“A lot of people don’t expect me to be religious,” said Nicholas Gruesen.
Gruesen is known for playing various sports such as football, hockey and lacrosse, but many people do not know how special his faith is to him.
He attended Catholic grade school and had Catholic/Christian upbringing, but he never really thought about religion much.
The person that influenced him to connect with God was NDA’s former campus minister Daniel Kriegl.
“He changed my life for the better,” said Gruesen.
He used to go to Kriegl’s study hall every day where he signed up for cleaning at the homeless shelter.
Gruesen said he has been blessed by being able to easily talk to people he doesn’t know, so he and his friends from study hall got together to buy and serve pizzas at the shelter.
“But when the homeless people came out to eat it was very difficult to talk because I didn’t realize how much I had until I saw these people,” he explained. “You don’t see what you have until you see what they don’t.”
He saw many people struggling but found one way to connect with them.
“No matter how well off you are or not, you can connect to Jesus. The universal language is your relationship with God,” said the junior.
He encourages others to serve in a homeless shelter or find some way to help in the community.
“There are a lot of opportunities here, not only at NDA but in Green Bay in general,” he said.
