FOCUS International Mission Trips Reach 17 Countries This Summer
This summer, hundreds of college students will serve with 15 different mission trips in a total of 17 countries. While most of these students are American, FOCUS International Missions is excited to have students from Malaysia, Dubai, and Austria join some of this year’s trips. Student missionaries and staff have just returned from summer mission trips in locations including remote villages in Alaska, and a Varsity Catholic mission to St. Lucia, with a missions to the Ukraine and India currently underway As we welcome the first Latin American pope, Pope Francis, FOCUS International Missions is especially looking forward to sending nearly sixty students and missionaries to World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil this August. The trip to Rio de Janeiro will also include a mission to the Amazon. FOCUS International Missions reaches over 100,000 men, women and children suffering from physical and spiritual poverty who lack critical resources. Each trip is designed to be effective on two fronts: to provide aid to those most in need around the world and to build up the faith of student missionaries.
During summer break, many students find it difficult to continue to grow in faith without the structure of weekly discipleship, Bible studies, or accountability in prayer and the Sacraments that they had on campus. While the summer months can be an obstacle to spiritual growth, they also provide a great testing ground for students to practice strategies for living out the faith on their own initiative. Campus missionaries work to help students form habits and build skills in evangelization and discipleship with the goal of raising up mature Catholics for a life of evangelization beyond campus. Offered during each break in the academic year, FOCUS mission trips are an opportunity for students to continue to grow in their faith and pursue lifelong Catholic mission. Click here to read a student’s testimony from last year’s summer mission to Kolkata, India. For more information about FOCUS International Missions, visit www.focusmissions.org.
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The formation that occurs on a FOCUS mission trip can be the equivalent of a whole year of discipleship on campus. Many student participants become FOCUS missionaries on campus or pursue a religious vocation.
