Film tells story of Michelle Duppong, FOCUS missionary who ‘evangelized through friendship’

CNA Staff, Nov 12, 2024 / 06:00 am

Servant of God Michelle Duppong was 31 years old when she died from cancer on Dec. 25, 2015.

A young woman filled with joy and a fire for the Lord, she was born in Colorado and grew up on her family farm in North Dakota, after which she served as a Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) missionary before becoming the director of adult faith formation for the Diocese of Bismarck.

Duppong’s inspiring life has now been documented in a film being released for one day only in theaters nationwide on Nov. 12 called “Radiating Joy: The Michelle Duppong Story.”

The documentary includes actual video footage of Duppong throughout her life, up until the moment she died, and includes commentary from her parents, siblings, friends, co-workers, and Monsignor James Shea, president of the University of Mary in North Dakota, who worked with Duppong to establish FOCUS at the university.

CNA spoke with Jessica Navin, executive producer of the film and manager of spiritual formation for FOCUS, and Stephany Anderson, senior manager of operations for FOCUS alumni, about Duppong and the film.

Navin explained that the inspiration for the documentary came from internal videos created for FOCUS staff about the virtues using Duppong as a model. A team from FOCUS went to Duppong’s home in North Dakota to interview some of her friends and family, but while they were there, more and more people reached out wanting to share their stories about Duppong.

“We ended up getting 30 hours of video testimonies,” Navin said. 

With this content, a 45-minute documentary was made for FOCUS staff about missionary discipleship. Soon after the documentary was shown to FOCUS staff, Bishop David Dennis Kagan formally opened Duppong’s cause for canonization on Nov. 1, 2022. 

“We realized that we couldn’t just share Michelle’s story with our own staff anymore. We had to share it with the world and so we partnered with Anderson Arts to create the current documentary, ‘Radiating Joy: The Michelle Duppong Story.’”

Both Navin and Anderson knew Duppong personally. Anderson met Duppong when she was a freshman in college at South Dakota State University (SDSU). It was the first year FOCUS was on the SDSU campus. Anderson, who had just attended a FOCUS conference, was on fire and wanted to know the Lord more deeply.

Duppong invited Anderson into her “discipleship chain” — a term used in FOCUS to describe when a missionary “disciples” a couple of other students and teaches them how to teach others about the faith. Anderson was in Duppong’s discipleship chain her freshman and sophomore year.

Anderson recalled visiting Duppong’s family home to take part in what was dubbed “the Duppong experience.” The small group of students would drive four-wheelers around the farm, attend Mass at St. Clement Catholic Church — a small, old church that Duppong loved — and spend time together.

“It was simple and beautiful and life-giving,” Anderson recalled.

From all the memories she carries of her time with Duppong, Anderson shared that the one thing she continues to carry in her heart “is her laugh. Just saying my name and laughing. Actually it was pretty special to watch the documentary and they have audio clips of her, and it just made me cry to hear her voice.”

Navin spent one year working with Duppong at FOCUS before Duppong went to work for the Diocese of Bismarck. However, even in that year, Duppong left a lasting impact on Navin. 

Navin shared that when Duppong was sick she contacted her asking her to pray with her ahead of a major surgery at which Duppong’s uterus was to be removed. 

Witnessing to her incredible grace in suffering, Navin said: “She’s definitely been to me an example of incredible sanctity both in the ordinariness of her life but also in the extraordinary trust that she showed in the midst of her suffering.”

Anderson was also a witness to these incredible qualities in their friend. She told CNA about a dance that was put on for Duppong (who loved to dance) several months before she died. A school gym was filled with people all waiting to see Duppong, but no one was sure if she would make it since by that point she was in severe pain from her cancer battle. 

“She does come and she just sits in her chair and greets this endless line of us wanting to just take a moment with her. And with every person she is receptive and she smiles and she is so loving and she was my Michelle that I knew in the past few years,” Anderson said. “Even in the midst of so much pain and so much discomfort; it wasn’t about her.” 

“As soon as I walked up to her to hold her hand, I couldn’t say anything because my heart was broken to see someone I loved so much suffering so intensely and she just said, ‘Oh Stephany, how are you doing?’ And she did that with every person who walked up to her.”

Both Navin and Anderson pointed out what a great role model Duppong can be, especially for youth. 

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“She went to school, she had exposure to technology like we all do, she had to do chores,” Anderson said. “For the average person today who is living right now, who is a youth right now, she was exposed to a lot of the same things that they are, lived a similar life, and found in this life a pathway to heaven and to the Lord, and she had a particular love for her peers who were seeking out what is truth and who is God and what am I made for?”

Navin added: “I think that today in our digital age, we see evangelists on YouTube and we think, ‘Oh, I could never do that.’ And yet, we are all called to fulfill the great commission. And so, every young person has that same call to bring people to Jesus. And when they see Michelle’s example, she was somebody who was ordinary and evangelized through friendship.”

“And for young people, but for all people, they can also look at Michelle’s example and say, ‘I don’t need to have a degree in theology and I don’t need to have a YouTube channel in order to bring people closer to Jesus. I can just be friends with them, walk with them on their journey, and tell them what Jesus has done in my life and then teach them to teach others to do the same.’”

As for what she hopes people will take away from the documentary, Navin highlighted two things: “That holiness is accessible to every single person — holiness is no more than being open to God. Saying ‘yes’ to God … And the second thing is that we are all called to evangelize, and it doesn’t have to be difficult. It can be as simple as reaching out in friendship to another person and telling them what Jesus has done in your life.”

Anderson said she hopes that “people who have not heard yet that they were made for heaven, I hope that pierces their heart. That they hear, if they haven’t yet, for the first time, and believe it — that they were made for intimacy with the Lord and it’s possible for them.”

“For those who have heard that, I hope they hear that their role in this life is to share that with others and to bring as many souls with them to heaven and that we are all called to evangelize.”