Six I AM HERE testimonies shared with Disciples Unleashed Family of Parishes
MACOMB – Parishioners were invited to stay after the 5:30 p.m. Mass at St. Isidore Parish in Macomb Township on March 3 to hear testimonies on the transformative power of Christ's presence in the Holy Eucharist.
Jordan Beachnau, Jon Zabick and Nick Switzer had previously shared their testimonies as part of the Archdiocese of Detroit’s ongoing I AM HERE campaign, an immersive initiative designed to encourage Catholics and others to discover Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist.
The campaign launched in June 2022 in response to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ three-year National Eucharistic Revival, which seeks to spark devotion to the Blessed Sacrament amid reports of waning belief among Catholics.
The I AM HERE campaign features hundreds of testimonials about the power of the Eucharist in people’s lives through written stories, photos, videos and podcasts, as well as guided reflections and meditations in partnership with the Hallow app. As of March 2024, the website has published 227 stories in English and 65 in Spanish.
St. Isidore Parish is a member of the North Macomb Vicariate Family 2, the “Disciples Unleashed” Family of Parishes, which includes St. Therese of Lisieux in Shelby Township and St. Francis-St. Maximilian in Ray Township.
Three women, Flor Lara, Sr. Sor Marina Estela Gomez, CMI, and Maria Morales, delivered I AM HERE presentations in Spanish at St. Francis-St. Maximilian on March 3.
“The stories that we tell matter – this has been the story of our church from the very beginning,” Leah Butalid, communications coordinator for the I AM HERE campaign, said before introducing the speakers. “The early Christians told the stories of what they had seen and heard in the person of Jesus Christ, and that’s why we have a church today. That’s why we come, Sunday after Sunday, to encounter and receive our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, so we believe that these stories continue on. We believe that there are people in these pews every single Sunday whose hearts and lives are being transformed because of Jesus’s real presence.”
Jordan Beachnau, a father of two, with a third baby due in August, shared how he was baptized in the Catholic Church but didn’t discover his faith until adulthood when he joined a nondenominal church alongside his sister.
In his exploration of faith, Beachnau says he began to reach the works of theologian Scott Hahn and the writings of the early church fathers. As he studied, Beachnau, a parishioner at the National Shrine of the Little Flower Basilica in Royal Oak, said that “scripture came to life” for him, and he became Catholic at Easter 2017.
“I continued to fall in love with Jesus in the Eucharist, and I had such a profound transformation in 2017 where the things I thought I would never be able to break off, like addictions, Jesus was healing me,” Beachnau said. “The Eucharist has transformed my life.”
Like Beachnau, Jon Zabick, a St. Kieran Parish in Shelby Township, parishioner, said that he was raised Catholic and fell in love with his faith, but his parents moved the family to an evangelical church right before his confirmation in eighth grade.
Zabick said he found community in his new church but always felt like something was missing.
To deepen his faith, he enrolled in seminary at Liberty University, founded by famous evangelical preacher Jerry Falwell, and studied theology and church history at the graduate level. As he studied, he felt his faith conflicted with the evangelical church environment, Zabick explained.
It was a family wedding at Sweetest Heart of Mary Parish in Detroit where everything began to change, Zabick said.
“This is the first Mass I had been in probably close to 35 years,” Zabick said. “Now, during that first Mass, I felt a longing to participate in the liturgy that just left me really wanting after I left. I didn’t participate, but I felt like I should, and that really stuck with me.”
Zabick continued to dwell on that experience until he and his wife were again invited to Sweetest Heart of Mary for another wedding. As he sat there, Zabick said he became overwhelmed by the church's beauty.
“I was just starting to take all of it in, and all of my Catholic memories came back to me and the sweetness of the church, Zabick said. “I was looking at the tabernacle, and I saw the constantly lit flame, and I knew from my past what that candle that’s ever-lit signifies: the presence of Christ in the Tabernacle.”
Zabick said that, in that moment, he understood that God was present.
“Down to my core, I just felt like the presence of God was near me, on and in me in a very powerful and tangible way, and he was calling to me,” Zabick said. “I was breathless, I was tearing up, and I was starting to find it hard to breathe. My wife put her hand on my knee and asked me what was happening. I just said, ‘The Lord is here right now,” and she said these words, ‘Just do what he says then.’”
Zabick said he heard God asking him to participate and re-engage with the faith of his childhood.
“I felt pulled out of the pew to take the Eucharist, and I went up with just this hunger and expectation, and when receiving the precious body, I felt that he was looking over me in the sweetest way,” Zabick said.
Upon returning to his evangelical church that Sunday, where quarterly communion was being distributed, Zabick knew he could no longer take that communion. He left his evangelical community and returned to the Catholic Church.
For Nick Switzer, a parishioner at St. Joseph Shrine in Detroit, he had always understood that God was at the center of his and his family's lives.
“One thing I didn’t understand was that Jesus was truly present in the Eucharist,” Switzer said.
However, during Sunday Mass at The National Shrine of the Little Flower Basilica in Royal Oak, Switzer went up to receive Communion and had a profound experience.
“When receiving the Eucharist and after receiving the precious blood, there was a supernatural atomic explosion of roses and flowers,” Switzer explained. He immediately knew that this was a gift from St. Therese of Lisieux – “the little flower.”
“It was our Lord showing me that it was really him,” Switzer explained.
Butalid invited those present to visit iamhere.org to read testimonials similar to Beachnau’s, Zabick’s and Switzer’s.
“You will find hundreds of testimonies from ordinary men and women throughout the Archdiocese of Detroit whose whole lives and hearts have been transformed because of an encounter with Jesus in the Eucharist,” Butalid said. “Hopefully, you will be inspired to come and encounter Jesus in a renewed way by hearing these stories.”
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