Jess Smith

“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

-Frederick Buechner

My name’s Jess, and I love drawing, making artsy things, singing at the top of my lungs in the car, writing notes and letters to people, and, most of all, serving others. I currently teach 27 wonderful 4th graders at a Catholic school in Wichita, Kansas. This is my 3rd year teaching, and I love my kiddos and what I do with all my heart. I love teaching them about the Lord and journeying with them in their faith and their relationship with God. This year I also began pursuing my master’s in Theology, and since I have never studied religion or Theology before, I am absolutely loving this incredible opportunity!

While I was raised Catholic, I didn’t discover the unconditional love that God has for me until I was in college. It was then that I realized that He desires a relationship with me, and it as also then that I fell in love with Him.

After discovering Christ’s love for me, I quickly realized the gift He had given me for serving others. When I was in college, I searched for something to do over the summer involving my faith, and this led me to missions. I went on my first week-long mission trip to Haiti in college, and I instantly fell in love with the people and the country. Since then, I have returned numerous times, including serving two summers in Haiti.

It’s hard to find the words to describe my love for Haiti and the incredible people whom I’ve formed relationships with there. These people are some of the most faithful and most generous people I have ever met. Over the past few years, I have felt a call to serve the Lord in foreign mission, and to bring the love of Jesus to His people. I think one of the greatest hungers of the world is that people desire love (or Love with a capital “L”). In Haiti I feel fully alive in proclaiming the love of Christ, living with and serving the poor, worshiping the Lord with them, and journeying with them as they discover their dignity and worth in Christ. As they discover that they are called to love and be loved.

“But how can they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach? And how can people preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news!’” Romans 10:14-15