Six Fellowship of Catholic University Student missionaries are reaching out to Catholic and non-Catholic students this year on the Wichita State University campus.

Over 17,000 students are roaming Wichita State University’s expansive campus this fall. This presents a challenge for Fr. Drew Hoffman, the chaplain of the St. Paul Catholic Student Center located south of the WSU water tower. To assist him in his mission, he has six Fellowship of Catholic University Student (FOCUS) missionaries.

“FOCUS missionaries play a role I simply cannot play,” he said. “Even with all of our formation here and with all of our staff, they play a role of being in the community, of seeing, hearing, and experiencing things that I’m never going to be able to do.”

The missionaries also assist at the student center by leading Bible studies. “We have 250-plus students who have signed up for Bible studies and they coordinate all of that. That is the best way to get involved in a small group of people, pursuing the Lord, becoming friends, and growing together. I’ve always put a high priority on that,” Fr. Hoffman added.

The FOCUS missionaries are recent college graduates who work on college campuses as missionaries. “Their responsibilities are to be with students. Their motto, so to speak, is ‘win, build, send.’ The win means they’re with the students. They play volleyball with them. They hang out on campus. They go out to eat with them. They do all the things that friends do together as a way of building real friendships, not as a way of getting in with another agenda but to build authentic friendships so many of our students don’t have in this age.”

The word "build" in their motto refers to helping students grow in their knowledge of Jesus Christ as they grow in knowledge of themselves and what the Lord is calling them to do.

“Then there’s a sending that takes place,” Fr. Hoffman said. “And, of course, this formation isn’t just for themselves but ideally these students through their friendship and growth with the missionaries are ready to be missionaries themselves on our campus and in the workforce or wherever that might be.”

The five missionaries initiate contact by walking the campus using “bare-handed evangelization.”

“That means they go up to people and start talking to them or they might have a little question or something to get a conversation going but they just begin talking to people,” Fr. Hoffman explained further. “They might bring free coffee out on campus; they might go to an event; or here at our Student Center, they might just jump into the sand volleyball game or hang out in the basement and talk to students—any way to interact with our college students our missionaries are willing to do.”