Faith in Action—Newman Center, October 3, 2026

Tune in to Faith in Action at 9 a.m. on Mondays on Channel 88.1 FM, Siouxland Catholic Radio. This week, Host Joanne Fox talks about the St. Thomas More Newman Center at the University of South Dakota. 

Faith in Action is brought to you by Mary's Choice, a Sioux City Pregnancy Resource Center. Previous Faith in Action programs can be found at siouxlandcatholicradio.com, on YouTube, and on several other podcasting platforms. Programming is subject to change.

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SPEAKER_02 0:01

Welcome, listeners of Siouxland Catholic Radio, Channel 88.1 FM, KFHC Pongaso City, and K O I A Storm Lake. It's time for another edition of Faith in Action. Thank you so much for tuning in. And maybe it is Monday at 9 a.m., or maybe it's uh Saturday at 7 p.m. Or maybe you went right to our website, Siouxland Catholic Radio.com, clicked on programs, clicked on local programming, and clicked on Faith in Action, and you are listening at your convenience. And for that we are very grateful. And we're also very grateful to Mary's Choice, a Sioux City Pregnancy Resource Center, which is the exclusive underwriter for this show, and also enables us to be on Spotify and a number of other podcasting platforms. So, listeners, I have another opportunity for you to be supportive of great nonprofits in our area. And so this would be a good time to get a piece of paper, a pen, and a pencil. Thursday, October 15th. This is in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, but it is a benefit for the Newman Center at the University of South Dakota in Vermilion. And so it is called the Dollar Dinner Experience at the country club of Sioux Falls. And really, it's a great opportunity. You get to meet USD Newman students full of energy and enthusiasm and infectious for their faith. And it's a once-in-a-life, there's going to be a once-in-a-lifetime Newman Center announcement, which um we may tease you a little bit with that. But again, it's just a great opportunity. And I will talk about this a little more in case you didn't have time to get the piece of paper, pen, pencil. But it's all part of the Living Stones campaign at uh the USD Newman Center. So in the studio with me, I have individuals associated with the Newman Center. I am so pleased to welcome to the studio Sam Carlson, Grace McGedigan, and Marley Van Beber. Did I pronounce that right, Marley? Yes. Okay, very good. Thank you all so much for coming into Sioux City and sharing your um story with all of us. Gladly.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Yes, thank you. Excellent.

SPEAKER_02 2:12

Sam, why don't we start out with you? Why don't you tell the listeners a little bit about yourself?

SPEAKER_03 2:16

Sure. Yes, my name is Sam Carlson. I am the current USD Newman Center Development Director. I grew up in Minnesota. I grew up in the Twin Cities area. Grew up in a great Catholic family. Essentially, just we prayed the rosary, we did all the simple things, going to mass. I ended up attending the University of Kansas for two years. I was for school. And there I ended up encountering the Lord in a deeper way. Um ultimately coming closer to the Lord. And what ended up happening was uh due to just myself um kind of not taking care of my academics, I ended up transferring to the University of Minnesota Duluth, where I also ended up um having Father Mike Schmitz the chaplain.

SPEAKER_02 3:01

Um, name dropper.

SPEAKER_03 3:05

Well, everyone knows who he is, so I figured why not throw him out there. Um but yeah, Father Mike Schmitz uh was an incredible uh priest for me and the focus missionaries there were also super incredible. I ended up uh going on to do focus uh for five years. Um I did two years at Valparaiso University in Indiana, and then three years uh just at Bemidji State University, and recently uh just came on to the team here at the Newman Center uh about three months ago to be the development director.

SPEAKER_02 3:38

Excellent. Well, Grace, your turn. Why don't you tell the listeners a little bit about yourself?

SPEAKER_00 3:43

Yes, thank you. So my name is Grace McGedigan. I grew up southwest of Chicago and uh from a smaller town, I so I thought, until I moved to South Dakota. I grew up in Ottawa, Illinois, and I went on to college at Regis University in Denver, Colorado, which is a private Jesuit Catholic school, and I ran cross-country a couple years there, and I really encountered um the Lord um in a profound way through Eucharistic adoration uh during a focus conference when I was in college, and I grew closely with the missionaries actually at CU Boulder in Colorado School of Minds because we didn't have focus missionaries on the campus that I studied. And then um I graduated and became a focus missionary myself, and I've been at the University of South Dakota in Vermilion since then. I'm I'm serving my third year at USD. Excellent. Yes, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 4:49

All right, well that brings us to Marley. Why don't you tell the listeners a little bit about yourself?

SPEAKER_01 4:53

Yes, yeah. So I'm from Kansas City, Missouri. I'm from a town a little south of Kansas City and grew up there um in a Catholic family, but didn't really practice my faith all too much growing up. And then I went to the University of Missouri, Missoula for College, so Sam's rival college. And uh Oh yes. Yeah, there's my MIZ! Yes, um yeah, so I was able to attend the University of Missouri for four years and was actually in Greek life there. So I was in a sorority, very involved in my sorority, but that ultimately led me pretty astray from my faith until I met my focus missionary my junior year, and kind of in that time I was really wrestling with other religions and other denominations. Uh, but yeah, kind of with what Grace was saying, kind of was really missing the Eucharist, and my missionary helped bring me back to yeah, the center of the Eucharist and the truth of Jesus in the Catholic Church, and my junior year started leading Bible studies and just getting really involved in my faith life and growing myself. So I too uh decided to become a focus missionary and uh have been placed at the University of South Dakota starting my second year this year, which has been so great and so blessed to be here.

SPEAKER_02 6:15

Very nice. And uh both of you have mentioned the focus missionaries. Listeners are somewhat aware of the focus group. Um I've had focus missionaries on before, but Grace, why don't you tell the listeners a little bit more about what the focus mission stuff folks do?

SPEAKER_00 6:34

Of course, yeah. So Focus is a Catholic nonprofit, and our mission is to know Christ Jesus and to fulfill the Great Commission. And so we as missionaries, in order to know Christ Jesus, we pray every day and we go to mass and we have the honor and privilege of knowing him and um inviting the students and really everybody in our life to know him as well as we with Jesus um attempt and strive to fulfill the Great Commission, as he says in Matthew 28.

SPEAKER_02 7:12

Um so focus is on over 200 campuses in the United States and we're over 25 years old as an organization, so and you two are here, you know, kind of to talk about um the things you do. How many other focus missionaries missionaries are there on the USD campus?

SPEAKER_00 7:36

There's six of us missionaries. Six, okay, excellent. Yeah, so three of us ladies and three gentlemen that uh get to serve as a team together.

SPEAKER_02 7:43

Okay, well Marley, what do you do? You mentioned in school that you did some Bible studies and uh what kinds of focus do you have with focus?

SPEAKER_01 7:52

Yes, yeah, that's a great question. Yeah, so it's a great privilege since I was in Greek life and now able to serve the students who are in Greek life in uh at the University of South Dakota. And so yeah, kind of what that looks like is continuing to lead Bible studies. It's a great privilege and joy to say that there is a Bible study, like one minimum Bible study in every single Sortie House this year, which is yeah, so awesome. Which is just yeah, the Lord's working so much in Greek life at USD and uh also get to lead small groups for women, so small groups called discipleships, where it's just learning students learning how to live a life of discipleship of Christ. Um, and just yeah, truly get to be their friends and show them Christ and show them my life of how Christ impacted me and getting to share that story with them. So with what Grace was saying, they get to impact others and their sorties sisters and their friends and their classmates, uh just to be a light of Christ to all those around them.

SPEAKER_02 8:49

Excellent. So Marley, you're involved with the the Greek life. Yes. Uh Grace, are you involved with sports? Because you said you ran cross-country. Yes, you're onto something. Oh, I am sharp, aren't I?

SPEAKER_00 9:00

You sure are. Yeah, so similarly, I um since I was an athlete in college, I have the privilege of working with the female athletics at USD. And so we have a Bible study on just about all the female sports teams, um, which is great. It's fun and it's a gift, and I feel so blessed to have the friends that I get to have with uh yeah, with this role as missionary.

SPEAKER_02 9:29

Excellent. So, Sam, you kinda came into this development director job recently. Yes. So what what was your awareness of the focus mission missionaries?

SPEAKER_03 9:43

Yes, so it was probably about uh last year around this time, I ended up going to a focus interview weekend and talking with uh the missionaries at USD. So I was actually talking to Grace here um and kind of learning more of what is happening at their campus. I've also had friends that have served at the USD Newman Center um through Focus, and it was something that I noticed uh what was going on was they were building something from the ground up, really. Um and from hearing from Grace uh and also Rachel, another missionary at USD Newman, uh they're on the verge of like something huge that is happening. Um just this last year they had over 500 students in Bible studies, and so it's just truly incredible what is happening. Um and even like just four years ago, there was 200 students. And just think about that. The pop the student population is around 8,000 people. Um, that's close to 10%, or yeah, it's close to 10%.

SPEAKER_02 10:48

Not a math major.

SPEAKER_03 10:49

Yeah, not a math major, but doing my best. Um, but yeah, so there's just truly amazing things that are happening. Um, and it's all thanks to the focused missionaries and also the students who are also leading Bible studies. There's uh just this last year we had 42 students leading Bible studies as well. So it's not just the missionaries, it is a group effort that is just going on at the university there at the end of the year.

SPEAKER_02 11:14

And we praise God. Yeah, it's astonishing really when you think about it, you know, the level of involvement. So, Grace, you've been doing it for three years. Um what are young people saying to you about how they feel they want to be part of something like this? I mean, what's what's the void in their life they're trying to fill?

SPEAKER_00 11:35

You know, it's just the cry of the human heart that we all seek to be seen, known, and loved. And we really all have a God-shaped hole in our heart. And so it's beautiful that you know, it's it's this generation really, and especially the students we're seeing now at the university level, a lot of their formative years were during the pandemic, and there's just a lot of isolation and a lot of turning inwards that has become the norm. Um, but we're made for so much more, we're made for something so much bigger than just ourselves. And the students, I mean, we just have a great privilege privilege, Marley and myself and the missionaries, to be a witness of the light of Christ. Like our lives have been transformed by the person of Jesus Christ. And you know, we hope to say with St. Paul that really it is not we that live, but Christ who lives in us. And Jesus did no convincing, but he was just contagious. And so really, like, the Lord has won just because we missionaries are on campus, like we have the gift of being there, thanks to the bishop and um ultimately our Lord who prepared a place for us here. We just get to be there, and um the Lord is working, and these students have a desire for the person of Jesus, and so when they might they might see something or uh admire something or feel something familiar that is maybe unplaceable to name, they desire it for themselves and they find it in the person of Jesus in the Eucharist, whom we have in the chapel all the time.

SPEAKER_02 13:30

Very, very cool. And it is neat that the um the University of South Dakota does have a freestanding chapel, Newman Center. A lot of places do not have that. And that is a wonderful addition to the work you're doing. And Marley, I'm just curious because um I know um Grace works with the the stud the women athletes, but what are you hearing from the the guys that are involved with this? Because guys are a little little they're playing their cards pretty close to the chest with their faith, I think. You know, they're not quite as exuberant as we women are. So what are you hearing from your your focus missionary buddies when they talk about here's what's going on, what I am hearing from the guys that are students in the campus?

SPEAKER_01 14:20

Yeah, I think that's a great question, and something that I probably can't speak fully into, because yeah, I also work with the women, but it is just beautiful to hear my male teammates just speak into the men that they work with. And I think about that all the time where yeah, obviously I'm a woman and I'm like, wow, it probably would be hard just like journeying on your faith life, like as a man of just like, yeah, maybe not sharing your emotions quite on your sleeve like women do. And it's beautiful though to hear just like how my male teammates are just like getting to have a relationship with these uh male students and getting to just like love them and pour into them and show them who Jesus is, of ultimately that he is their savior and that he is the one um that they are seeking and searching for. Cause I think it can be yeah, just a huge temptation to put anything and everything like above the Lord and just being able to yeah, bring them to this reality of yeah, we do have a God-sized shaped hole in our heart that eternity is placed on every person's heart, and it's just like so beautiful to see these young men um yeah, really take these big bold steps and instead of like what the culture of the world is saying, to go, yeah, whatever the their idolizations are or their temptations are, instead of putting those in front of Jesus, like choosing the Lord. And I think a beautiful part of the ministry that we have within the Newman Center is the opportunity for men to serve in uh liturgy roles and liturgy positions. We have great young men who um our adoration officially just started today, so all day they are coordinating with father to be able to okay, when should we do the incense? When should we come and light the candles? Like, they just like take full charge and get to love the church and get to love the bride of the church, and um it's just like a beautiful opportunity for them to, yeah, in fellowship, get to help the church out in this way. We have Dollar Dinners, which we'll talk more about, and that is led by our head chef, who is a student at USD, and he gets to kind of like rally the troops and rally his friends to help cook and serve, um, and along with alongside the missionaries as well. So there's just lots of beautiful opportunities where men get to step up and serve in these positions, and really great to just see them transform. Um, just like seeing how Christ can transform them into the men that they're ultimately called to be, and beautiful to see yeah, my male teammates getting to speak into them and yeah, just like watch their lives transforms as men. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:55

Oh, that is a powerful testament. And I'm so glad you dropped the dollar dinner ideas. Sam, since you're the development director and this sounds like some sort of fundraiser, why don't you tell the listeners a little bit about this dollar dinner that Marley kind of alluded to?

SPEAKER_03 17:10

Yes, so every close to every Thursday at the Newman Center at 6 p.m., we have a dinner that is called the Dollar Dinner. Um it's put on by our chef, Alex, um, who is an incredible chef, puts on many unique things. Um we had brisket, I know, already in the beginning of the year. We also have had burgers. Um, this week we're having uh meatball subs, so it's just very unique things. It's not like your typical lasagna or spaghetti. It's he really um makes it very unique. Um, but more than anything, the experience of the dollar dinner for the students is super special. Father John always uh says this this is the place that the students can encounter each other and encounter the Lord within each other. Um he mentions that many students are not on their phones a lot of times. Um just this last week, he did a live production on his Facebook Live, going around asking people questions like what's a Bible verse that people need to know, or what what is um a movie that people like have to see. So he makes it a truly a unique experience where people are just simply encountering Christ within one another, and also how it is set up, it is um fun, it's energetic, it's not like a boring thing, you just you're in a cafeteria line waiting. It's there's games involved sometimes, um, but more than anything, too, the students help out and serve, um, which I think is a very unique experience. And more than anything, it brings in almost all walks of life from the university. We have medical students there, we have law students, we have the business majors, you have the theater students, all walks of life are there, and just um this last week uh we have designated our lower lounge um in the Newman Center to just the uh graduate students, and it was full, and it's very unique, I think, for the graduate students to have something like this for them. Um we recently just started kind of being more intentional with the grad students as we realized there's a lot here, and these students are gonna become professionals in the world. We want them to have a great experience at the Newman Center, but more importantly, to encounter Christ. Um, so I think more than anything, the Dollar Dinners have just been a huge success. Um, our brisket night we had at the beginning of the year, we had 370 people come for a meal.

SPEAKER_02 19:49

Well, it's brisket. Yes, I can tell you I never had brisket at the University of Monsieur. Oh my god, what are they doing? We have chicken tetrazini and turkey tetrazini. So that is that in itself is a draw.

SPEAKER_03 20:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:03

Is it is this dollar dinner new or has this been previously done?

SPEAKER_03 20:08

So this has technically been around for about 10 years or so. Okay. Um back in about 10 years ago, um, Father John had mentioned like only 20, maybe 45 students would come. And like just this last year, we're hitting close to over 100, 200 students, you guys would say we usually cook for 200 for every Thursday.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

Yeah. And far from a fundraiser, it's actually a space where any student can step foot into the Catholic Church. And so that's really the place where if students are not praying at all, don't even know the name of Jesus, together we pray before a meal. And if that's where they're encountering the Lord every week, it's like at least they know his name.

SPEAKER_02 20:49

That is powerful. Yeah, Grace, thank you for sharing that. And um, you mentioned Father John, and we should probably give a shout out to Father John.

SPEAKER_00 20:58

Yes, and uh wishes he could be here.

SPEAKER_02 21:00

Yes, wishes he could be here, but he's busy, listeners. You know, he's busy. And by the way, listeners, if you're just tuning in right now, this show is still Faith in Action. I'm your host, Joanne Fox. And if you now have the time to go and grab a piece of paper and a pen or a pencil, we are talking about this uh dollar dinner that's going to be at the country club in Sioux Falls. It is Thursday, October 15th, and um, you know, social hour 5:30, dinner at 6. Um, I love this attire for the evening is elevated casual. So that's great. And it's all part of this Living Stones campaign, which you know benefits the St. Thomas More Newman Center. It's great. Um, and we'll we'll talk about it just a tad more as we go on. But who wants to talk about Father John? And we should make sure because Father John's last name leaves me because I always call him Father John. So who wants to talk about Father John?

SPEAKER_01 21:54

Yeah, Father John Rutten. He is the chaplain at the Newman Center. This is his fifth year. Getting to be the chaplain there, and he is just so awesome. He has such a passion for students, and yeah, I can't think of a better person. Um, the Lord has and the bishop has definitely placed him right where he needs to be, just like for these students and with these students. Um he he probably doesn't want me to even share this, but he's a scooter, so something that's popular at the University of South Dakota. A lot of the athletes like to have scooters. Sure. So now he fits in with the students too. He gets to ride around his scooter. Um but he truly is so awesome. He yeah, the reason why he can't be here is because he's serving us in so many capacities and so many roles and has so many things up his sleeves just because he wants this to be a place for students to find Christ and encounter Christ. And I think something that's just yeah, so great about Father John is we were kind of talking about him before the show, but he is someone that if you are talking with him, he's completely locked in on you and in the conversation, and probably knows your family too. If you're from Sioux Falls, he probably knows exactly who you are. And uh, it's just something that's yeah, so powerful to have. Um, because before he was at the Newman Center, he was in other parishes, whether it was in Yankton or Sioux Falls. Um, he has a brother that's a priest as well, and so it's also just a beautiful encounter because he knows a lot of families and so knows a lot of students as well, which is great to like make them feel welcome and loved and seen. Um so yeah, kind of his role at the Newman Center is to be a priest, to be a chaplain, but also to he calls us his flock and he calls all the students his flock, and he's like, Yeah, it's my role to love you guys and steward you guys towards Christ. And he has great relationships with yeah, all of his students and all of those missionaries, and is yeah, always inclusive in trying to yeah, find the person who you would not think would set foot in the Newman Center and goes to that person and invites them in. So he's great. We're very blessed to have him. Very blessed.

SPEAKER_02 23:53

Sam, does he have other assignments beside the Newman Center?

SPEAKER_03 23:58

I'm trying to remember. No, no, okay, as the great gift to just be the chaplain for the Newman Center, which is a great blessing because if yeah, you're a chaplain at a Newman Center, there is a lot that is happening. Um, some Newman Centers have too, like UNL, I know, has two chaplains. Um, as we probably a lot of people know, the Newman Center there is ginormous, and there is a lot happening in the ministry. Um, but we honestly are on the way there as well. There's a lot of amazing things that are happening.

SPEAKER_02 24:29

And Marley was so articulate in you know, kind of listening all of his attributes. You work with him though. I mean, uh he's kind of your boss, sort of kind of. He is my boss. What do you think he brings to the table?

SPEAKER_03 24:42

Yeah, when I first talked with him, uh I could tell this man was a man that was driven by the Holy Spirit. He is guided solely by the Holy Spirit in a lot of what he does, but more than anything, too, he has a vision of where he wants to go, and it is such a gift and a privilege to work for him. For me, I I I would say I've never worked for a boss um as good as he has been to me. Um he's been a mentor to me, especially learning development, um, as this is my first role as a development um person. So it's been a unique experience as he umself uh over the last four years being as a chaplain there, has fundraised and put into the Newman Center upgrades um to the facilities, other things, about two million dollars um just by himself. And so he has just done an incredible job um doing that, but more than importantly, he is just an incredible spiritual father, even to myself. Um yeah, he's high praise. Yes, he ultimately just cares more about the person um than the job, even sometimes, which is a great gift to have.

SPEAKER_02 25:57

Truly, and we love him here at Siouxland Catholic Radio because he comes down and does our pledge drives and he comes in, he's always so full of energy and enthusiasm.

SPEAKER_00 26:05

It's just really father down, really infectious, you know.

SPEAKER_02 26:08

So then people call and and and support our efforts here too. So I want to backtrack just a tad on the focused missionaries, and so um Grace, when you shared with your family, uh this is what I think I'm going to do after I attained my degree. And we know sometimes our families don't always run out in the parking lot and do the dance of joy when we tell them this is what we're gonna do, because it is a little unusual. So maybe explain to the listeners what was the reaction of your loved ones and your friends when you said, I'm gonna be a focus missionary. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 26:45

Yes. Um I feel so honored and privileged that my family so graciously received me and my desires. They encouraged me and they are, they have always been so supportive. And you know, we as focused missionaries, we have the honor really of fundraising our salary and inviting people on mission with us. Um I love to share that I get to give by going on mission, and I get to invite many mission partners to go by giving. And so um, we as missionaries have really an army of prayerful and financial mission partners supporting us so that you know we can live away from Kansas City like Marley does, and I can live away from Chicago to be out here in South Dakota on mission uh with and for Jesus Christ. Um, not everybody is so privileged as myself to receive such great support from their family, but my family supports me so well through and through.

SPEAKER_02 27:54

Yay, I'm I'm tickled to hear that. Marley, would you say that was your experience as well?

SPEAKER_01 27:59

Yeah, I would definitely say I have such a great support team and troop that rallied behind me. I remember when I first it's so funny, I was just thinking about this the other day. When I first told my mom I was bawling to her, she kind of was like, What are you about to tell me? She's like, wait, Marley, I think this is such a great opportunity. And they were definitely like kind of taken aback of like, oh, you have to fundraise your salary. What does that look like? What does that mean? And I think Grace did such a great job of explaining how much of a privilege it actually is. And yesterday I was able to call and text and write thank yous to a lot of my mission partners because truly, like, we could not be here without them and without their prayers and without their support. And it truly is a gift that they get to reap the eternal fruits from this miss mission because they are on our support team with us. We call them mission partners for a reason because they're partnering on this mission, and I think it was a gift. My family was definitely kind of like, Oh, okay, great. Kind of we'll roll with the punches, and um, but they were just very supportive of me and asked a lot of great questions, which I was very thankful for. I have three younger siblings, and they kind of were like, Are you just giving up your degree in education to do this? I was like, No, like wait, wait, stop not. Yes, it's like, okay, this is gonna yeah, do this because ultimately this is what's growing in um my faith right now and preparing me for my vocation. And um, and then later on, if that's where the Lord calls me to go to use my degree in education, but it's now just such an honor because focus has truly transformed my family's life. Kind of how I was explaining before. We weren't the most devout Catholics growing up, and sports probably came first before we had attend Sunday Mass. And now it's just been such a beautiful honor and a beautiful gift to see my family kind of refall in love with the Catholic Church again and see how they're faithfully attending Mass on Sunday and the sacraments and uh praying the rosaries and asking me deep questions and wanting to share it with their friends and um and their teammates and whoever it is. And so it's been such a joy to yeah, just see how focus has impacted my family so much and so deeply. So it's been such a gift. They definitely were confused at the beginning, but it's amazing, and now they love it and they can't see me doing anything else right now.

SPEAKER_00 30:12

So it's it's true. The fruit from the mission at the University of South Dakota's Newtman Center spreads globally. The fruit in my own family who lives across the map, the fruit in my mission partners that are also across the map. There is so much grace from our Lord, from the grace that's happening at USD.

SPEAKER_02 30:34

Wow, yeah, that's that's powerful and a great pun. The grace that's coming from day job. Don't go off into something else comedy or something. You know, uh Sam, as you sit here and you listen to these two young women talk about this, um one it's it's great, you know, that they're on fire for their faith. Fabulous. But you and I know, because we've lived maybe a bit longer than them, is it it takes money. Um the Newman Center uh does not have a congregation like a regular church does, in which people maybe tithe or you know, throw money in the basket. This is a congregation of young broke college students who just hope they can everybody can put in a buck so we can get a Domino's pizza. That's the way it was when I was in school. So, fundraising. Um, maybe you could talk a little bit about this. How how do we encourage outsiders to be supportive? What kind of goes into that marketing is you know, you need to support what we're doing here just based on the testimony of these two young women.

SPEAKER_03 31:46

Absolutely, yeah. So, yeah, from a fundraising standpoint, something that um was shared to me that was incredibly helpful to understand why do we tithe, why why even fundraise in the first place? Um essentially, everything that is given to us is the Lord's. And the Lord has just asked us give the first the first 10% essentially, um, the Bible says. And we hear that all the time about oh, I gotta tithe my 10%, I gotta tithe my 10%. And reality is though, for me, what I've experienced is actually give to it kind of hurts. Give to where a point where it's actually not comfortable in a way. Um for myself, um, I experienced this actually through my parents. My parents shared a story um with me about their time of their life where they weren't in the necessarily the best financial place to give uh to a campaign. They were asked to give a certain amount, and they were like, I don't know if that's what we can do. And they prayed about it, and they thought about it, and they both came back with a bigger number than what uh was asked of them actually. And so they thought about it and prayed about it again, or just like, is this actually the Lord telling us this? And they ultimately trusted that the uh the Lord in this, and at the time my dad was interviewing for a job, and I may butcher this story, um, but my dad essentially was interviewing for a job at a higher paying um job, and then there was a lower paying job. So you have two options. Um, the first option, the higher paying job, was not um they didn't hire him, didn't work out, but the lower paying job hired him, and he ended up moving up positions within there within like six months, about three positions, I think. So he ended up getting a pay raise, was getting paid more than what he would have in the other job. Plus, the other job, um, that company actually went out of business. So he trusted the Lord, and in all this, um, as he was interviewing and going through this, that was when they were deciding about do we want to support um this campaign. And so, from that perspective, and what I've learned from my parents is give till it hurts, give to the point where it like give give it something that you care about too, especially. And I think, especially here at the Newman Center at USD, there is something incredible happening. Um Father desires to know all the students by name, and just this last year, we were able to gather um with a spreadsheet a list of 700 names, um, a combination of all staff members, missionaries, um, and Father John knowing who all these students are. Whether they come to Dollar Dinner, whether they come to Bible studies, Sunday Mass, whatever it is, we want to know who everyone is. And so from a fundraising standpoint, we need the support of everyone. Um we need the support of people from all over, um, but especially people who are touched by the university. Um, I know that there is a huge rivalry here in South Dakota, SCSU versus USD, go YOTS. And his father says, Go Jesus. Go YOTS, go Jesus. Yes. Um, but in light of all this, um, there has been a funding problem for the last 60 years at the Newman Center, and so what has happened every single time a new priest comes to the campus, they're like, okay, I just need to do what I can to survive. And so Father John loves to share this, but a priest came and was there, and as soon as he left, he felt defeated. And part of that is because he was trying to do a lot on his own. Whether the Focus Missionaries, I believe, showed up around 2017 or so, and that was when the Focus Missionaries started to do a lot of the ministry work, but they were also doing a lot of cleanup at the Newman Center, and also doing things that staff members were doing. And what Father John has created now at the Newman Center is we have eight staff staff members, five full-time staff members, so some part-time, and we have six full-time missionaries. So there's a lot of amazing things happening. However, with all that, um, there has been that funding problem. And so, what Father has done actually recently, he has uh found 40 families to commit for five years um $5,000, which has helps solve briefly a son a funding problem for us to pay for the staff and for the missionaries. Um, it's been a great success, it's amazing, but that's just only a temporary thing. So, what we're hoping to do, um, this is the little teaser, I guess, into uh the dollar dinner in Sioux Falls is we are hoping to solve that problem more than anything. And I don't want to get too into too much into the details um as don't want to give everything away. But essentially, there's an exciting announcement regarding the solving that funding problem um up in Sioux Falls on October 15th.

SPEAKER_02 37:33

So oh boy, that was a great teaser, Sam. Great teaser.

SPEAKER_00 37:37

You want to come? Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 37:40

Well, I think it's just an incredible idea, and what a testament to the great things that are going on at a a public university, and the the level of commitment and the investment of the students, and these very clever and unique ways to build up the whole body of Christ. And and that's what you all are doing, is is that and I think it's wonderful. So I just want to remind the listeners again this show is faith in action, and now by now you should have had enough time to get a piece of paper and a pen or a pencil because we have been talking about this wonderful opportunity. It is um the uh coyote or is it coyote? Coyote coyote, thank you. Mizzou razzourah. Catholic Dollar Dinner, Thursday, October 15th, um, cocktails or what I would call social hour, 5 30, and then dinner follows at 6. It is uh in Sioux Falls, and again, I've got that here someplace with me. Um let's see, let's see, let's see. The country club of Sioux Falls. But you know what, listeners, you all you gotta do is go to the website usdnewman.org. All the information is on there, and you can see you know the opportunities and how you can support the Newman Center. Um but again, Thursday, October 15th at the Country Club of Sioux Falls, it is the dollar dinner. It is all part of the Living Stones campaign, which I wanted to make mention of that, which of course is scripture driven, like Living Stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house. 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 5, just saying. Um and again, everything's on the website. I think the Newman Center in Sioux Falls in at the University of South Dakota, which is in Vermilion, even though this event is in Sioux Falls, it is in Vermilion. And again, all you got to do to the website, there's gonna be USD students there, the focus missionaries are gonna be there, Sam is gonna be there, Father John is gonna be there, and as Sam inferred, a once-in-a-lifetime Newman Center announcement. So it's a nice little drive to go up there, weather should be okay, knock on wood. And so thank you so much, the three of you, for coming in today. My guests, Sam Carlson, Grace McKedigan, and Marley Van Bever. Thank you for coming into the studio and sharing your um your faith, and it's very infectious. It's kind of rubbing off on me. And listeners, I wish we had a camera in here. You could see how all of us are smiling, grinning from ear to ear. So thank you all so very much for coming into Sioux City and and joining me for this edition of the show. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. This is so awesome, Dan. So, listeners, that uh wraps up another edition of Faith in Action. I want to remind you that we have some of the best programming on Siouxland Catholic Radio, international, national, local, every day. The Divine Mercy Chaplet at 3 p.m., introduced by Father uh Bishop John Keener, Modern Day Mass is broadcast every Sunday at 9 a.m. Life Plan with Deacon Bard, Sunday at 8 p.m., Catholic Ministry Professionals with John and Ty, Tuesdays at 4 p.m., Father Knows Best with Father Marcus Doll, Wednesdays at 9 p.m. If you tuned in late or you'd like to listen to other parts of this show or any of the shows I mentioned, all you gotta do is go to our website, SoulandcatholicRadio.com, click on the program you want to listen to, kick back, relax, and listen to the program. I want to remind you that we are Faith in Action is also on Spotify and a number of other podcasting platforms. That's all due to the generosity of Mary's Choice, a Suicidi Pregnancy Resource Center, which is the exclusive underwriter for this show. So, on behalf of myself, I'm the host, Joanne Fox, and my executive producer Ann Reid, I want to remind you a faithful reaction is good, but faith in action is so much better. Thanks for listening and God bless.