Search
-
October 26, 2021Crystal and Joseph Gruber
FOCUS missionaries | St. John the Evangelist, Jackson, MI
Crystal (’08 Biomedical Engineering) and Joseph Gruber have been serving as FOCUS missionaries since 2010 and 2009, respectively. The couple serves at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Jackson, MI.
“Serving at parishes is a new initiative within FOCUS that also is allowing us to help campus missionaries prepare students better for life long mission. We study the Bible and share life with an eye toward evangelization and discipleship with parishioners of all ages and stages of life,” Crystal says.
During Crystal’s time at St. Al’s and Michigan Tech, she was received into the Church but FOCUS missionaries were not at St. Al’s yet. “Because of the timing of my conversion I really struggled with sin and was living a double life,” she says. “I now see how having a FOCUS missionary would have made a positive impact on me being able to step more fully into the Catholic life.”
“I decided to be a missionary because I was invited by missionaries to consider it; I felt a desire to serve people more directly than what I was doing in a corporate job after graduation; and I wished someone had been there for me.”
She says she has so many memories from her time at St. Al’s. “I remember sitting in adoration after I came into the Church and starting to understand in my heart (and not just my head) what it meant that Jesus was truly present in the Eucharist.”
