FORT THOMAS MATTERS: Here's What Patrick Towles is up to now

Thursday, May 10, 2018

Here's What Patrick Towles is up to now

By Patrick Towles

My spring semester has been wild…in a good way. I recently ended my pursuit of the NFL, decided to quit my job and will soon become a missionary with FOCUS. In all this chaos, I am thrilled to help FOCUS reach college students and student-athletes in particular through their division known as Varsity Catholic.

My path to accepting this job was all but ordinary. It included lots of ups, lots of downs, low amounts of clarity, and a whole lot of trust. Although I don’t think anyone who decides to quit their job, leave their home, or shelf the expectations that they had for their life to be all the way sane either. That being said, there were specific moments in my life that led me here. Some were substantial, some were very minor, but all were vital. In total, six major factors led me to say yes: one thing, two places, and three people.

ONE THING

When I was a sophomore at The University of Kentucky, I attended Mass maybe twice a month and kept my distance from the Confessional. Being a Catholic was something I did and called myself, but it was not who I truly was. Thankfully a friend invited me to go to SEEK, a bi-annual conference put on by FOCUS. At SEEK that year we had an opportunity to experience Adoration. It was that Thursday night, reduced to tears, that I truly surrendered my life to Jesus. It was so freeing to be showered in His mercy and grace. I went to Reconciliation that night for the first time in 6 years, and was forgiven. I knew that it was the start of something. I had little idea as to the craziness of the impending adventure.

TWO PLACES

Upon my return from SEEK, I started a Bible study with my team, I began going to Mass as often as I could, and heavily utilized Confession, what a great gift that Sacrament is! That May I attended a mission trip in St. Lucia with Varsity Catholic. For a week we ministered to local youths thru sport. Spreading the Gospel became one of my favorite things to do. I remember talking with a member of our FOCUS team when I returned. “Maybe when I get done playing football, I’ll leave everything behind and go be a missionary somewhere.” It seemed like quite a big reach at the time.