Kari S.- on mission in Peru

“Have no fear of moving into the unknown. Simply step out fear­lessly, knowing that I am with you, there­fore no harm can befall you; all is very very well. Do this in com­plete faith and con­fi­dence.” - Pope John Paul II

My name is Kari and I am orig­i­nally from Sioux City, IA. I will be grad­u­ating from the University of Tulsa in May 2011 with a B.S. in Exercise and Sports Science. I love learning about the body and how it works and I hope to someday attain a Master’s of Public Health (pro­viding that’s what God is calling me to do).

I started prac­ticing my faith again in the middle of my sopho­more year of col­lege. I often describe it as “I hit the ground run­ning and haven’t looked back.” With this being said, I love to share my faith and learn more about the Church. I have spent the last two sum­mers working in two dif­ferent dio­ceses (Madison, WI and Colorado Springs, CO) in pro­grams that involve sharing my faith with chil­dren and dying to myself to better serve my co-workers and team­mates.

When I found out I would be grad­u­ating on time in May (instead of a year later), I imme­di­ately began to con­sider what God is calling me to do after grad­u­a­tion. He slowly revealed His plan to me in the little things of everyday life. I dis­cerned that He is asking me to con­tinue to serve Him and His Church instead of going straight to grad school. Once I knew this, I cracked open a magazine that has a sub­stan­tial listing of mis­sion work oppor­tu­ni­ties within the Church and started nar­rowing pro­grams down.

I stum­bled upon Heart’s Home and inquired about more infor­ma­tion. From there, every­thing just seemed to fall into place. I fell in love with all of the videos online and felt like this is where I need to be. This was fur­ther con­firmed when I vis­ited the home in Brooklyn for my Come and See Weekend. Everything about Heart’s Home is beau­tiful to me. The mis­sion of com­pas­sion rather than doing, the prayer life, the com­mu­nity life, every­thing! No matter how ner­vous or scared I get about leaving my friends and family for at least a year, the videos and tes­ti­monies always reas­sure that God is asking me to serve with Heart’s Home.