Nick Blaha
Nick served for two years at the
What he’s up to now:
Nick is currently a seminarian for the diocese of
How FOCUS impacted
his life:
“My time as a FOCUS
missionary has been instrumental in my life. As a missionary, I was
trained by passionate and expert laymen, fundraised my entire salary, grew in
my professional skills, led multiple weekly Bible studies, began to appreciate
the importance of a strong brotherhood among Christian men, learned to overcome
my fears and rely on God for what I needed, and was forced to confront another
side of life for which my education had not prepared me: the genuine confusion
that many people experience as the result of sin, and the value of being able
to enter into people's confusion and suffering in order to draw them out of
their darkness into the light of Christ. I was blessed by deep
friendships with the students and staff with whom I was privileged to work, and
derived tremendous fulfillment from those relationships. Above all, the
importance of personal holiness and character was made clear to me in a way I
had not completely internalized before. The three years of ministry, in
close partnership with clergy and experienced laymen, have been three of the
most formative years of my life.
In retrospect, I can
see a pattern of being drawn to more and more dramatic choices in favor of
submission of my life to God. My desire to enter the seminary has been
grounded on my experience as a missionary and the powerful ways God has used me
for good. Ultimately, the trust that it took for me to embark upon the
life of a campus missionary, to depend on others for my material needs, to be
sent to unknown place for years, and to hope that the work would be fulfilling,
was enormous, but it was a limited commitment. There was a "trial
period" feel to it, and I recognize now that, in some fashion, God was
preparing me to trust him in ways for which I was not yet ready at that
time. God does not ask great things of us before he shows us how faithful
and generous he is. I am willing to trust that what God has in store for
me as a seminarian and priest is something far greater than I could possibly
arrange myself; I have FOCUS to thank for my confidence in my choice to become
a priest.” ~ Nick Blaha