Meet the FOCUS missionaries – SDSM&T

The Fellowship of Catholic University Students, better known as FOCUS, are ministering to college students on the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, and Black Hills State University, Spearfish, campuses. 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.

Sophia Sage
Hometown: Royal Oaks, California
Number of years as a missionary: 4 (Second year team director)

How did you become involved in FOCUS:
I went to a very small Catholic school. My campus  didn’t have FOCUS, so my first exposure was the SEEK conference in 2017. I went as a sophomore and had a great experience but forgot about it. My senior year I went again in Indianapolis. I wanted to do mission work for a long time, but I didn’t know in what capacity. I thought about working in foreign missions for a while, but nothing was grabbing my attention. I still didn’t know what I was doing with my life. I had a really powerful hour in adoration in Indianapolis, and I decided to go to talk to the people at the FOCUS booth. I was impressed by the way they put primacy on prayer where the other organizations didn’t do that. I was drawn by that and ended up applying. 

What was your reaction to returning to SDSM&T:
I am excited to see the fruit of the foundations laid last year with different relationships, discipleship, and the general community. I think the Lord has a lot in store for this campus. I just want all of them to know Jesus. 

What are you looking forward to the most this year:
God has something really great in store for this campus. I don’t know if that means that we will see it this year necessarily, but he’s definitely laying the groundwork for something and I just want this campus to be set ablaze. If you think about it, there’s 2000 students here. With the model that Jesus gave us, we can reach this whole campus. Everyone can know Jesus. These are going to be future leaders. It’s exciting to think about the seeds that we’re planting now are going to go with them in their lives.

Molly Schmitz
Hometown: Great Falls, Montana
Number of years as a missionary: 1st year

How did you become involved in FOCUS:
I didn’t have FOCUS on my campus, but one of my best friends from childhood was discipled by a FOCUS missionary at her college. We did a summer of mission work at a Catholic camp in Montana, and I realized I wanted to do  that on a longer term, not just over the summer. I was telling my friend about this desire that I had, and she said I should look into FOCUS.

What was your reaction to your placement:
A huge prayer of mine was, ‘I don’t really care as much about the where, but the who was really big. I wanted to be able to laugh and be myself with my team and that prayer was answered.

What are you looking forward to the most this year:
I feel like God is calling me into this. I have that friend who did that for me and brought me into this, so I want to do that for others because I don’t know where I’d be if not for that friend. The Lord entrusted me to her and now there are women who he’s entrusting to me for this year. I’m excited to take on that responsibility as best as I can through his strength.

Efrain Gonzalez-Ballesteros Jr
Hometown: Storm Lake, Iowa
Number of years as a missionary: 2

How did you become involved in FOCUS:
During my senior year in college, I met the FOCUS missionary before I came back practicing my Catholic faith. He became a really good friend of mine, and the Lord used him to bring me back to himself. I remember that it was my friend inviting me back into the community — Mass, and especially confession. After eight plus years, I encountered Jesus for the first time. 

What was your reaction to returning to SDSM&T:
I am excited to come back. I think with all the friendships I made with the students last year on this campus, especially with the men who the Lord had entrusted to me to walk with, during their discipleship, I wanted to continue that walk. I wanted to be back to these guys, in this community, to start building and continue building the Lord’s work of fulfilling the great commission. 

What are you looking forward to the most this year:
Getting to work with these student athletes on this campus; I’m excited to continue to grow this relationship that I started last year with not only the athletes but the coaches. I hope to learn and use these relationships, not only for this mission, and to see what mission beyond FOCUS can look like in my future career. I’m also super excited for the SEEK conference and mission trips this year. Since I got involved in FOCUS later in college, until this year I didn’t have the opportunity to go on a mission trip or attend the full SEEK conference hosted by FOCUS. I’m looking forward to taking students to Honduras to encounter the poor and to see the fruit borne through this conference!

Tanner Hoerter
Hometown: Stevens Point, Wisconsin
Number of years as a missionary: 4

How did you become involved in FOCUS:
I had FOCUS on my campus. My freshman year I was invited into my first Bible study by a missionary and got involved in the Newman Center and the Catholic community. I found a home and had a lot of friends there. My sophomore year I also went to the SEEK 2017 conference and had an amazing encounter there with the talks and large group adoration. Then, I decided I wanted to keep diving into my faith deeper. I did anything that FOCUS put on – weekends, retreats, and men’s groups. I became an officer eventually and because of all that, the men sat down with me and invited me to apply for the position. I used the interview weekend as a discernment process because I wasn’t sure if that was really something I wanted to do. I had an amazing encounter, just feeling very at peace about it. It was very easy to be vulnerable. It was definitely the Holy Spirit working in me. I just told God, “Okay, if you want me to be a missionary, give me a job offer,” and now here I am. 

What was your reaction to your placement:
I served the last three years in Connecticut at the Coast Guard Academy so this is very different. It’s a bigger city, but a smaller school and that was something I wanted. I was open to going anywhere. I was excited to come to an engineering school because I graduated from engineering school myself. I can relate to the students at least on some level. 

What are you looking forward to the most this year:
I’m looking forward to just being God’s instrument this year. I could very much see that this is where the Lord wanted me this year through different things that have happened since my placement here. I felt very welcomed by the guys and have started to get to know all of them and meet new people. I’m really excited to be on a mission where I know I’m supposed to be and just see what the Lord has in store for me. This year, I’m also excited to direct a FOCUS mission trip again. In previous years, I had a great experience taking students on mission to encounter the poor in a radical way and am looking forward to seeing the fruit it bears in students’ lives at SD Mines.