Heidi Stec

Your Kingdom Come!

It’s really funny that I’m a Co-worker. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always had a desire to be a missionary; I just had something more along the lines of “missionary doctor in Africa” in mind. But God has His way, and here I am in St. Louis, Missouri, far from the huts of Africa, becoming more and more aware of God’s fidelity with each passing day.

I began my journey to be a Co-worker at the end of my senior year in high school, when two friends decided to give a year. I knew very little about what they were doing, but my curiosity was sparked when I heard of their destinations: Washington, DC and Ireland. I heard bits and pieces about them over the course of their two Co-worker years, but went my own way. I attended college at Franciscan University of Steubenville, where my faith really began to become my own, and graduated with four years of memories and many good friends who were also a very solid support to me in my faith.

A year after graduating from Steubenville, and only about a week after I had returned from a four-month trip to Ireland to work and sightsee, I received a phone call from Monterrey, Mexico. Well, hello there! It was a young woman whom I had not spoken with since my sophomore year in high school, who was now consecrated in Regnum Christi, asking if I would be interested in teaching English in Mexico. At the time I had been looking for missionary work in Central or South America, and saw Mexico as a great opportunity to fulfill my desire for missions, learning a foreign language, and traveling. I spent a year teaching high school English at CECVAC, a school run by the Legionaries of Christ in Monterrey, with a degree in biology and very little knowledge of the Spanish language or Mexican culture before I arrived.

At this point in my life, when many of my friends were working in the States, getting married, and starting their families, all the while asking me when I was going to settle down and get a permanent address, I took a step back and looked at my life. Obviously, I needed focus. And again, six years after the first time I had heard of it, being a Co-worker was presented to me. A year of my life? I couldn’t possibly! I have so many other things that I could do…but they would have to wait. I couldn’t pass up this opportunity to put Christ at the center of my life.

I have been in St. Louis for only eight short months, but they have been packed months, as anyone who has worked for the extension of Christ’s Kingdom can attest to. Even though St. Louis is far from the mission fields of Africa, our God is a very wise God, because I know that it’s exactly the missionary experience that I need. Keep this “missionary” in your prayers!

Heidi Stec, Co-worker, St. Louis