By Jeff Schinstock
Director of evangelization and catechesis
The summer of 2000 changed my life.
At the time, I had just finished college. God had stirred my heart to a return home in the Church. I was considering law schools and discerning my future when an invitation to something more arrived. Friends, seeing the Lord’s work in my heart, asked me to considering doing Totus Tuus in the summer. I had never heard of it.
The Church was celebrating the Great Jubilee Year. I was being asked to catechize youth across Kansas. I could not have known then that a simple “yes” to six weeks of missionary work would become one of the defining moments of my life.
God used Totus Tuus to awaken in me a love for His Church that has shaped everything that followed. It was through Totus Tuus that I discovered the joy of evangelization. It was through Totus Tuus that I began to see the Church not merely as a place I attended, but as a mission I was called to embrace. It was through Totus Tuus that I met my wife, Sarah. Looking back now, more than 25 years later, I can trace a direct line from that summer to a lifetime of ministry and service in the Church.
In one way or another, I have been involved ever since.
Every summer, thousands of young people across our diocese participate in Totus Tuus. They gather in parish classrooms and churches to learn about the faith. They sing songs, play games, become familiar with the Gospel, attend Mass, and spend time in prayer. The impact on those young people is real and significant. Seeds are planted. Friendships are formed. Faith is strengthened. Vocations are often nurtured.
The fruit among those served is easy to see. What is less obvious, however, is where some of the deepest fruit is produced. It happens in the lives of the missionaries themselves.
Before they ever arrive at a parish, the missionary teams spend more than a week immersed in formation and training. Eight intense days are dedicated to prayer, study, community life and preparation. Then comes six weeks of missionary service. Parish after parish. Day after day. New faces. New challenges. New opportunities to witness to Christ. The experience is demanding. It is exhausting. It is also transformative.
In the opening chapter of Acts, Jesus tells His disciples, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8). That call was not reserved for the Apostles alone. It remains the mission of every baptized Christian. Totus Tuus gives young adults the opportunity to live that call in a profound and practical way.
There is something that happens when a young person spends six weeks talking about Christ, praying with others, teaching the faith, and sharing life in Christian community. The Gospel moves from being something they know to something they live. Faith becomes personal. Prayer becomes necessary. Trust in God becomes real.
Many arrive at training wondering whether they have enough knowledge, enough confidence, or enough ability to be effective missionaries. By the end of the summer, they discover that God works through ordinary people who are willing to say yes. The transformation does not end when the summer concludes.
Former missionaries return to their parishes as different people. They become catechists, parish leaders, volunteers, teachers, seminarians, religious sisters, husbands, wives, mothers, and fathers. They bring with them a deeper understanding of the faith and a greater confidence in sharing it. They become active disciples, they become people of hope.
We live in a time when it is easy to focus on challenges facing the Church. We hear about declining participation and growing indifference to faith. Those are realities, but they are not the whole story.
Every summer, young adults throughout our diocese willingly give up jobs, comforts, and personal plans in order to spend six weeks proclaiming Jesus Christ. They travel from parish to parish carrying the same Gospel that transformed the Apostles. They teach children. They encourage families. They pray with people. They build deep friendships. They remind communities that Christ is alive and still calling disciples. In doing so, they themselves are transformed. That has been the hidden genius of Totus Tuus from the beginning.
Yes, it forms the thousands of children and teenagers who participate each summer. Thanks be to God for that. But it also forms missionaries. It creates disciples who learn that the faith is not merely something to be received but something to be shared.
More than 25 years ago, I said yes to a summer that I thought would simply be a temporary experience. Instead, it became part of God’s plan for my life.
The young missionaries serving our parishes this summer may not realize it yet, but God may be doing the same thing in them. Through their witness, He is transforming communities. Through their service, He is bringing hope. Through their yes, He is continuing the work He began when He told His disciples: “You will be my witnesses.”
