My name is Emily Armentrout. I am currently an Adapted Physical Education Teacher at Freedom Acres (Ionia ISD) in Ionia. I work with students ages 3-26 with a wide range of abilities including Cerebral Palsy, Autism Spectrum Disorder, and Emotional Impairments. I have a passion for inclusion and teach my students that they too can accomplish all things. [Click the title to read Emily's story.]

My Name is Steve Anthony; I am a husband and father of 2 little angels in Heaven and 1 soon to be on Earth. My Catholic life did not start for me until I met my Wife (dating at the time) Annie, who is a devout Catholic and comes from a family of devout Catholics. She made it clear to me that she would want to raise a family Catholic and because Catholicism is part of Christianity, I was ok with that concept. I did not know how important it would become in my life. [Click the title to read Steve's story.]

My name is Sarah Beckham-Marshall and I am a wife, mother of 2, and licensed mortician in the state of Michigan. Since before I can remember I have been fascinated by theology and how we experience the Divine. I was raised Baptist, but felt myself being pulled to some faith unknown at a young age. I always felt a pull towards the Catholic Church and to Our Blessed Mother, especially in my own motherhood, but never fully committed to conversion. [Click the title to read Sarah's story}

My name is Markus Martin, I am new to Catholic faith. [Markus is a Catechumen who will receive Sacraments of Initiation at the Easter Vigil] I was drawn to the Catholic religion for the understanding of strong faith and living life through God's Word and teachings. I am looking forward to being baptized and becoming a member of Saint Andrew's church. Some of my hobbies are art, spending time with my kids and family. I also enjoy going to the gym and traveling. I am looking forward to meeting more people from the church.

I’m Andrea Parunak, a homeschooling mom of eight (soon to be nine!) children, who loves reading, ballet, and gluten-free dessert. I was a life-long, committed evangelical, who studied linguistics and Hebrew in college with a special interest in Bible translation work. But as I went on in my faith, I struggled with an uneasy hunger to go deeper with God. I wanted to know God intimately and be transformed by him. [Click the title to read more.]

My name is Emily Armentrout. I am currently a Physical Education Teacher at Merrill Community Schools, teaching grades K-12. I have a passion for inclusion and work with children who are blind/visually impaired as well as children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. [Click picture to read more.]

Hi, my name is Colton Mallouk. I’m currently a medical school applicant and am working at Michigan Medicine in Ann Arbor. I’m a pilot, scuba diver, hiker, and I pretty much love doing anything outdoors.  Religious studies has always been a huge interest to me. I grew up in a Christian home and attended a Presbyterian church on Sundays and went to a Baptist elementary school. [Click picture to read more.]

Hey there! My name is Michael Paruank and I am so thankful to become a part of the St. Andrew family. This past year has been a time of learning and growing for me. I went from believing Catholicism was a false religion to being received into the church this week. In October of 2019, my dad went to our local library and picked up a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. [Click picture to read more.]

Hi! My name is Carissa, and I am so, SO excited to be entering the Church! About a year and a half ago now, I started to feel like God wanted His Church to be unified, not only in heart but also in mind, in belief (Philippians 2:2, 1 Corinthians 1:10). But, I told Him that because we all have to read the Bible for ourselves, that was impossible, and I dared Him to show me how we were supposed to be one if that’s what He really wanted. [Click picture to read more.]

In early April 2020, I learned an important lesson about the power of prayer. I was seriously injured in a freakish auto accident. I was alone in my garage, with the car in reverse, not park; I got out and the open door knocked me down to the floor. The moving car ripped the door partly off its upper hinge and trapped me with the damaged car door laying across my chest. As I lay there, I remember saying, “Please God, I don’t want to die like this.”