the Lord taught me how to remain little and see the beauty of my inner poverty, I started to hear him calling me to be totally his. In great joy and freedom, He has given me the grace and desire to give myself totally to him and say yes to his invitation to enter the Postulancy of the Sisters of Life, New York City.

Editor’s note: Originally from Rapid City, Maria Bunkers is the Team Director for FOCUS at Northern State University, Aberdeen (2024-25). The Sisters of Life were founded by Cardinal John O’Connor, a navy chaplain who became Archbishop of New York, after a visit to the Dachau concentration camp in Germany.