Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1546119
45 "I believe there was a seed that had been planted in my heart long before. As a young teenager, I was already curious about Jesus, and my heart had been quietly open to him. When I reached out at one of the most painful moments of my life, God, in his love and mercy, met me there. He reached down, wrapped his arms around me and offered the com- fort, peace and strength I so desperately needed," Dee shared. "Looking back, I see that it was not a sudden turning, but the unfolding of a relationship God had been patiently nurturing all along." That difficulty led Dee to seek more. She joined a Protestant Bible study, where she learned to talk with Jesus and even ask him to be our Savior. Her heart was then ignited in faith, leading her to seek Baptism. When she shared that news with her cradle Catholic husband, they decided they would both go through the Order of Christian Initiation for Adults (OCIA) at Holy Name of Jesus Parish in Steamboat Springs. "With him by my side, I felt comfortable," Dee said. "He's my support. It's been wonderful. And studying God's Word is amazing." Now newly baptized, Dee says her life has "been elevated tenfold." "If you come across my friends and family, they will say Dee's always been a happy-go-lucky girl," she shared. "I've always been happy, but I feel so much happier and more at peace. I can tell you I'm 100% at peace because of what God's been teaching me to do. I just want to spread the word." "I work amongst people who truly embody what living and working in the name of Christ is and what it would remind me of," Ryan shared. "So I'm surrounded by people who just exemplify living in the name of Christ." Eventually, that Christ- likeness broke through, and Ryan — along with her hus- band and son — began OCIA at Christ the King Parish in Denver. Newly baptized, Ryan's heart has been set ablaze by faith. "It has changed me and moved me so much," she shared. "I want to give that to my child. Because I didn't have that growing up, and I spent so much time wandering aimlessly, I'm desperate to give my child that moral compass, that guidance, that life. If the one thing that I can give to him is a life in Christ, then I'll have done my job." In short, Ryan said, she's just filled with tre- mendous awe and gratitude. "I just feel so blessed and so grateful to have made it, finally, to this place where I do have that sense of peace," she said. From Pain to Peace For Ryan Sherman, faith came slowly — even painstakingly. Raised in a nonreligious household with an excess of difficulties, she had no interest in faith. But due to a providential and painful turn of events, she found herself in Colorado, looking for a job, and ended up at Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Denver. Now surrounded by Catholicism, she found herself slightly more open to faith and "dabbled" in Christianity at a megachurch. They periodically invited members to be baptized, which nagged at Ryan — but she wasn't yet ready. One day, out of the blue, a Catholic Charities coworker went out of her way to deliver a message she felt she had received from God: "Keep pursu- ing him." That interaction and the faithful, loving accompaniment of several coworkers — clergy and lay alike — over 20 years devotedly cared for the seeds God had planted. DENVER CATHOLIC | AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2026