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God's Summer in God's Country: Catholic Noles Take on
FOCUS Summer Projects in Big Sky, MT
By Miles Rittenhouse
What would happen if you gave God one day? How about a week? Maybe a month? How about your whole summer?
That's the question a group of Catholic Noles students are trying to answer this summer at FOCUS Summer Projects in Big Sky, Montana.
FOCUS's Summer Projects program is known as their most intense formation program for undergraduate students. For 10 weeks, students work a 40-hour work week at a bucket list destination in the US while participating in daily adoration and Mass, as well as leadership formation. This summer, 13 Florida State students and 3 FSU FOCUS missionaries made the trip to Big Sky, joining 28 students from across the country, all running after Christ together.
Three weeks in, the overarching sentiment among the group is a deep appreciation for the community that has formed. So much of what has made Summer Projects special has been spending time with other students who share that same pursuit.
Incoming Junior Hannah Ramundo is one of those students. She has appreciated that "everyone's here to love Christ and love one another the best they can and to grow in that love. So it's been very nice to grow into myself around other people who are just wanting to love me better and love Christ better."
Reid Wagner echoes that same appreciation: "Being able to live with and constantly spend time with devout young Catholics running after Christ is amazing. There's so much love shared between each other, which is beautiful to see, to experience, and to be a part of."
Among the moments students have cherished most are the simple, spontaneous ones, the kind that seem to sneak up on you.
Hannah described one that captured it perfectly: "After Sunday Mass we ate some family dinner and then we all went outside. Everyone started running onto the golf course. The girls ran out and then the guys ran out. And like, just that, and then we were all like, dancing in the rain when it started pouring down, just rejoicing in nature and in the beauty that was around us."
Summer Projects also comes with real challenges. For the missionaries who accompany the students, the responsibility is significant. Four missionaries supporting 30 students through a program that asks everything of everyone.
FSU FOCUS missionary Jordan Agagan speaks to that weight: "The pace is very different. There's only four of us missionaries for 30 students and so I think Florida State campus ministry mission prepared me pretty well, but it is a lot of late nights and a lot of early mornings."
But ask any of them if it's worth it, and the answer is clear. They set out this summer to give God their whole summer, and three weeks in, they're finding out what that actually looks like. There are seven weeks left to find out the rest.
