When Father Gabriel Richard students are selecting their classes, there are many factors that motivate their decisions. Often, they try to assemble a list of courses that will impress their desired college. Other times they’re just trying to take the same classes as their best friends. But often, that scheduling process can have impacts far beyond what the student can envision and even become life changing. Little did she know that when Grace Stier ’17 enrolled in German during her freshman year at FGR, she was starting down a path that would lead her around the world pursing a call to missionary work.
German and Biology Double Major
After four years of German studies at FGR, Stier attended Kalamazoo College. While there she decided to pursue a study abroad opportunity in Germany and began taking more German classes to prepare for that trip. This in turn led to a double-major in German and Biology. And while she loved the close-knit classroom experience of her language major, she still didn’t have the sense that her German knowledge would prove useful. “I remember graduating and thinking, ‘Well, I’m never going to use this degree,’ but that was a fun thing I did.”
FOCUS Work
And immediately after college, she did go in an entirely different professional direction from her degrees. Her senior year, she applied to be a missionary with FOCUS. Across 210 U.S. campuses and nine international campuses, FOCUS sends out missionaries to make disciples for Christ by inviting people into a relationship with Jesus in the Catholic Church.
Stier first connected with the organization as a freshman at Kalamazoo College when she joined a FOCUS Bible study. “I went to Mass for the first time at the student center and they had this form to fill out. It asked me to check a box if you want to do a Bible study and I said, ‘Why not?’”
After leaving FGR, Stier knew that she wanted to continue living her faith, but didn’t know what it looked like to develop a practice of prayer and worship outside of a Catholic institution.
“Faith is really built into FGR. You have theology classes, Mass, and prayer really built into your schedule. Then I went to college and there was none of that,” Stier said. “I remember Ms. Brown prepped me. She said, ‘You know, this is going to be a big culture shock.’”
Stier was grateful that the FOCUS missionaries she interacted with were able to provide the structure and the tools that enabled her to incorporate her Catholic faith into her life in college. And it gave her motivation and a desire to join the organization and provide the same kind of help to others.
“I saw the emptiness that a lot of people lived with and it’s really easy to slide out of your faith if you’re not intentional. We don’t live in a society where you’re set up to be a faithful Catholic. You have to make the active choice. If I didn’t have missionaries in the community that I was able to join, I don’t know where I would have been. It would have been so easy just to backslide out of my faith.”
Her first FOCUS assignment after college was a two-year commitment at Depauw Untiversity in Green Castle, Indiana. During her second year at Depauw, an opportunity opened up in Passau, Germany. Because of her degree in German, she was invited to serve there. Initially she had major reservations about spending years so far away from home. “I was talking to my spiritual director, and I listed all the reasons why I didn’t want to go, and he said, ‘Well, those are all based in fear, and you never make a decision in fear.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, shoot, that’s good, I think I have to go now,’ and the Lord just really blessed this year, removed a lot of the fears, and brought me a good community.”
Stier will be returning to Passau to continue her missionary work there for the 2024-2025 academic year. While in Germany, almost all of her conversations with students are in German, all her Bible studies are held in German, and she’s also drawing on the lessons in German culture that her courses at FGR and in college incorporated. “I think that one thing that the Germans do well is that they have a big hobby culture,” Stier said. “Everyone has hobbies here, like I think it’s something that we maybe don’t cultivate as much in the U.S. So, I got really into crocheting this last year.”
Stier also has to face some of the more challenging aspects of German culture. “Germany’s been a center of modernity. Marx is from Germany; Nietzsche is from Germany. All the philosophers and everything that bled into American counterculture.” But this also presents unique opportunities for evangelization, “I met a student who came into the Church the year before I got there, and she was the first person in six generations in her family to be baptized. Which means back to the early 1800s, people were leaving the faith.”
Working with college students as a FOCUS missionary has shown Stier how important it is for students to make a plan for their faith before going off to college. “Something I was told is, God has no grandsons or granddaughters. He has sons and daughters. So just because your parents lived out their faith doesn’t mean that you’re automatically receiving it. You have to make the choice. It’s easy here at FGR, it’s built in, and that’s not the way the world works. So, make a plan for yourself, don’t assume it’s going to be automatic that you’ll stay Catholic in college.”
Stier also asks for prayers for her work, the faith of college students, and the work of all FOCUS missionaries around the world. You can learn more about the work they’re doing on college campuses at focus.org.
Editor’s Note: Due to the popularity of other language programs, including the newer Latin program, FGR no longer offers a German language program. However, this story is a powerful illustration of how one choice can open unexpected pathways.