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Embracing Faith: Daja Britton's Journey from Baptist Roots to Catholicism
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Have you ever wondered what it takes to truly transform your faith? Join us as we sit down with Daja Britton, a passionate student of clinical psychology at Franciscan University, whose spiritual journey from a Baptist upbringing to embracing Catholicism is nothing short of inspiring. Her curiosity about spirituality sparked during high school, leading her to a profound encounter with Catholicism during a retreat.
Our conversation takes an intriguing turn as we explore the extraordinary experience of encountering an apparition in Medjugorje. This moment was a catalyst for a deeper commitment to the Catholic faith. We discuss the complexities that accompany such profound revelations, including the personal and familial challenges Daja faced. Her story is a testament to the power of patience and the peace found in embracing one's imperfections while feeling the unconditional love of God. Celebrate with us the joy that comes from stepping into a welcoming community and sharing one's faith journey with others. This episode is a heartfelt invitation to those searching for a deeper connection to their faith and a reminder that a warm, inclusive Church can be a sanctuary for all.
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Welcome to yes Catholic, where real people share their real stories and discover God's grace at work in their lives. I'm your host, David Patterson, and every week we bring you inspiring guests who share how they came to say yes to Jesus and His Church. Let's dive into their journeys of faith and see how grace is transforming lives in our world today. I am really excited to welcome Deja Britton. Welcome, Deja. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your story.
Speaker 2Of course I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 1So, for those who don't know you, why don't you share a little bit about yourself before we dive into the rapid fire?
Speaker 2Yeah, of course.
Speaker 1Just a short introduction. Where are you from?
Speaker 2Yeah, so I am Deja. I grew up in Greenville, North Carolina, and now I'm a senior at Franciscan University studying clinical psychology.
Speaker 1Busy busy.
Speaker 2I am very busy.
Speaker 1Let's get to know you a little bit more with the Rapid Fire Icebreaker Challenge. Ready to tackle these questions? Yes, let's go. All right, describe yourself as a kid in three words.
Speaker 2Funny, energetic and talkative.
Speaker 1Are you a morning person or a night owl?
Speaker 2I wish to be a morning person, but I'm definitely a night owl.
Speaker 1If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
Speaker 2Flight because I love to explore.
Speaker 1Go-to order at a coffee shop.
Speaker 2Arnold Palmer, because I don't really like coffee.
Speaker 1Okay, I'll have to check that out. I'm not really familiar, arnold.
Speaker 2Palmer, lemonade and sweet tea.
Speaker 1Go-to short prayer going about your day Glory. Be, One of your favorite books of all time.
Speaker 2Be Healed by Bob Schutz.
Speaker 1So good. If you could have coffee with any saint, who would it be?
Speaker 2Mother Teresa because I just I need to know about her life of service and how she got into it.
Speaker 1Any questions that you'd ask her as you.
Speaker 2What age like sparked your interest in mission.
Speaker 1Okay, last one. If you could ask God one question, what would it be?
Speaker 2What did Jesus do in his teenager?
Speaker 1years. All right, deja, while you flew through the rapid fire. Let's begin with a prayer and then we'll have you share your story In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen, come, holy Spirit, teach us how to pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for Deja and for her yes and for her joy. Lord, this is a joy that truly comes from you and I thank you for that. Lord, I just pray that you send your Holy Spirit to be with us, lord, I pray that you would help us to decrease, so you would increase, and I pray for those listening, lord, that you just bless them, and we make this prayer in Jesus' name. Amen, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. All right, deja, let's dive right in. Where does your story begin?
Speaker 2Yeah, so I grew up Baptist for the majority of my life. I don't really remember when I started going, but since I was so young but my family's not really religious at all, except for me and my brother. I'm the youngest of four, which is amazing and I love being the youngest kid. It's awesome, and me and my brother would catch the church bus every Sunday and we go to the Baptist church and it was incredible. I loved it so much, but I always felt like there was something more, something more to the faith. I met these missionaries in high school. This was around the time where, pretty sad, I was like I want to be inside, I don't want to talk to anyone, and my mom was like I want you to get. I don't want to talk to anyone. And my mom was like I want you to get out the house because I would go to camp every summer with my Baptist church family. And it was incredible. I loved it, but I was like, mom, I'm not going to any camp, that's not Christian. And she was like, well, perfect for you, these are Christian people. And I was like I'll have to meet these people and I go out on the porch and I meet these missionaries. One guy has big puffy hair and he looks super scary, and another girl she was so sweet and I was like she looks so sweet, so cute. And she began telling me I was like I so sweet, so cute. And she began telling me I was like I only go to camp, like church camp. And she was like, well, this is church camp, this is just like your baptist church and how you go to camp. And I was like, okay, maybe I'll give it a shot. These look like fun people. And I went to this camp and that was the first time I ever encountered Catholicism.
Speaker 2No-transcript. I was leading this what is it called Retreat? And it was incredible because it was high schoolers leading high schoolers and I'd never seen like Catholic people on fire for the Lord. And when I was leading this retreat, I asked Siri. I was like hey, siri, who created the Catholic church? And Siri was like Jesus Christ. And then I looked up who created the Baptist church? And I completely forgot who created the Baptist church. But I was like, wow, like Siri is like Jesus Christ created the Catholic church. Let me look this up a little more. And everything I read, um, pointed back to Jesus Christ. And I was like okay, like, if I am to be a follower of Jesus Christ, I need to be in his one true church. And my missionary was inviting me to mass and I kept going back to mass. And I kept like sneaking going back to mass because my mom would be like stop going to mass, you can't do this anymore. Like you have to go back to your church. And I wanted to be faithful to my other church, but I also wanted to be faithful to my Catholic friends and the more I got to know about the Catholic faith, the more I fell in love with it.
Speaker 2And it was around the 2020 year and I was like, okay, this is when I really want to become Catholic. This is my time. Then COVID came and I was like, no, this is so sad. Like I was like the Lord doesn't want me to become Catholic. I get it, get it.
Speaker 2And closer to the end of time, I was graduated high school and I was on my way to college Belmont Abbey. It was incredible and I was like this is a great Catholic college. Even if I'm not Catholic, I'm gonna go anyway, and I was. I'm going to be surrounded by faith-minded people and maybe the next year I can become Catholic. But I prayed about it and the Lord just really spoke to my heart. I didn't really hear anything that same night. I was so upset. I was like the Lord still doesn't want me to become Catholic. And I told the Lord I was like, hey, if you want me to become Catholic, please show me.
Speaker 2And the next day it was so weird.
Speaker 2But the next day I get a phone call from this missionary who was leading my RCIA class or a vagabond mission, calls Jesus class, and she tells me hey, deja, like the priest just called me and said you can come to the church this Sunday.
Speaker 2And I was so confused, I was like I'm still not ready. And I was so confused, I was like I'm still not ready and I had like all these things in my mind but I was like, yes, like my first answer was yes, although I was like doubting, but my initial answer was yes and I think that's what really like led me closer to him, because it led me like closer to his heart. And the day I like became Catholic. It was so good, I absolutely loved it and it's been incredible ever since. I went to Belmont Abbey for a year and I also got to work with Vagabond Missions for a year serving the inner city. Just like, those missionaries who were Vagabond missionaries helped me and so I got to actually like do the same thing to the other teams and it was very beautiful. And now I go to Franciscan studying clinical psychology.
Speaker 1Hey friends, I want to pause for a moment to give a quick shout out to our friends at Tabella. They're a sponsor managing the production of this podcast, so I can keep bringing these powerful stories to you week after week. Join ministry groups, stay connected to your parish and grow in your faith with the best Catholic content, all for free on Tabella. If you haven't checked it out yet, you can download the Tabela app on the App Store or Google Play. You can use it to listen to all your favorite podcasts, like this one, father Mike Schmitz, abiding Together, and more, as well as other exclusive content. You can also use Tabela as a communication tool for your parish or group. If you're interested in activating Tabela in your diocese, parish or group, just head over to wwwtabellaapp to learn more. All right, let's get back to listening to God's grace at work in our world today. Wow, thanks be to God. What were some of the teachings of the church that you wrestled with as a Baptist?
Speaker 2Yeah, it was purgatory. I was like I don't know about purgatory, I've never heard about this in the Bible, because when the Baptist faith were so like into scripture and I didn't know until the back, until I went, became Catholic that also Catholics are into scripture. And he, the guy who had the puffy hair, the missionary, he came up to me and he walked me through scripture, where there is some parts of scripture that talks about purgatory, and I was like, wow, this is insane. And I read the catechism, some catechism scripture on purgatory, and they began to describe to me how this is God can fully like perfect us so that we can be fully with him in marriage, kind of like in heaven, not kind of like marriage, but it's like we're fully giving ourselves to him.
Encountering the Divine
Speaker 2So, yeah, and Mary, I think I didn't fully believe in Mary until not believe, but more just like truly believe in her, until I went to Medjugorje and I like experienced this incredible prayerful experience with her and I've never like seen this before and like I got this image of like me being face to face with Jesus, um, and I went to go run out and pray out of adoration, to go like run out with my friends, and they stopped me and they go Deja, just like pray, just stay, and I stay with them. And I look up at the window and there's a picture of Mary and Jesus at the foot of the cross and just like Mary with Jesus face to face, and it was just so beautiful. I'm still like processing that until this day and it was just so beautiful. I'm still like processing that until this day and it was just so powerful. And I also got to witness an apparition in Medjugorje and it was just so incredible, it was so real, yeah.
Speaker 1What do you mean? You were able to witness an apparition.
Speaker 2Yeah, so I think her name was Maria. She invited us to her like home. It was kind of like a hotel and we were like praying the rosary. She, like Mary like comes and sees her at like a certain time each evening and like give her things that to like proclaim to the world or like sometimes it's like kept in confidence and she doesn't say anything at all and we were all praying together and she's like kneeling up in front of Mary and Jesus and next thing, you know, she's like everything like went silent and she just like starts talking, like we don't hear anything, we don't, but we don't see anything. But she like sees her and like is talking with her and it was so beautiful to like witness and like.
Speaker 2As I was there, I like saw like the statue of Jesus, like in tears, and I was like looking, trying to like wipe my eyes. I was like is this real? Is this real? And like it was so real and like there was nothing behind the statue, there was nothing under it, and I was like, wow, this is absolutely powerful and and it changed my life.
Speaker 1What was it like after coming home?
Speaker 2It took us so long to process. But I was like studying abroad during that season and since we were like constantly like on the go and like witnessing all these cool things in Europe, it was just like it took us a long time to process and we had to take it to prayer and I actually had to talk to a sister because I was like I don't know what any of this means and I don't know if I truly believe this, and she like walked me through everything and really like helped my belief.
Speaker 1What was it like for you on the day of to be received into the Catholic church?
Speaker 2It was incredible. I have never felt more joy. And it was like joy, but I was also like, wow, I feel absolutely nothing. At the same time, I still feel like the same person, but when I say like I feel joy, I think the joy was always there, because I think the joy of the Lord, like, is completely like my strength and I wouldn't be where I am today, like without him. And I saw that the Lord had marvelous plans for my life and he still has great plans for my life. So, yeah, I think I was joyful in that sense.
Speaker 1So if someone is thinking about coming into the Catholic church, do you have any advice?
Speaker 2Yeah, I would say be patient with conversion. I know my story. My mom was like hey, you can't live here if you're going to become Catholic. And since then I haven't lived there. But that's okay. The Lord's got me and the Lord has got you as well. It's a new thing and it's filled with emotion, but some hesitations and some joy, but the Lord is with you every step of the way.
Speaker 1So to be patient with yourself in the process. So if you could go back and give advice to your younger self, what would you say?
Speaker 2Well, I would say you don't have to be perfect in order to be loved. Want to unpack that a little bit? Yeah, I think when I was younger, I would constantly find these things in order to impress my mom, or impress my Lord even. And I would say I have to be perfect in order to go to the Lord, I have to be, I have to do these certain things, I have to follow these all these rules in order to be loved by the Lord. But the Lord loves me as I am and he made me to love me as I am. And I just think about that often because, wow, my younger self was so wanting and yearning to be loved and looking for just all of these things that were not bringing her that love.
Speaker 1So, yeah, so how have you really found peace in the journey?
Speaker 2I think, just learning to know that I am thirsted for Because, as Jesus was like dying on the cross, he goes like I thirst and he wasn't talking about just how he was thirsty for a drink, but how he thirsted for us and it makes me feel like so warm and so loved, because I know that he is the one who will love me, no matter what I do, no matter um the things that I. The one who will love me no matter what I do, no matter the things that I say, like he will love me unconditionally.
Speaker 1Because he sees us as his sons and daughters, his beloved sons and daughters. Right, but trying to learn that when you know your own failings and brokenness, it's hard to believe that some days. I mean, if I'm being honest so often, you know I'm also trying to earn the Lord's love and he's like you don't have to earn my love. I love you. You're my son.
Speaker 2Right yeah.
Speaker 1You know we're just like but, but, but, and he's like no, like I love you Right, it's an amazing God that we serve truly is. And so what is your hope for the future of our church?
Speaker 2I want this to be a place where they can encounter each individual person and that they know that they're seen, known and loved, no matter where they come from or what they are experiencing. And yes, this is what the church is for them right now. But I want this to be like a true sanctuary for them, that they know that this is a place that they can come and feel like home. Love that.
Speaker 1That all people would be able to feel like they're at home.
Speaker 2Yes.
Speaker 1On that note, Deja, I just want to thank you so much for your yes to Jesus and his church. I'm telling you, you got that joy that is contagious and it's from the Lord, which is amazing. So I want to thank you for your yes and you're doing amazing work. If people want to connect and learn more about what you've got going on, how can they go about doing that?
Speaker 2Yeah, you can follow me on Instagram at jadajabritton.
Speaker 1Awesome. Well, do you want to close us in prayer tonight?
Speaker 2For sure, In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Glory to you, lord, for you are good. Jesus, we thank you for your mercy and for your love. We praise you in all thanksgiving. All glory be to the Father and to to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be world without end. Amen. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Speaker 1Amen. Thank you, kandaja. Thank you. Thank you for listening. If you enjoy this episode and want to support our ministry, please share it with others, post about it on social media and leave a rating and review. To stay updated with the latest stories, follow us on Instagram at yescatholic and visit our website at yescatholiccom. If yes Catholic has made a difference in your life, consider joining our Patreon community at patreoncom. Slash yescatholic A big shout out and thank you to our current patrons for all the prayers, support and contributions that help us reach thousands of souls around the world every week. Let's remember the words of St Peter Always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you. You have a story. Don't be afraid to share the good news of how Jesus has moved in your life with a family member, friend or colleague. Give Jesus your yes every single day and witness the ripple effect of the gospel. Join us next week as we continue the journey right here at yes Catholic.