This series
of posts is designed to explain our path to Catholicism. I’ll (Amanda) tell the
story and then, Mark (mostly) will explain the theology over the course of the
next few weeks, months, and perhaps years. Our hope is that this story will
serve to show how the Lord began to lead us in the direction of the Catholic Church long
before even we realized it. It’s a rather epic and brutally honest story, if I do say so myself,
full of thumbprints from God that we can only see in retrospect.
For those
of you who may not know, I grew up in a Christian home. We were in
church every
Sunday and prayed together as family before each meal. My parents were
wonderful role models of faith and seeking God’s Will. I went to several
churches during my childhood but most of the switching was between
Presbyterian
and non-denominational churches. Mark grew up largely without religion.
He
points to an altar call at a Southern Baptist Church when he was 18 as
the
moment he chose to follow God. As a couple, we attended predominantly
non-denominational churches and were highly involved with a Christian
missionary/campus ministry group called the Navigators. So, there’s
the lead-up to the juicy details as Mark called them.
If we are
honest with ourselves, it began nearly 5 years ago. We were newly married and
incredibly enthusiastic. We are both dreamers, BIG dreamers. We were a few
months from my graduation and then, the world would be our oyster. One week the
plan was to be missionaries in Mongolia, the next in New Zealand, and finally,
we settled on EDGE Corps members (a branch of Navigator ministry for recent
college graduates) at Purdue University. We believed and expected big things
from God. If He really was the creator of the universe and we were so eager to
go and serve, then how could the result not be huge? We asked God to use us, to
send us, and to leave His thumbprints all over our lives. What we did not
realize was how long, how difficult, how unexpected, and yet, how beautiful our
path would be and still is.