[00:00:00] Jim Jansen: Hey, everybody. Welcome to the EquipCast. So today I sit down with Mark Bartek. Mark and I have been friends for many years, both Mark and I served as missionaries, and we talk about the secret sauce of being a missionary, trying to, to really embrace, uh, the method of Jesus for evangelization. Sometimes it's called the little way of evangelization, just the patient investment of, uh, your life into one individual.

Individual in front of you and helping that person grow and mature and, uh, become missionary in their, in their own way, in their own time. It's a really fun conversation. Cause we get a chance to talk about our friend, servant of God, Michelle Duppong. Who lived this out in exemplary fashion, uh, if you are at all interested in evangelization or in Uh the story of Servant of God Michelle Duppong you're going to love today's conversation. Take a listen Everybody. 

Welcome to the EquipCast, a weekly podcast for the archdiocese of Omaha. I'm your host. Jim. Jansen Now let's dive into some encouragement and inspiration to equip you to live your faith and to be fruitful in your mission. Let's go.

Mark Bartek, old friend, welcome to the equip cast. How are you? 

[00:01:21] Mark Bartek: Jim, I'm great. It's awesome to be here. I'm super excited about this. 

[00:01:25] Jim Jansen: You know, it just dawned, I didn't do the math. How long have we known each other? 

[00:01:28] Mark Bartek: I think it's 23 years. 

[00:01:30] Jim Jansen: 1999. 

[00:01:31] Mark Bartek: Were you at Lincoln in 99? 

[00:01:32] Jim Jansen: 99. Yeah. 

[00:01:34] Mark Bartek: Okay. 

[00:01:34] Jim Jansen: 23 years. 

[00:01:35] Mark Bartek: Yeah. I think I met you in maybe like March or April of 99.

[00:01:41] Jim Jansen: Yeah. 

[00:01:41] Mark Bartek: It might have been later that year. I don't know. Yeah. It was quite a while. Over 20 years. 

[00:01:45] Jim Jansen: Yeah. And I could say that you haven't changed at all, but that wouldn't be true. 

[00:01:51] Mark Bartek: Thanks be to God. I mean. 

[00:01:53] Jim Jansen: Okay. 

[00:01:53] Mark Bartek: My early years. I think there's a good reason why they're fuzzy in my mind. I was still reeling from my pre conversion days.

[00:02:02] Jim Jansen: For sure. That's a great transition, Mark. Let's, let's let everybody a little, a little bit in on Like, what's your story? Who, who are you, Mark Bartek? 

[00:02:11] Mark Bartek: Who I am now is a beloved son of the Father. Who I was raised as was raised to be a beloved son of the Father. Who I believed myself to be in the midst of that time was something entirely different.

It was much more like Belushi from Animal House. I think that was the aspirations that I had as I was coming up. I had a, uh, great Catholic upbringing. but a very closed disposition. I don't think that I really learned hardly anything about Catholicism or about faith, even though my family and my parents are wonderful.

We prayed, they prayed holy hours. We never missed mass, but I, I think I actively sought to not learn who God was and that I had a plan and a purpose and for whatever reasons, I was just very, very closed. And when I got to college, the mottos of my life were, and. My parents, God bless them, I can't believe they still love me after this, was leaving college after four years is like leaving a great party at 10 o'clock.

Who does that? Not me. And it's only wrong if you get caught. And that was my moral standard. And, uh, I never got caught and I didn't really do very much that was good in my life. So lived a very wayward life. Still, my brother would drag me to mass at the University of Nebraska, uh, my junior year in college, I started dating a beautiful young woman who was not Catholic and didn't understand the Catholic Church and really attacked my Catholic heritage.

And that's all it was. It was a heritage. I'm also a Czech, Czechoslovakian, but that doesn't mean that much to me. And so, it was kind of similar with my faith. One evening we're having an argument about heaven knows what I didn't like losing arguments And so I would fight doing poor apologetics making up answers to what the church taught and why?

[00:04:08] Jim Jansen: Which we're not endorsing by the way, we're not in. No, that's a story. 

[00:04:12] Mark Bartek: Let's just say there were no conversions One evening she and I are having an argument about I don't even remember what it was. Such a strong evangelical. And she just said, Mark, I know your problem is you don't know Jesus. And I said, well, how would you know someone who's been dead for 2000 years?

And she said, “Mark, he is not dead. He died for your sins, and he rose from the dead in order to give you new life. And he would like to have a relationship with you. And if you want right now, you can invite him into your life, and he will be with you.” And that's it. Not being well versed in the Catholic Church, there was one thing that I remembered and it was we don't believe in a golden ticket and I know that's what she wants me to do is to get saved and I didn't know what to do with that because what she'd offered to me was very enticing and I wanted, I wanted it.

Life wasn't really working. And so, as I'm sitting there, And I guess I was praying. I didn't know I was praying at the time wrestling with this. Like I really, I'm intrigued. I want what she's offering. And I don't know if I can have it because I think I'm not supposed to believe in that, or I don't believe that works.

[00:05:25] Jim Jansen: Yeah. 

[00:05:26] Mark Bartek: I just heard the Lord speak to my heart. Mark, I know you're a screw up, I know you're not done sinning, I know that you will continue to run from me, but if you invite me into your life, I will never abandon you, I will never forsake you, I will never stop pursuing you, no matter how far you go. And I was like, oh, the length that Jesus will go to save my soul, maybe that's what it means to be saved, is for him to do all the work and for me to just accept that he's going to do that.

And I remember sitting there and wanting it and kind of crying, like weeping, ugly tears, kind of being confronted with my sinfulness. And she said, if you want, Mark, I can pray this sinner's prayer with you. And she handed me a card that had it on it. And I said, no, absolutely not. And she's like, why don't you want this?

I said, yes, I want this. But if I. Pray this prayer. I know it will be the last thing that I ever do by myself, that Jesus will always be with me. Good, bad and ugly. He's going to be with me. And so, I want to do this by myself. And so, I fought my way through the sinner's prayer. And at the end of that moment, I had, uh, somewhat Hindsight, I think it was a mystical experience.

I was kind of mentally transported back to third grade when our Catholic school would go in Lent on Fridays at 3 p. m. We'd go down and we'd go into adoration and we do the station of the cross and I remember the room filled with incense and I smelled it and it was the same incense that I remember smelling.
In third grade, uh, at adoration. Now it was the dorms. So, who knows? I could have been a whole bunch of different things.

[00:07:08] Jim Jansen: Yeah, but that's not the, I mean, there are lots of smells in dorms. And sometimes incense, but usually not the same incense. Yeah. Wow. 

[00:07:16] Mark Bartek: From that moment, I experienced, I think, hindsight in 2020, the universal call to holiness.

I believed I was immediately called to be a saint, even though with this girl, I walked far away from the Catholic church, believe the church was wrong, but I started reading the scriptures. I fell in love with Jesus in the midst of that about a year later. Maybe a year and a half, I ended up going to the Newman Center to the associate pastor there at the University of Nebraska and saying, father, I have questions because I tried to leave the Catholic church.

And that meant telling my parents and my dad said, why don't you just study? Do you really know what the church teaches? I was like, no, probably not. Why don't you just study the church for two months? And if you study it hard and you give it kind of the best you can, and you're still convinced you're supposed to leave the church, then that's fine. What am I gonna do? 

[00:08:08] Jim Jansen: Oh, that's such a good answer. Did he know that, that, like, once you got in, it wasn't gonna, you weren't gonna leave. 

[00:08:15] Mark Bartek: He doesn't remember the conversation at all. 

[00:08:18] Jim Jansen: Oh, that's so good. 

[00:08:18] Mark Bartek: I think it was totally the Holy Spirit. So, I was like, I don't know how to learn about the cafeteria. I mean, the internet was like a barely new thing. I didn't know where to learn. For all the millennials listening... 

[00:08:31] Jim Jansen: Yeah. 

[00:08:32] Mark Bartek: It was the... 

[00:08:33] Jim Jansen: First... Early days of the interweb. 

[00:08:35] Mark Bartek: Yeah, it was wild. So I went and I was like, father, I got questions and I fully thought I was going to bring him out of the church with me and I was so brilliant and within 30 minutes I walked away convinced that the Catholic church was the one true church and I absolutely need to be part of it.

One of the questions I had was, why don't Catholics study the Bible? And he said, have you heard of FOCUS? And I said, what's that? He said, there's four missionaries on campus and all they do is lead Bible studies with college students. I was like, 

[00:09:02] Jim Jansen: Oh, that's not true. We played basketball as well. 

[00:09:05] Mark Bartek: Oh, yeah. That's what he said. It was the early days. People didn't really know. And he introduced me to you. A handful of students and then I met Jim Jansen at the University of Nebraska there. Jim walked with me and taught me about spiritual multiplication. He taught me how to share the gospel. He taught me how to pray.

He taught me how, like many things that I still do to this day. Jim brought me along in all that. That was the early days. Fast forward, I went to the seminary. 

[00:09:33] Jim Jansen: You are now a father. College to how old's the youngest now? 

[00:09:38] Mark Bartek: Three. So, three to eighteen. 

[00:09:40] Jim Jansen: Yeah, boom. Same here. Well, yeah, I've got a senior in college and a kindergartner.

So. Yeah. That's awesome. Adventure. Mark, thank you for that. Cause I was blessed. I mean, I, I knew your back story, but you know, I didn't meet you until you were already. on fire for the Lord. And so, it was super fun for me as a, as a missionary, you always came hungry. You always had a ton of, ton of questions and eager to learn.

And, you know, I was thinking back, but, you know, knowing we were going to talk today, I think what was, What was most striking for me as I look back is you like drank deeply from like everybody like, you know, so you were spending lots of time with the priests. We spent a lot of time together. You know, the other missionaries like you were just soaking everything up and it was really, yeah, it was a really beautiful time.

You became, you mentioned, okay, seminary for a little while, and then you work for focus now and it's been how long? 

[00:10:49] Mark Bartek: 18 years. 

[00:10:50] Jim Jansen: 18 years. 

[00:10:51] Mark Bartek: Jim hired me into FOCUS. That was awesome. 

[00:10:54] Jim Jansen: That was, that was fun. I was going to make a dumb joke there. Okay. So, Mark, what do you, like, I want to talk a little bit about like, you mentioned the word spiritual multiplication.

That's kind of an inside baseball term for Focus. You know, it's our kind of shorthand for Jesus’s method of evangelization. Focus has tried to embody this. It's been a part of our DNA from the very beginning. You know, a lot of times people look from the outside and they're like, Oh, young people and Bible studies.

But you and I both know, I mean, there's some really nice materials now. They're all published and neatly bound and. You know, good looking covers. There weren't materials there in the early days. I mean, we had the Bible, you know, we had, you know, salvation history, Bible study, what was happening in focus was never about the materials.

It was really about trying to live this method of Jesus. Talk a little bit like what is what does that even mean? What are we talking about when you're talking about spiritual multiplication, you know, the method of Jesus. What does that, what do you, what does that mean? 

[00:12:03] Mark Bartek: Yeah, I am transported back to the first time I heard about it You'd probably mentioned it to me before but I mean maybe I wasn't really involved with focus at the time Curtis Martin A Catholic collegiate conference in Lincoln, Nebraska, a long time ago, just laid out this reality that God has developed a plan to win every man, woman and child on the planet.

And it's not a program, it's not a system. It is an individual connection with every person and the reality that God desires to make himself known to everyone and each of us, it's easy to point to what God has done, but also to point to the people that God has brought us along in the midst of that.

Right? So, Jim, you're one of those for me to help see what God is doing in my life. And so spiritual multiplication, this kind of a, I would call it an undercurrent that flows through mission, which is I'm not just trying to do something good. I'm trying to pay it forward, in essence, to help somebody to come to encounter Jesus, to live as a faithful disciple, and then as a missionary disciple, not to just be a good disciple and share about Jesus, but actually to train and equip and raise up and inspire.

I think that's a key component, others to want to make other missionary disciples. One of the key components of the Great Commission is go therefore and make disciples. He doesn't say go therefore and be disciples. Of course, you have to be in order to make... 

[00:13:39] Jim Jansen: Right. 

[00:13:39] Mark Bartek: Go therefore and make disciples. And so how do we do that?

Well, very few of us can enrapture a million people, like maybe St. John Paul II can, but each of us can connect deeply and give, be a gift of self to a few. And if I can pour my life into a few, two or three or more deeply. and build them up and bring them to a lived relationship with Jesus and help them to respond through prayer and sacraments and live as a disciple, and then to be inspired to see how they can go and make disciples as well, but not just to make disciples, but then to teach their disciples within this.

We use the scriptures deeply. First Thessalonians 2. 8, So dearly beloved were you that we shared not only the gospel, but our various selves as well, entering into that relationship to bring people along as Jesus incarnationally entered into the world. We want to enter into people's lives. Second Timothy 2: 2, What you've heard from me before others, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others. Also, it's not just about receiving, but teaching others. To teach this also, so trying to live this out in a very, very intentional way. And I think that's in essence, spiritual multiplication, like doing the little things with the greatest intentionality and the greatest love.

And that's why I think we call it kind of the little way of evangelization. I don't have to have a whole system. I don't have to have a great online presence. I don't have to have a building or anything else. 

[00:15:12] Jim Jansen: I don't have to have a lot of personal gifting. 

[00:15:15] Mark Bartek: Yeah.

[00:15:16] Jim Jansen: Right. I don't have to be. I mean, John Paul II was, you know, certifiably a genius and God bless those of you.

I know there's a lot of geniuses that listen to the equip cast. So, thank you for that. God bless you. But for the few that aren't, yeah. You don't have to be a genius to do this, right? Jesus's plan for evangelization is perfectly accessible to every vocation, every gifting ability, every season and state of life.

[00:15:44] Mark Bartek: And it's not even a particular approach that you have to make use of. It's kind of how do you allow this orientation towards building others up to build others up as being the north star of your life, where you're continually coming back and revisiting it. I get to lead elementary school boys in a trail life program at one of the local Catholic parishes here in Colorado.

And we teach orienteering. And one of the things is you got to make sure that your map is oriented to the world and your compass is oriented to true north. And when you do that, and I think this is one of the things that we, that I would encourage that this approach to evangelization, this approach to multiplying disciples is a true north concept.

You know, how do you live in the midst of your world thinking about how can I help this person to share their faith with others and to be intentional about that, whether it's in your parish or your workplace or your neighborhood and just allow that to become the draw of your life and your heart. 

[00:16:47] Jim Jansen: Yeah, I want to go back to something you said at the very start.

We were talking about how, you know, Jesus has a plan for evangelization to reach everybody. And I just want to camp out there just for a little bit because I think many times we don't think about that. But you know, like the Lord, like every single soul that is currently living, he wants them all. And he kind of, you know, he knew how the world was going to, uh, population growth and all that, and he, he actually has a plan to reach every single soul.

And this is a, this is a little nerdy, a little, little kind of inside baseball, but when you run the numbers, if all I do over the course of my lifetime is help a handful of people, two or three people come to know the Lord, and I help them not only come to know the Lord, but begin to share him with others and to Equip others in their own way as well to share him like when you run the numbers, you can actually reach the entire world's population in a generation.

It's astounding. I think it's like, oh, I never really thought that, yeah, there probably has to be a plan to reach everybody and it probably has to be accessible for all of us, regardless of our geography, our education, you know, our state in life. That, I mean, very early on, I mean, we were both really captivated.

I think we both have kind of a strategic bent. I think that captivated both of us for like, holy cow, this could actually work. Did I tell you this? I don't know if like, so we were both in, you know, regional leadership with focus for a while. There was a time where I went to Carnegie Mellon. I was the regional leader there.

Very, very nerdy students, like all of the, like, you know, if you think like goodwill hunting or any of that, I mean, these, these kids were like, they were brilliant. And I remember one time I was like, talk, I was like talking to them about this concept and. I mean, I just have to be honest. I never ran the numbers.

I just kind of assumed. I mean, I looked at some charts and stuff. It was like, okay, great, great. It works. These kids started running the numbers and they got really sophisticated. They're like, all right. And if, and if you don't make your first disciple until 33, and then some people aren't, and then there's good, people are going to die.

And they had like this super complicated equation. And at the end, they're like, it works. It really works. It's like, well, that's good. I mean, I, I just kind of took it. I didn't go that far, but it was just, it's, it's funny how it's like, wow, Jesus actually wants everybody. Yeah. And he invites us into a participation in that that works.

I can reach the whole stinking world and all I have to do is maybe be friends with somebody who's within my zip code. 

[00:19:35] Mark Bartek: Yeah, I think it's a difficult concept to wrap our head around because for the most part, the idea that I am in some way responsible for the soul of a, you know, a 27-year-old Nigerian man or 54 year old Chinese woman that idea of reaching the entire world is like, Oh, that's kind of nonsensical. 


[00:20:01] Jim Jansen: Right? Most of us just check out when we hear stuff like that. 

[00:20:04] Mark Bartek: Yeah, that's like a nice gimmick that you're saying, but I don't think that we believe that. I think that we actually believe that the cascading graces that come through relationships is transformational.

Become as you were meant to be, and you will set the world on fire. We believe that. Like all, what does that mean? That means I have to be on fire. And if I am doing what God has called me to do, the world gets set on fire. And God knows how all of these things are linked together. And as, as you were talking, I'm like, Oh, the catechism, I think sums this up unbelievably well.


The first three lines in the catechism are in the prologue, and it's scripture, Father, this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Line two, God, our Savior, desires all men to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth. Line three, there is no other name under heaven given among which, among men by which we must be saved in the name of Jesus.

This is, this is God's plan for the world. To know eternal life through Jesus Christ, to be saved in his name, and that all will be saved and come to knowledge of the truth. It has to be, he has to have a plan for how to do it. And it's what Jesus did. He didn't come into the world and establish, you know, speaker series, or there wasn't a, a distribution plan necessarily.

There wasn't, he didn't build a building. He didn't establish broad communication, whatever it was, he invested deeply in a few. And because of that, they invested deeply in others. We see this through the New Testament. It's very clear. Paul encounters Jesus on the road to Damascus and then he invests himself into Timothy and Titus and so on and so forth and That's what we're called to do.

So, we can do our part, you know Give local think global give local is kind of the spiritual multiplication equivalent, like you do what you can in your backyard and God will use that to change the world. 

[00:22:06] Jim Jansen: Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. It's like this is the no, this is the first Yeah, I think global act local because there is this and this this is why I want to talk about the little way of evangelization because you know for Like, the Catholic nerds out there, that's like a, that's a reference to Saint Therese, who was like the ultimate kind of like, uh, she has this heart for the entire world, for evangelization, for every vocation, for all souls, and she's just hanging out in the convent praying.

Loving the Difficult Sisters correspondence with, with a, with a missionary priest, but she's, I mean, at first glance, she doesn't look like she's contributing to this evangelization of the world. endeavor, but she was, can you talk a little bit more about, you know, why focus calls this Jesus's method, the little way of evangelization?

[00:23:04] Mark Bartek: St. Therese is a beautiful patroness for the church of, for evangelization for world mission. She and St. Francis Xavier, which I don't think you could find two more contrary lives where Francis went to the ends of the earth. Literally. 

[00:23:19] Jim Jansen: Mm-Hmm. 

[00:23:20] Mark Bartek: Baptized hundreds of thousands. Therese went nowhere. She remained her entire life at the same address.

Yet she is a doctor of the church. She died at 24. She made herself available to God and then made use of every opportunity in order to give her thoughts, words, and actions into the hands of Jesus to be made use of. And then saw how those efforts she believed, and I think that's a key. She believed that her.

efforts at laundry, at loving her sisters, at being present in prayer. how they were really creating the dynamic to transform the world. And so, this idea of being able to do little things with great love, as if we're doing them for Jesus, it's very gospel, right? When Jesus says, whatever you've done for the least of these you've done unto me.

Yeah, we can love locally. The people in our lives, and if we're offering it into God's hands, then he will make use of those things in order to transform the entire world. And so, we just think about that in the little ways that we can do things. How can we elevate them? Have an appropriate rectitude of intention to make sure that I'm doing my work at my desk with intent.

God's plan in mind, right? A priest at their desk offer or at their altar offers sacrifice. We are lay priests at our desk, uh, Jose Maria Escriva would always say you should have a little cross on your desk and turn your desk into your altar. It's where you offer your sacrifice into God's hands. So being able to do all of these little things for God, offering our sacrifices, trusting he's going to make use of them in order to transform people.

But then not only in the kind of abstract way, those concrete offerings, but also in the way that we love the people in our lives, really thinking about how do I give this vision? How do I paint this picture? How do I lay it out in such a way? And I think this is one of the keys, John Leyendecker, who's a good friend of Jim Jansen and I, when he was a missionary, at Colorado State University would talk to his students every day about this vision for spiritual multiplication to the point where they would make fun of him.

They could mock him. They could give his spiel, his pitch. 

[00:25:39] Jim Jansen: Which is, which is how he, he actually knew he had finally gotten through. 

[00:25:43] Mark Bartek: So, keeping that in mind and trying to remember, like, it's not, it's not an unimportant thing to remind people all the time. God has a plan to win everybody. Let's do our part.

[00:25:55] Jim Jansen: And. Your part is perfectly accessible to you because your part may just be, uh, I love that line from Jose Maria Escrivá, like, just like going to put a cross on my desk because at this moment, my part may be a faithful Embrace of email, right? That might be my part, you know, and then at some point I may get the opportunity to have what maybe feels a little bit more direct a conversation with the neighbor and maybe I'll get a chance at some point, you know, to introduce that, that neighbor to Jesus, uh, help that neighbor grow, help that neighbor, you know, discover their own mission field.

In their family or friends, but like the Lord has a role for all of us. It really is. I mean, it's funny. It's bit it continues to capture my imagination. You know, we're both in our early 20s when we came across this. I want to ask maybe kind of a hard question now. It's pretty clear this works on college campuses.

I mean, this is, you know, it is hard, whether it's FOCUS, Campus Crusade for Christ, the Navigators, other groups within the Catholic world, Catholic Christian Outreach of Canada, a whole bunch of different organizations, the Evangelical Catholic. I mean, this just clearly works. You can see the fruit of so many changed lives on college campuses.

What about in the real world? What about what about parishes? Uh, how does it work there? 

[00:27:29] Mark Bartek: I think well, and the reason for that is it is not dependent upon the particular circumstances. It is dependent upon the extension of my desire and my heart into your life and your life is where your life is. And so, whatever the circumstances are, I get to adapt to it.

I remember a good friend of mine, Mark Holler, he was Executive at Procter and Gamble, and I was talking to him about some of these things and he said oh what you're talking about is the industrial concept of mass customization. 

[00:28:07] Jim Jansen: Of course. 

[00:28:08] Mark Bartek: I mean, we were all thinking of course how do you create a product that is able to be customized.

I'm going to meet you. And your issues are going to be different than the next person. And so, there's no program that's going to meet everybody, but a person can meet a person in their need with their questions, with their challenges, they can pray for them. Embrace them, love them through whatever stuff they got going on, and help them to see that God has a plan and a purpose, and it's not just for you, it's to extend it beyond you as well.


[00:28:44] Jim Jansen: Yeah, well, and you know, as you're talking about this, like, oh yeah, mask, like, mask customization. We want to get everybody in contact with Jesus and Jesus is like, I actually have a vehicle perfectly made for Bill that vehicle's name is Mark and it just happens to be Bill's neighbor, right? Or, you know, they happen to be, they have kids together on the same soccer team and that the Lord in a mind-blowing way chooses to deliver himself through us.

Amen. To those that are waiting for him, Mark, we've been both really blessed to see this obviously on college campuses and parishes. Internationally, the persecuted church in China, but we got to see this really take shape again. Lies of countless missionaries, but one that's special to both of us because, uh, she is, uh, passed away and, uh, the church has begun the process of recognizing the Lord's work in her life, a servant of God, Michelle Duppong.

Tell us a little bit about your relationship with Michelle. 

[00:29:57] Mark Bartek: Well, it started through you, I think, in no small way, Jim, when you encouraged and recruited me away from the work that I was doing to come into focus in 2006. One of the other missionaries that started that year was Michelle Duppong, and I was a missionary at Hastings College.

In Nebraska, Hastings, Nebraska and Michelle was on your team at the University of Nebraska and you were my mentor and my leader and every month we would come to Lincoln at least every month. I mean, maybe it was every week that we were coming to Lincoln. There wasn't a whole lot going on campus that year.

So, we came to Lincoln a lot and I got to know Michelle. I mean, you knew everybody. There was only like 95 or 100 missionaries. So, you kind of knew everybody. But Michelle was there, and so I got to know her a little bit more. I remember having conversations with her at some of the outings that we had as teams.

And then the following year, I was a regional director and working with South Dakota State University, and she was a missionary in Brookings, South Dakota, and got to know her much, much better then. And then we continued, we proceeded to work together for the next six years. Where she was team director, I was regional director, we'd meet weekly, we'd pray together, and we always talked about, isn't this universally called the holiness?

I mean, we wouldn't use those words, but isn't it amazing that God is making it accessible and possible and expects us all to become saints? So, when she passed away, that was my immediate thought. I was like, oh, her, her process begins now, like she is, I mean, she lived her life in such a beautiful way, but then when I was contacted, two years ago, uh, informed that they were opening the investigation.

I was like, I'm not surprised about that. It's happening. I'm surprised at the timing. I didn't think it would be five years or six years after she had passed away. I thought it'd be 20 or 30. I really was convinced that within my lifetime, I would see her cause. Opened and I think that's really beautiful in what we've been able to witness, and she lived this so well. She lived the little way of evangelization in such a simple and profound way. She was always an inspiration.

I think to everybody she was super joyful. Yeah, just a really amazing woman. 

[00:32:17] Jim Jansen: Yeah, let's let let's talk a little bit about like just but for those who don't know right Michelle's a North Dakota farm girl raised in Haymarsh, North Dakota, loved, it wasn't ranching, but it was, I mean, hey, hey, uh, orchard. She taught me how to use a chainsaw, uh, how to prune, uh, you know, my fruit trees.

I mean, I knew how to use a chainsaw. I just didn't know how to use it. Well, she's just like, don't do that. You're going to kill the tree. She loved her agricultural background. She was a, uh, agronomy major, uh, at North Dakota state, which is where I first met her. I was her regional director, uh, the year that she was hired.

Great little backstory. We almost didn't hire her. It was the days where there were more women that would apply than men. And, uh, Michelle was Anything but flashy. She'd be a little uncomfortable with the, the attention. I think that she's, she's getting, uh, now, I mean, she's fine with it now, but like, you know, if she were alive, she didn't, she didn't want the attention and now it's a joyful thing, but like we almost missed her and it wasn't God bless father, uh, father Chaney, uh, her pastor at the Newman center at the time, you know, she had gone to the interview weekend and we're like, eh, kind of put her on a wait list.

And when I went up there, Megan McCartney, who is the team director at the time and Father Chaney were just let me have it. They're like, what are you thinking? This girl's awesome. And if you don't hire her, and it just, we had a chance where, uh, we're able to, yeah. Say like, okay, I got a little bit more time with her and I'm like, okay, yeah, you're right.

This girl's, there's something here. And so we, yeah, we hired her and really glad we did. Maybe, Mark, for those who, you know, who don't know her, and we're going to talk later, there's a beautiful documentary out about Michelle's life. But for those who don't, uh, again, because after she served as a missionary with Focus, worked for the diocese, got, we don't actually even know what kind of cancer, but died very, very quickly.

I think it was a year and a half? A year. A year. Your journey, uh, in cancer. Talk a little bit about Michelle's personality. Like what was she like? 

[00:34:29] Mark Bartek: She was Very joyful. I mean, I think the thing that stands out looking back to me I mean a lot stands out I've reflected probably more on Michelle's life than any other person at this stage just over the course of the last few years just thinking back about the interactions every time you encountered her, uh, she was just you felt like Long lost friends like oh my gosh, so excited arms wide open big smile like big hug super excited to see you but also very Comfortable in her skin very easy to be around very welcoming always looking to the margins identifying who is not Connected to the conversation.

How do I bring them in? Always thinking about other people, very intentional with the men and women in her life and thinking about how she can pray for them and bring them closer to Jesus. 

[00:35:19] Jim Jansen: Before we go farther though, I think if people are listening to this and they didn't know Michelle, they might think, Oh wow, she was, she was just like a classic FOCUS missionary.

She was a raging extrovert. I don't think so. I mean, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Michelle was shy. I think I would describe her as a, maybe more natural introvert. Even in a in a really charming way at times a little awkward. Yeah, I remember some of her Yeah, her laugh and her exuberance for some nerdy things lord of the rings and a couple of I mean I love lord of the rings too, but just like there was a nerdiness a shyness an introversion in Michelle, which makes her exuberant joy That much more clearly supernatural because she wasn't just the most outgoing person in the world You When she chased after people it's because she loved them not because she was a raging extrovert.

[00:36:13] Mark Bartek: Oh, yeah, I think she had a really profound lived experience of Jesus in the way that he was in her. And so, I really think that she was taking him I think that was her goal was always to take Jesus to the people that she was encountering, and she did that through her smile and everything else but you're right.

She was not She was reserved. She was quiet. She was a farm girl from North Dakota. She didn't really fit in in the big city in Lincoln, Nebraska. Like, that was, those were some of the challenges that she experienced. She's all, yeah, she struggled with, uh, she loved North Dakota so much, it was hard for her to be a missionary to other places, especially places like South Dakota State, where they were the Athletic nemesis.

It's hard to love these. 

[00:36:55] Jim Jansen: jackrabbits. I remember the first time she had to pay for parking again. Somebody look at the population of Lincoln, Nebraska. Lincoln, Nebraska is not a big city. I love it, but she's like, you know, it was like, I mean, it was just almost offensive to her to have to pay for parking coming from Haymarsh, North Dakota.

[00:37:13] Mark Bartek: No scarcity of land in North Dakota. 

[00:37:15] Jim Jansen: Plenty of parking. Mark, what do you find, right, because whenever the church begins to hold up, God willing, there are countless unknown saints. But whenever the church begins to hold up an individual, you know, take them through the canonization process, servant of God.

Blessed, uh, you know, maybe eventually a canonized saint. The church is always, as a mother, trying to teach something. What do you think the church, or the Lord, might be trying to teach us in Michelle's life? 

[00:37:52] Mark Bartek: Holiness and mission is accessible to everyone, and in fact, everyone is called to it. She never did anything that Extraordinary.


She didn't cross the ocean. She didn't baptize a hundred thousand people. She prayed deeply. So, she was this beautiful mix of both St. Therese Lisieux invest deeply in where you're at, as well as Francis Xavier, where she also went on mission. She deeply desired to see everyone grow. into saints. And she believed deeply that the call to holiness was not some kind of superficial thing, only for the few.


It was accessible to everyone. And the church provides the means necessary that we can all be canonized saints. It was not some kind of. Effort that only a few, but that everyone could be canonized. We might not all get to go through the process, but that everyone should the God makes that grace accessible to everyone.

And so, I think that's what the church Bishop Kagan in Bismarck, North Dakota. I think that's what he wants people to see is that anyone, anyone she's Lives this unassuming life in a lot of ways. She does the best that she can but no spectacular gifting It wasn't like job. She was not a certifiable saint.

[00:39:12] Jim Jansen: Yeah. 

[00:39:13] Mark Bartek: She's intelligent, but not the special gifting. She just lived it really really faithfully. 

[00:39:17] Jim Jansen: Yeah, very very ordinary and all the things that are accessible I mean again, she was a missionary, so she had time and availability, but she just deeply availed herself of prayer of the Blessed Sacrament. She made the most of, you know, every conversation.

I mean, that was one of the things that almost everybody mentions it. Like, when you were talking to Michelle, you were like the only person in, in the world. All of the things that she did, she did them With an extraordinary love and depth, but none of those things were like inaccessible I'm curious. What would you what do you find personally most accessible?

About Michelle's example, I’ve got one from my life that I’d love to share but just like what do you do? What do you live in a way that is maybe inspired by her example? 

[00:40:13] Mark Bartek: It's a good question. Jim, I think the biggest thing would be… It's mercy. I think is the way that I would describe it. We're all, I mean, we all have rough spots in our life or our past or whatever else and it's really pretty easy for most of us to not like ourselves, I believe, especially when you put yourself face to face with God and you're like, wow, how unworthy am I of that?

And I had a friend who said, look, Michelle, if she's in heaven and she's before the face of God, she knows everything about you. How would Michelle receive you now knowing everything about you? And I prayed through that, and I think Michelle would receive me exactly the same way, no matter what, like, she's just a beautiful example of the love and mercy of God.

She lived a good shepherd kind of life. And I think that's accessible to all of us. There's no reason for us to be surprised by our sinfulness. or by our need for mercy, God wants to give it to us. And that's, I think that's what I remember from Michelle. She just wanted to bring people into that, the warmth of God's love.

[00:41:20] Jim Jansen: Yeah. You know, as you say that, I mean, I, I can still hear her say my name, say your name, Mark, and just this, this big, huge grin, open arms, and I'd never thought of it this way, but it is like, it's a lot like the, you know, the father and the prodigal son in the story, the, the prodigal son in that I don't think Michelle, well, actually she do, she did get to experience both of us were unintentionally sources of suffering for Michelle Duppong.

She certainly didn't have perfect knowledge of our weaknesses and sins, but she knew enough of our shortcomings that she was able to embody a bit of the father's like, right, he receives the prodigal before he has perfect contrition. I mean, he's just barely coming around and, you know, the, the father's running to him and receiving him.

And then, you know, Michelle loved and accepted us despite. You know, knowing some of our weaknesses because of a close working relationship. Mine's not as profound as yours. My ambition tends to get the best of me and, and what, what could be maybe holy and helpful often gets twisted up with impatience.

And it's honestly, Michelle's kind of like agrarian. She knew. Like the rhythms of agricultural life and you just can't rush farming. There is no, if you don't plant in May, you can't like, Oh man, it's July. I better cram that, you know, little extra fertilizer. And I just learned a lot of bad habits, you know, in an academic setting where I would cram.

I didn't use extra fertilizer. I used extra caffeine and That really short circuited that that confused ambitious mixed with impatience and pride. It sabotaged a lot of my fruit as a missionary and Michelle's example of patience came, I think really from like a she just learned the rhythm of planting and cultivating and finally harvesting fruit.

And so, I really have leaned into. Got a little mini orchard in my yard. There's a number of kind of agrarian disciplines that I'm just trying to let the Lord retrain my heart and mind and my expectations for the patience of planting and sowing and pruning and then eventually reaping. So I, I tend to like her example, uh, silly as it may sounds, I, I think about her a lot.

Yeah. In the context when I'm just out, uh, working in the yard, playing in the orchard, because those things are hobbies that I lean into because they heal me of some of my, you know, impatient, self-reliant efforts. 

[00:44:16] Mark Bartek: Yeah, as you're saying that, Jim, I'm just thinking back to the dozens and dozens of meetings I had with her.

I don't know that there was ever a meeting where agriculture didn't come up at some point. 

[00:44:27] Jim Jansen: I have no doubt. 


[00:44:28] Mark Bartek: We're talking about, we're talking about, you know, how do we help this student come towards conversion or towards discipleship or whatever. She's like, you know, there's only so much a farmer can do to make the crop, but the farmer must do what the farmer has to do.

You got to plant the seed, you got to cultivate the ground, you got to water it, you got to fertilize it. You got to do all those things. But at the end of the day, it is all in God's hands in order to be able to, you know, make Yes. Uh, enter into these things. 

[00:44:54] Jim Jansen: It was such a grounded mental framework that my suburban upbringing, I did not have, but it, it is, it's yeah, it's just a way the Lord is using to kind of heal and teach me.

So yeah, I think about Michelle a lot in those contexts. Mark, our, our time is really flying here. I want to give you a chance, you know, for those who are listening, maybe it's a parish leader. You know, someone who is responsible for trying to make evangelization happen, or maybe it's just somebody who's like, I am the ordinary person, and it doesn't feel like my state in life is real conducive to evangelization right now.

I just want to give you an opportunity to, to speak to them and offer some words of encouragement. 

[00:45:40] Mark Bartek: The life that you have been given is the life that the Lord has intended for you. The great book, Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence. in which the author says, if you wish to know God's will, look at what is.

And the temptation to fall into what St. Josemaría Escriva calls mystical wishful thinking. If only I had married a different person, life would be better. If only I had been a priest instead of a lay person, I could be holy. If only, and this mystical wishful thinking is the obstacle to us experiencing God in the midst of our lives.

And so being able to lean in. to the circumstances and believe the Lord called this play. What do I do in the midst of it? And how do I put myself out there for him to make use of? There's a great phrase in the past that At least in focus where we would say being a missionary is like having a front row seat and watching God work miracles in people's lives.

You gotta you gotta put yourself there and let yourself be available to God to see what he's doing in other people's lives. So just pay close attention. The other part of it, too, is oftentimes, I think, as Catholics or Christians, we tend to say like, Oh, I'll pray for you as if that's the least we could do when actually prayer is the most that we can do.

It's the most important thing. There's nothing more critical to our lives than prayer, both for our own salvation, as is very clear from the catechism, but also for other people's lives as well. So how are we praying for those? People that God has put in our life. You're probably not gonna pray for everybody, but certainly identify five or ten people You should be praying for intentionally and then think what's one thing that I could do in the next two weeks three weeks month In order to help this person become more closely Aligned to the vision that I think maybe God has for them to repent of their sin, to return to the sacrament of reconciliation, to come to mass with me, to lead a Bible study, to reach out to whatever that might be, pray and then work to see if God can do those things.

And if we all do our part, then guess what's going to happen? God's going to bring about the most important thing in everyone's life, and that's placing himself there. So, that’s what I'd say. Be encouraged. Just keep going. Don't give up. 

[00:48:07] Jim Jansen: I love that. Right. I mean, just like, what was that phrase? The, the, the real, the moment.

[00:48:13] Mark Bartek: If you want to know what God's will is, look at what is. 

[00:48:17] Jim Jansen: Look at what is. Yeah. The, the real, your circumstances, this moment. I mean, we didn't talk about this, but in Michelle's life, she worked very fruitfully as a missionary and then as a diocesan leader. And the real, at the, for the last year of her life, what was was cancer. A very painful journey. You know that anybody who's had cancer or has been with someone, you know, it's the cancer itself. And then it's all the treatments, uh, which help sometimes, but there's, uh, often a fair amount of suffering that goes with the medicine and the treatments. And Michelle embraced that and never kind of wavered in this missionary spirit.

In the midst of this, we've been blessed. Uh, Mark, there's a beautiful documentary out about Michelle's life. We're going to link to this in the show notes, but it is going to be showing in U. S. theaters very soon. Could you talk about it? 

[00:49:17] Mark Bartek: Yeah. One day only at this stage, November 12th through Fathom Events.

The documentary radiating joy the Michelle the pong story I think that's what I should look it up I think that's the actual title of it radiating joy will be showing November 12 theaters nationwide I think it's almost 800 screens will be showing on several locations in Omaha and Lincoln and around the area and so you can find more information at Michelle the pong cause.

org or focus. org forward slash Michelle the pong. I highly encourage you to find a theater and to go see it. I think it's a very inspirational story. I think it's very well told, and I think it makes her life accessible to everyone. 

[00:50:02] Jim Jansen: We will link to you put together an awesome map so you can click on the map, find the theater closest to you purchase tickets.

So, we'll put the trailer on there as well. So, you'll be able to, uh, yeah, you'll be able to find that. Uh, it really is a phenomenal, uh, phenomenal story. So hopefully, uh, hopefully we've done just a, just a little bit of work to, to appetize it because it is, uh, yeah, beautiful, beautiful doc documentary. Mark.

Thank you. Thanks for being with us. Thanks for your time. Thanks for everything you do for the kingdom and thank you for being a good friend. 

[00:50:36] Mark Bartek: Thanks, Jim. God bless you. 

[00:50:38] Jim Jansen: All right, everybody. You know, somebody, uh, who needs to hear this story. Maybe they're trying to save the world all by themselves and they, they need a reminder of, uh, the little way, um, how easy and accessible the Lord makes us, uh, makes it for us to participate.

Maybe you know someone who, well, they're, uh, they're interested in, uh, Michelle Duppong's story and, uh, example and inspiration that offers. Whatever it is, you wait till you're safely at your destination and then share this out with a friend. Thanks for listening to the EquipCast. We hope this episode has inspired you to live your faith and equip you to be fruitful in your mission.

Stay connected with us by going to equip.archomaha.org. God bless and see you next time.