JOURNEY HOME

Deacon Lester Loh came from a Presbyterian family, but by early childhood was already completely tuned out of anything related to faith. Over the years, a couple of his siblings became Catholic, which caught his attention, but he didn’t take it too seriously. He ended up dating ad eventually marrying a Catholic, observing her faith from afar until eventually he began to feel convicted to take the extra step to see what God would do if he opened the door to his heart. He ended up going through RCIA together with his wife’s mom, who also had been on the fringes of Catholicism for years. He joyfully entered the Church, and a few years later, discerned a vocation to the diaconate.

Reza Akhtar was raised Muslim in Canada, but was not particularly observant. At a private elementary school, he became exposed to basic Protestant Christianity, but it was in college that he began to explore it more deeply. He married a Catholic, but wasn’t quite ready to make the full leap into the Church, so he spent a few years in an Anglican congregation, before he felt God calling him home to a full sacramental life as a Catholic.

Taylor Kemp was baptized Catholic, but early in his life, soccer effectively became his religion, taking up not only all his time on Sundays, as well as all his attention and affection. The more success he found, the more inadequate he felt, realizing that he had made himself and his soccer skills the measure of everything. By the time he had become a professional player in the MLS with DC United, he had developed a spiritual hunger that eventually began to be fulfilled when he met his future wife, a Catholic who encouraged him to take a look at the Church he’d left as a kid. Taylor went through RCIA and was confirmed, and is now on fire for his faith, working to to develop faith formation programs with the Augustine Institute.

As the son of a pastor, Luke Nelson grew up surrounded by people of deep faith. Following his own call to ministry, he attended Bible college and served for 25 years in the Wesleyan Church. There were several issues that began to trouble him, but among them was the question of the Lord’s Supper. In his Wesleyan/Methodist tradition, it was considered important, but he couldn’t articulate all the aspects of why that should be the case. Digging deeper into the history and tradition of Holy Communion compelled him to take seriously the case that the Catholic Church made for the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.

Dino Remedios grew up nominally Catholic, absorbing much of what he knew about the faith from the Filipino culture he came from. In his teenage years, he began to drift more into relativistic lines of thought, becoming a practical agnostic. Over time, however, he found that the answers offered by materialism were dissatisfying, and through a discovery process that involved philosophy, beauty, and even a Marian conversion, Dino found his way back to the Catholic Church.

Joe Ward was adopted from foster care in New York, and attended a number of different churches growing up, including Presbyterian, Methodist and Mennonite congregations. In his college years, he became extremely interested in Calvinist theology, and explored it deeply while also doing work with InterVarsity Fellowship. After graduating, Joe went on to teach music, and became part of the worship team at an Evangelical Free church. When the leadership team there encouraged him to take membership classes, it got him thinking about differences between denominations and what it meant to fully declare membership in one. His study of that question led him to begin exploring Catholicism, but when that became public, he was asked to stop being on the worship team. That forced Joe to reckon more seriously with the question of Christian authority, eventually leading him to the conviction that he needed to become Catholic.

Seth and Julianne met each other in small town Ohio, and even though Seth was raised Catholic, that took a bit of a back seat as he focused all his attention on using his skills as a kicker to try and break into the NFL. They eventually ended up in a Presbyterian congregation together, but they began to struggle with the question of how they should approach receiving communion in the various churches they visited. At one point, there was conflict in the Presbyterian church they were part of on major moral questions, and it got them back to the core question of authority. After years of wrestling and discerning together, they became convicted that they both needed to come home to the Catholic Church.

Megan Thomas grew up heavily involved in her Baptist world, steeped in Scripture, prayer, mission trips, and more. However, she still felt like something was missing in the way she understood Christianity. As she grew older and she began to take greater ownership of her faith, Megan realized that a lot of the arguments she was using to defend her faith had their greatest roots in the Catholic intellectual tradition. That revolutionized her Christian worldview, and helped her complete the incomplete picture of Christianity she’d been struggling with for years.

Dr. Kent Hill has had a front-row seat to some of the most important ecumenical moments in American Christianity over the last several decades. Along with his roles in international development, Kent also served as president of Eastern Nazarene College, and was an original signer of the 1994 document "Evangelicals and Catholics Together." He shares the story of the relationships, prayer, and reflections that eventually led him home to the Catholic Faith.

In Eduardo Faria’s experience as a Presbyterian pastor in Brazil, he was deeply in love with his faith and passionate about teaching it. But when some significant questions about the nature of the early Church and Christian authority led him to explore Catholicism, it also raised many questions about what this might mean for his ministry, his family, and where God might be calling him now after years of Protestant ministry.

Fr. Jerry Byrd was raised Baptist, and had a strong interest in music. When a high school friend announced they were becoming Catholic, he decided to go to Mass to see what it was all about. Having played music in his Baptist church, he was drawn immediately to the beauty of the liturgy, and the truth of the Eucharist. He decided to enter the Church, and ended up discerning a vocation to the priesthood.

Everett Franklin was a US Army chaplain for twenty years, serving on behalf of the Church of God (Cleveland, TN). His family had been in that particular Pentecostal denomination for four generations, so it was surprising to him that over time, his desire to grow deeper in his Christian faith kept leading him more and more toward discovering the Real Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, and a home in the Catholic Church.

A strong Christian who served as a pastor in the Church of the Nazarene and nondenominational settings, Chuck Gaidica was also a successful TV anchor who began to understand the truth and beauty of Catholicism, and eventually, through questions about the nature of ministry, and the influence of fellow Catholic journalists, felt called home to the Catholic Church.

Elvis Gutierrez was raised Catholic, but as a young man, was living a reckless lifestyle. When the 9/11 attacks happened, he was serving as an EMT in New York City, and those events marked a major turning point in his life. He began over time to connect with strong spiritual mentors, who helped him heal from some of the hidden wounds he'd been carrying, and find peace in Jesus Christ and His Church.

Jeremy Rivera was raised Catholic, but left the faith at 18. In college, he was at a low point when he was invited to an Evangelical church; he ended up plugging into a Bible study, and began to experience a major turnaround in his life. Jeremy went on to attend seminary, and eventually pastored in Hawaii, California, and Denver. However, he began to be troubled at all the different expressions of Christianity he saw around him, and knew there had to be a true, authoritative version of Christianity. His desire to seek that out led him back to the Catholic Church.