Hiya! My name is Bella and I’m a full-time missionary with Damascus!

Growing up in the greater Cleveland area, I was immersed in the vibrant community of my home parish’s youth group: St. Mary’s Life Teen located in Hudson, OH. 

Despite being born and raised Catholic, it didn’t really mean much until I stepped foot in the old church basement and was blinded by the overpoweringly fluorescent lights. It was there that I had my first true encounter with the person of Jesus Christ, and I never looked back. Over the course of the next four years my best friends and I became the largest and most active group of teens our parish had ever seen. We were at every Life Night, every bible study, every retreat, and attended every out-of-state trip that St. Mary’s took. In a world of chaos and suffering, the church has been my source of steadiness and strength. Very few people can say that throughout their entire high school career they knew exactly what the rest of their lives would look like, but I knew on that first Life Night in September of 2016 that my mission was youth ministry. And that I would spend all of my days on Earth glorifying my Heavenly Father. 

The summer after I had graduated high school (2020), my youth minister had secured a few spots at CYSC and as this was the only thing still open at the time, I jumped at the opportunity to be a kid one last time before the world forced me to join adulthood. It’s no exaggeration to say that this was, at the time, the greatest six-ish days of my life. In my youth group I had encountered Jesus many times, but at Damascus I came face-to-face with Him. It was an encounter with love that I could not remain unchanged from. 

And now, I’m a missionary. I am His hands and His feet as He uses me to gather His once lost sheep. I am a vessel of which He uses to facilitate a radical encounter - a radical LOVE that we cannot remain unchanged from!

What a life.