Daniel Hussem
I was raised in the Netherlands, a small country in Europe, in a Catholic family of 8. Throughout my entire childhood, I never met a single person my age who went to church. My faith was an obligatory task, something I did to please my parents. It wasn't until I took a trip to the United States with a group of youth from my parish to a Steubenville conference in St. Louis that things began to change. I was a rebellious kid who simply thought it would be nice to go on a trip to the States for a summer. During the conference however, the Lord brought me to my knees in love and repentance during adoration in a way I had never experienced before. This was the first time in my life I had personally encountered our Lord, and the first time I had ever seen people my same age on fire for Jesus and their faith - I was shocked and deeply moved by the experience and felt a desire to change.
The road after I returned home was difficult and long as I struggled with the tension of the culture, and living a life of true, all-in faith and virtue. Throughout my later teens and early twenties, the Lord continued to shape my heart and help me mature as a man, putting Him above everything else. I applied and was accepted to serve as a summer missionary at Camp Covecrest in Georgia . This further deepened my heart for service and set me on a path where I would later meet my now wife at a ministry event where I was asked to share my testimony of coming to know and follow the Lord.
The young man I was wouldn't believe the way my faith is a part of everything I do today. It made me leave everything behind and move across the world for love - and now as a husband, a father of 3, and co-founder of SacredSpark, I have not only surrendered to following Jesus and His Church, I have made it my daily mission to help build up the Church through bringing people together in community and holy, virtuous relationships.