Aaron Gunsaulus, second from right, his wife Cami, third from right, and two of their children enter the Catholic Church during the 2025 Easter Vigil at Immaculate Conception Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
By Dan Russo
The Catholic Messenger
(Editor’s note: This is the first article in a series.)
NEWTON — Aaron Gunsaulus, a former Protestant pastor and new convert to Catholicism, recently sent out a message on X about the “wild ride” his journey of faith has been. By the time he got home from Mass that Sunday it had gone viral and has since been seen by roughly half a million people.
“Fifteen years as a Reformed pastor; resigned in 2024 due to burnout,” he wrote Oct. 11. “My wife and I and two of our six kids ended up coming into the Church this year at the Easter Vigil. Concerns and objections from several friends led to conversations, which led to their own investigations. Now 17 of our closest friends and their children are coming into the Catholic Church tonight and we’re sponsoring many of them.”
Gunsaulus asked social media followers in a “Catholic Twitter” thread to leave a “‘Welcome home!’ for our friends!” on the day they received their sacraments at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Newton.
“Converting to Catholicism has been life-changing for our whole family,” wrote Tom and Katy DuVall, members of the congregation Gunsaulus’ once led. “Our relationship with God has never been stronger. We have a deeper love for him and his church. It has given us a hunger and thirst for more and more. We have been warmly welcomed at Sacred Heart! We truly feel we are home!”
Gunsaulus, his wife Cami and their children are natives of Newton. The path to becoming Catholic for the family began when Aaron, who was serving as the pastor of his town’s Christian Reformed (CRC) Church, rekindled his longtime friendship with Keith Nester. The former Methodist pastor from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is a Catholic convert who is known for his efforts as a lay evangelist. When the Gunsauluses came into the Church during the 2025 Easter Vigil Mass at Immaculate Conception in Cedar Rapids, the Nesters were there.
“The thing I most remember from the Vigil is the sacrament of confirmation because it was there that I could stand and observe and … not just experience my own confirmation but watch my wife’s and then my son’s and then my daughter’s,” recalled Aaron Gunsaulus. “I was able to press pause and take that in, in that moment. When it came time for my first holy Communion, that really sticks out to me. Keith (Nester) had been sponsoring me and my son. His wife (Estelle Nester) had sponsored my wife. By the time I go up there, he had just got there too. We were both up there kneeling and receiving the Lord in the Eucharist at the exact same time for my first Communion so that was very memorable.”
The four other families started asking questions of their former pastor earlier this year, which led them to begin the Order of Christian Initiation for Adults (OCIA), which is the formation process people go through before joining the Church. Over 20 people have become part of Sacred Heart Parish in Newton including new Catholics and two people who were raised Catholic, left the Church and came back.
The additions have been a blessing for the community, according to Luke Gregory, director of faith formation at Sacred Heart.
“I was not part of Aaron’s OCIA journey,” said Gregory. “However, getting to know Aaron has been such a blessing to me. He is a remarkable man of God! As for my time working with the four families that just came into the Church, it has been wonderful! They are eager to get involved, and they are on fire for the Catholic Church. Knowing that their journey to the Church was not exactly easy — there were definitely struggles and hardships involved —their examples of fortitude and perseverance have been inspiring to me. I am very blessed to have been able to journey alongside these families and to hear their stories, and I am thankful that I can now call them friends.”
For Nick Vasquez, the return to Catholicism involved a series of experiences coupled with study and reflection.
“My family was ecstatic,” said Nick. “They had been praying for my reversion for many years. I am a very committed family man so my small circle of friends were at our old church. Some were angry, some were neutral, some were supportive and some I would later find out were joining the Church on their own path.”
Nick exposed his wife to what he was learning, but didn’t insist she make any changes to her religious views.
“I had a markedly different experience warming up to the Catholic faith than Nick did,” said Josey Vasquez. “I had always adored our Newton CRC church family — we both did — and could not fathom the idea of leaving. Over the last few years, Nick had conversationally shared with me things he was learning, but never pressured me. I would tell him, that’s great but just don’t go turning Catholic on me! As time went on, I discovered some Catholic truths that made me rethink some misconceptions I had.”
At a time when only 29% of Catholics attended Mass weekly according to a 2025 Pew Religious Landscape Study — the faith and passion of the Gunsaulus family and their friends stand out. One theme that is common in the stories of all the converts in Newton is the way God can work through good conversation and personal relationships. Gunsaulus said he and his wife view the fact that their friends joined the church as a “gift from the Lord.”
“They’re our friends and they wanted to know what we were doing,” he said. “We gave them the answers that convinced us. They started looking into some of the things on their own. Something happened within each couple.”
(Part two of the series will examine the conversion experiences of three of the couples in greater detail and explain the OCIA process.)
