Trent B.

Hello, I’m Trent, and I took faith studies with CCO during my time studying at the University of Winnipeg. I converted to the Catholic faith from an atheist background during my studies and was baptized into the Church in August of 2020 during the pandemic years. My faith journey was deeply tied to my relationship with CCO and its missionaries who accompanied me through that odyssey. I studied education, and previously worked as a teacher, before embarking on a new career last year as a full-time campaign strategist in politics.

My conversion was marked by an extreme reticence to engage with community early on as I was petrified of letting people down if I could not, in the end, believe. But, God was not letting me get away that easily and as I tried to hide from the faith over that first summer of 2019 I found myself inexplicably drawn to my hometown’s little church. I made a quiet agreement then with a God I still was not sure existed, I would try for a month living as though it was all true and see if it changed me. Parishioners there could probably tell you that for much of my first month I arrived as Mass began and bolted out as soon as it was over, but eventually I found the courage to stay to talk to the lovely community of Catholics there who so warmly greeted me with the sign of Christ’s peace every Sunday. I met with the parish priest and he spontaneously started up an RCIA class just for me, with a few kind parishioners joining to keep me company and help me integrate into the wider parish community. When I returned to University that fall and sought out the CCO missionaries I had met that summer, I was a changed (and changing) man. I encountered the powerful love of God one chilly Thursday morning in that little church in Stonewall, and I have never again doubted that God exists since that day.

Why do I want to be on Mission?

The “yes” of the missionaries who chose to serve at the University of Winnipeg changed my entire life. Without their boldness and the example of infectious kindness they set I would still be trapped in the bitter nihilism that characterized my atheism. Their willingness to let go and let God unleashed cascading conversions in Winnipeg before and after me. I want to follow in their footsteps in my own small way and share the love of God with anyone I can.