The Everyday Apostle
The Everyday Apostle
The Everyday Apostle - EP017 - Trish Vega
Welcome to the Everyday Apostle, where ordinary lives meet extraordinary faith. Join our host, kendall Peterson, as we explore how everyday men and women bring the gospel to life wherever they live, work and play. Let's dive into it right now now.
Kendall Peterson:Hello and welcome to episode 17 of the Everyday Apostle podcast. My name is Kendall Peterson. I'm the host of this wonderful show. Thank you for tuning in. Thank you for listening. I get the joy of bringing inspiring stories of people who are actually trying to live their faith, bring Christ into the world and live the Great Commission by spreading the gospel wherever they go. Such a joy to do that and it's a pleasure to have you join the show. Today's episode is brought to you by the strategic consulting firm of Fugoid International.
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Trish Vega:Thanks, kendall, really glad to be here. Thank you for asking me.
Kendall Peterson:Oh, my goodness, I'm thrilled that you're here. So let me read your bio real quick so that we can do you justice. Trish is a passionate disciple whose journey has taken her from San Francisco to Miami, and she has dedicated nearly eight years to full-time college campus ministry. Trish has a deep love for faith formation, particularly in the area of theology of the body, and she finds joy in uncovering the beauty of God's design in everyday life, whether through her ministry, meaningful conversations over a good cup of coffee, or simply embracing the adventure that God continues to write for her. Trish lives with a contagious enthusiasm for her faith. I can't wait to dive into her story today. Her experiences in campus ministry and her insights on living boldly for Christ is exactly why I asked her to join me on the show. So, trish, welcome to the show once again. Gosh, where do we get started with you? Let's go all the way back. Let's go back to San Francisco.
Trish Vega:Yeah, san Francisco. I grew up in a suburb outside of San Francisco with my parents who were Filipino immigrants and they just loved California, so I loved it. I still love San Francisco. I think it taught me a great appreciation for natural beauty and so many cultures there's so many places, people from all over the world, different foods that are there, yeah, and it taught me to really be curious about the world. So I loved growing up there with my family.
Kendall Peterson:So how long were you in that area?
Trish Vega:I lived there until I went to college. So I lived there from birth until coming here to Miami. I went to the University of Miami and that was really my first time outside of the San Francisco Bay Area bubble, which was fun Another adventure for me.
Kendall Peterson:Was it weird, getting used to the water being on the other side of?
Trish Vega:town. That was so strange. It was such a weird concept to me that the ocean could be warm.
Kendall Peterson:Definitely not warm when it's been sent.
Announcer:No no.
Kendall Peterson:So obviously you know in your bio we talked about you know how you devote your life to God in so many ways. Is that something that has been a part of you your entire growing up, or did that come later.
Trish Vega:Yeah, great question, I think for me. I'm really grateful that I grew up in an environment where I never doubted that God existed. My parents I did come from a culturally Catholic background. However, it wasn't something very emphasized in growing up. I knew God existed, but I wasn't married to the idea of God in a Catholic sense. I think that's partly out of the culture of San Francisco being surrounded by so many different spiritualities and learning about that, and then also just from my parents' approach to faith at the time. It left a lot for interpretation. So it really wasn't until I came to the University of Miami and encountered St Augustine's, our church, and the campus ministry there, that I learned a lot more about Jesus in the Catholic faith and it demystified a lot of things for me, and that's when I started making the decision in that direction.
Kendall Peterson:Okay, so when you were growing up, did you guys go to church? Did you try different?
Trish Vega:yeah, we, we went to like catholic churches growing up, but occasionally it was we went on sundays, unless we were in like disneyland or I had I had like tournaments for sports or something, um so, uh, so we were, we were, I would say, like in a sense culturally catholic, but not actively devout, or it wasn't a personal thing, it was just like, oh, because we grew up doing it kind of thing. It's like most, yeah, like a lot of catholics, yeah um.
Kendall Peterson:So what did you? What was your childhood like? What did you? You mentioned sports. It was you a big sports person.
Trish Vega:Well, I did. I was an artsy person, slash martial arts person, so I was very involved in the performing arts and in dance, singing, musical theater, all that stuff. And then I also did tournaments. I referred to you are Kung Fu tournaments. My brother and I did a lot of martial arts growing up, um, but yeah, I was very much like passionate about like doing things. So that was very much, I think, the priority of my family, um, when we in the early years of of how we spent our weekends and things, um, so it was fun, but also like you know, it was fun, but also, like you know, it was a different mindset than one that, like prioritized faith Sure.
Trish Vega:So, yeah.
Kendall Peterson:So here you are. You decide suddenly that you're going to go all the way across the country to University of Miami. Talk to me about that decision. So you get to that point in high school where you have to start applying to colleges. And where did you apply? What were you thinking?
Trish Vega:Yeah, so much to my mother's chagrin, I chose the farthest place, away from her and um, it's really interesting going off of that, this value of like doing awesome, creative things, I went, I wanted to go into college studying music, business and songwriting something I was very passionate about, something I still am passionate about um. And it's a program not offered in many colleges, at least at the time. So I just applied to wherever had it, and Miami happened to have a program that I loved and gave me the best scholarship, and that's honestly how I ended up at the University of Miami. But looking back, I see that it was a providential thing because I didn't know that Miami had a beautiful campus ministry. But I remember I wasn't even considering UM as a school.
Trish Vega:But I visited with my mom and I just like got this sense of like I need to be here. I couldn't explain it and I'm I'm usually not that person, I'm usually a very rational. I need to think things through. Here are the pros, here are the cons, but both my mother and I, when we were walking around campus, we just had the sense of like I, I just need to be here and I really believe that that was the Lord like drawing me to come so that he could play things out later in my life.
Kendall Peterson:Sure, Then he can use your musical talents, which is how I first was introduced to you. So all right. So you arrive in UM and you're going to set the world on fire by writing great music and doing all of that. Then what happened?
Trish Vega:Well, I went into UM, not necessarily wanting to set the world on fire, for the Lord. I went because I wanted to be a rock star, I wanted to be famous, I wanted to tour, I wanted to do all those things. But what really started to shift my trajectory was I met somebody from the campus ministry and I talked to her for like maybe like two minutes at the club fair that happens. And um, I'm like okay, I'll just sign up because whatever, um. And then I saw her like maybe a couple months later, and she like looked into my eyes and said, like Trish, like she remembered my first of all, which was really striking to me. And then she just asked how I was doing, how I was getting used to college across the country.
Trish Vega:And I just registered that conversation as something different because she looked at me differently and I could tell that she wanted to get to know me, not just because she wanted me to join her club, she just loved me and I'm like there's something about you that's different and I don't know what it is. So I started to get to know her more and she invited me to some things that the campus ministry was doing and I realized they were all like that and I'm like, why are you all so nice to me? And, um, and over time I just got plugged into the community and learned like you love this way because of your faith, and I want to and I want to jump into that. So teach me more. So that really set a trajectory to helping me get involved in unraveling a lot of my misconceptions that I had about faith because of my you know, just my curiosity and not really having a lot of catechesis or learning. So it was, yeah, I'm so grateful for her and her reaching out to me.
Kendall Peterson:That's amazing, you know. It's interesting that I mean that's very similar to what happened with me. It wasn't that, you know? I heard the Ten Commandments and suddenly my life changed.
Announcer:Right.
Kendall Peterson:Or you know, somebody handed me a Bible and I read it cover to cover. It was in the love that I felt, that was so unique and so personal from guys that I met at a retreat and the fact that I was at a retreat was bizarre in the first place, but there was.
Kendall Peterson:there was just something different and and I think you know over and over and over, you hear people talk about that right, people who truly love the Lord and try the best they can to live that way, have a different way of interacting with people.
Trish Vega:Yeah, and totally, you mentioned earlier about theology, the body, and I think that's why I fell in love with this teaching from John Paul II that really focuses on the theology of things that are human, that are experiential.
Trish Vega:And, yeah, hearing your story, that aspect of your story, and looking at my life like God. God comes to people in lots of different ways, but I think I've been so convicted time and time again of like God wants to reach into our human experience. He came to me in my desire and need for friendship, for someone to like see me when I was far from my family, for someone to walk with me in all the places that I had misconceptions that God was like distant or didn't care about like human emotions or human experiences or human feelings. And he's like no, I'm actually in all of that and I think her interaction was a gateway for me to discover that in deeper ways and I'm like, oh, if this, if this is God, who God really is, and if this is who the Catholic Church says who he really is, then I'm like, okay, maybe I should stick around and check this out.
Kendall Peterson:They are. And that's the unique thing about Christianity, right, is we don't have to go off somewhere else to seek God. He, he comes to us, yeah, where we are, in the way that we are and the way that we need to hear him and the way that we need to see him and experience him. And, like when you get that discovery, it's profound.
Kendall Peterson:Yes truly, truly so. You're involved in the youth group and you want to be, still want to be a rock star. Obviously Right, because who doesn't want to be a rock star? So how does that progress through college for you?
Trish Vega:Yeah. So later on I think it was my junior year of college I was on that trajectory. I was in a band, I was touring, we were talking with some, we were negotiating some contracts and things and I was living the life. And I remember I was on tour in Nashville with some of my bandmates and I remember there's this one night after a show and I was like I don't love this.
Trish Vega:I don't love this as much as I thought I would, and I was diving more deeply into my faith, learning more about it, and I'm realizing that I would go play shows at night, but then I would like leave my bandmates. I'm like, hey, you guys go party and celebrate. I'm gonna go to bed so I can go to mass in the morning with the Dominicans and I'm like this is weird, why I'm. I'm living everything that I thought I would want, um, but now I don't want it as much anymore and I want to be in prayer and like learn about God more and I learned too. I loved having conversations with people about like getting to know their hearts and their desires and, um, and sharing that there's hope for fulfillment of their desires and in someone who wants to meet them there and fulfill it abundantly. And I loved those more and I was like, oh my gosh, I think I think I found something that I love more than music.
Trish Vega:I still love music, I still loved playing, but I'm like I I wasn't willing to sacrifice for it, whereas I could sense in myself like I'm willing to go the lengths to share with people what has been shared with me. And I think that started a trajectory of like I think I want to, I want to do this for my life. And I got to know some missionaries from an organization called Focus Fellowship of Catholic University students. They came to our campus the semester after my summer of touring and I'm like that's, I think that's it. I think that's what I wanted to do, but I didn't know that I wanted to do, so it was kind of nuts.
Kendall Peterson:It is, and it's usually nuts right you have this dream that you build up your whole life and then you know God. God even just removes that desire from your heart yeah and in your case you know, obviously still wants you to enjoy the music and wants you to glorify him with your talent. Yeah, but the other things that you think go with it. They're not. They're not there anymore.
Trish Vega:Yeah, exactly and I I would say he didn't necessarily like remove it from me, I think he just showed me more. I think he saw I desired it and he's like I know you want it and I know you desire it, but I also want to expand your desire and let me show you that there's something. You still want that, but can you imagine wanting something even more? So it's cool that like he honored that piece of me that still wanted to be famous, a rock star, but he's like, let me just like expand it and put it in a greater context, which I feel very loved by God. And like he didn't take away the desire for me to be a rock star.
Trish Vega:Because later on, when I became a full-time missionary with Focus, I happened to be entrusted students who were working in the music industry. I was a missionary-time missionary with Focus. I happened to be entrusted students who were working in the music industry. I was a missionary up in New York for a little while and I worked with a lot of students who were in recording studios, playing shows, and that's what I got to do with them. So it's just cool that he still answered that desire, but in a way that I wasn't anticipating or could have imagined.
Kendall Peterson:And only he could answer it that way.
Trish Vega:Right, I didn't ask for it, it was just like boop here.
Kendall Peterson:Amazing. So how do you call back home and tell your parents that your lifelong dream is going to look a little.
Trish Vega:Great question. I remember, actually, on that tour in Nashville, I called my parents and I'm like, hey, I think I want to be a full-time missionary. And they were like, excuse me, I'm so grateful for my parents. They have never forced me into a specific job, or they? They very much like where your heart is is where, like, you know where, where, where, like things will follow, where money will follow, um, but I think this was a bit much for them. They're like we already took a risk on you going to music school. Now you want to give it all up and fundraise your salary for, like Jesus. And I'm like, yeah, so at first I think it was a bit of a shock, but I let them sit with it and God has been so good. He um really just let them sit with it for a while. And then they came back to me, like in conversations later and they're like, okay, we'll support you. We're nervous, but we'll support you. If this is truly what, like you feel called to do, then do it.
Trish Vega:And then, by the time that I had said yes to being a missionary and I was going into my fundraising stint, they were like my biggest supporters. They're like we're going to tell everybody like we are going to put everything behind you. And I're like we're going to tell everybody like we are going to put everything behind you and I'm like, wow, this is, this is God, because I, I, I didn't convince them, I didn't do anything, it was just like they came to it on their own. So, yeah, it does. It doesn't always happen that way, so I'm really, I'm really grateful for my parents' docility and being willing to like wrestle with it, with God, on their own.
Kendall Peterson:So you leave Miami and then go to the other extreme of the United States which is the Northeast, so you're up there for a while. Yes, what brought you back?
Trish Vega:Yeah, so I was with Focus for five years, serving in New York City and then Massachusetts, and then I worked in their headquarters in Colorado for a year and then I just perceived a invitation from the Lord. He's given me so much experience in working with Focus and ministry and but I had this desire to like OK, like I want to continue serving the church in a way that is very specific to my love for formation and theology of the body. In Colorado, I was working on the team that helped plan the formation for all of the missionaries, all of the new missionaries that come into focus, and I'm like I, yeah, I love this, this, but I want to work like more on the ground and help create a plan of formation that's like closer and specific to a community. And, um, and honestly, I, I didn't know what that was. I wasn't looking to leave focus, but I asked three friends, um, like hey, if you see, I could see myself living in Miami one day in the distant future. If you hear of an opportunity, let me know.
Trish Vega:One of those people was our friend, michelle, and she's like call me. And I'm like uh-oh. And then Michelle is the director of evangelization and campus ministry at St Augustine's. And she's like, hey, basically I was just talking to our pastor and we're looking to hire campus minister and we want you. And I'm like, oh, ok, cool. So like what are you thinking in like a year or two or whatever? And she's like, oh, in like four months.
Trish Vega:And I'm like, oh, so I'm like, ok, I need to think about this. And I took it on my end and shared it or sat with it in prayer and I'm like, wow, I, this actually is perfect. It's returning to a community that I love, a community that formed me and and I think it's very specific to the ways that the Lord is calling me to give and the ways that he's gifted me. And then I'm like, I think I want this, but here's all these last minute things I need to do. And, like God does when he wants something to happen, he just made everything fall into place. And I'm like, well, this is clear. All the logistics were put into place when I wasn't expecting it to. I have no reason to say no, so I'll go.
Kendall Peterson:And I did so. How long have you been back now?
Trish Vega:I've been back for about a year and a half now.
Kendall Peterson:Okay.
Trish Vega:Yes, and it's been incredible. It's been so incredible to see and to help contribute to a community that really that formed me, and to see what God has done in the interim of me not being here too, to see how he's retained his spirit of what I saw him doing here in terms of building up the church and building up his family of God. The spirit's the same, but I'm also seeing, like whoa, god has done so much and I'm so lucky, I'm so blessed that he has given me the opportunity to continue to be a part of it, because, you know, he didn't have to yeah, he didn't have to do that for me.
Kendall Peterson:So you have mentioned a couple of times it was also in your bio theology of the body. Yeah, I'm familiar with that and I know many people are, but there's probably quite a few who are not. So can you give a brief overview of that and then lead into why do you think that's so important to you?
Trish Vega:Yeah, so Theology of the Body is really. It's a series of speeches that Pope John Paul II put together over a few years to talk about. To share about is the breaking open of the intimate marriage of what's human and what's divine. And I think that was so groundbreaking for me, especially in my early years of reversion or learning about my faith, because I think I grew up with this idea that, um, christianity and the church hates the body.
Trish Vega:Um, I grew up with this idea that, like God doesn't care about like the weird parts of me, like whether I'm emotional or like my sexuality or like all of these things, that's just like taboo for God. Um, so to have that message be flipped on its head, on, like all these places that I think God doesn't care about not only does he care about them, but he's actually created them to tell the story of heaven and eternity and of the greatest love story ever, I'm like whoa, that is so cool, something so little and something I perceive is so like, you know, like too small or like too gritty for God. God's like. No, I'm like, I'm in there. I think it was very healing for me in my journey in correcting a lot of my view of how I view myself and how I view how God looks at me.
Kendall Peterson:Well, thank you for sharing that. You know, the term gets thrown around.
Announcer:Yeah.
Kendall Peterson:And more people should really kind of dive in there because, like you, what I found remarkable was just that the way that you articulated that was beautiful. And to think that we have our bodies and we have our feelings and we have everything that makes us human.
Kendall Peterson:It's easy to think that God is separated from that, because God's God right and he's not human easy to think that God is separated from that because God's God right and he's not human, even in the process of becoming human through Jesus and all of that. You can learn so much. So I'm going to put in this episode, I'm going to definitely put a link to more information about theology of the body, because I think it'd be wonderful for for the listeners to to explore that and kind of see where it goes.
Trish Vega:Yeah, for sure.
Kendall Peterson:So, um, as we, as we get closer to the end here uh, as I reminded you at the beginning, it was very fast Um, it's hard in this world to openly live your faith if you want to live in the world in the way the world defines it, right, and the people who don't are are. You know, we're different and we're viewed differently. Yeah, there can be a happy marriage between the two and you can be pretty mainstream. You know, I run a business and all of that. But it's hard, and I would say probably harder, on a college campus to a certain degree, right where everybody's at that phase in their life where they're trying to explore who they are and what they are and answer all kinds of questions and the megaphones that are pointed at them to tell them things that just are blatantly untrue or pretty prevalent, or in your role, or you know just how do we, even as a parish, yoked to a college campus or university. How do you live that?
Trish Vega:Yeah, I think a college campus can be a very polarizing place of people from all walks of life coming together in one space and being quite vocal about it. I think it could be very challenging. I think I also view it as one of the most beautiful opportunities, because college students are yeah, there's lots of wrestling and lots of like identity, figuring out which can lead, can lead astray, but it also means they're so curious and so open and so desiring to know what's good and true. And I think one of the principles I love about theology of the body is John Paul II talks about this idea of personalism, of really trusting the human experience, experience, and if we are truly made in the image and likeness of God, our something about our human experience will always point towards him, even if it's twisted. So I love being on a college campus for that very reason, because I can have like college students are willing to have dynamic conversations and as long as we have an attitude of curiosity, even in the face of opposing opinions, we can usually come to a place of like.
Trish Vega:Oh, at the root, we're all looking for love. At the root, we're all looking for acceptance to be seen and to be known At every desire, that is the distillation of it and that always and only points to God. So I think, as long as we can, as we are brave and curious enough and I think that's what my students have modeled to me and what I've learned is having the courage to enter into the messiness of it and be able to point at the root of whatever um is being said and being like oh, we all just want to be loved. God's there, and then it's really awesome and it's really awesome.
Kendall Peterson:Yeah, um, wow, thank you for articulating that um, and and we're at the end of our time, unfortunately, because I could probably go on for an hour easily and explore Trish, thank you for sharing it and for sharing your personal story and all of that and for the nice overview on Theology of the Body. So I'll definitely put links. I'm so grateful to Trish, to all of my guests that I have, for people taking the time to have these conversations Really, really special to me, and for the messages I get of support, the people asking questions, the people who engage in this medium, which I never expected. I just want you guys to know that I'm very, very grateful for that.
Kendall Peterson:I do want to acknowledge our producer, rachelle, today, who is back with us. She's been—I thought she fired me and she's been gone for a couple of weeks. So thank you, rachelle. A big shout-out to Michael and Grant Miller for your support of this show. A big shout out to Michael and Grant Miller for your support of this show and for the rest of you, for the listeners, for the viewers. Stay in prayer, stay true to your journey and just know that God always loves you. Amen.
Announcer:Thanks for tuning in to the Everyday Apostle. Don't forget to like and subscribe on YouTube, on your favorite podcast outlet, and at our website at everydayapostlecom. Until next time, stay blessed.
