Humans of SteubySTL – Mary Kate Buncher

Mary Kate has been coming to SteubySTL since 2006, and this weekend is her 25th Steubenville conference!

If you were here last weekend – or if you watched the Livestream – you know that she was the female worship leader (and she killed it, by the way). Between conferences this year, she has been volunteering her time as a liaison, helping with LEAD. And if you are here this weekend, be sure to say hello to her in the bookstore (and go back and view the Livestream of worship last weekend; did you hear that she killed it? well, she did.) Besides those roles, she has also been here as a teen participant and as a young adult chaperone.

When she is not here at Steubenville, Mary Kate spends her time working as the Campus Minister at Notre Dame High School, an all girls Catholic high school in St. Louis Missouri. She also leads praise and worship for various ministries, youth groups, retreats, and conferences. She loves to listen to Taylor Swift albums on repeat until she comes out with her next one. “RIP the old Taylor, I miss you”. She loves to get creative by painting, songwriting, sewing, playing guitar, beading, bedazzling (not really, but she wants to bring it back), decorating new spaces, etc…

Her favorite part of Steubenville conferences is seeing everyone worship our Lord in freedom. She loves it when teens experience the love of Christ so much that they throw their hands up in praise and belt out songs in worship; that really gets to her. Seeing teens opening their hearts and and offering praise with such abandon and freedom is an amazing thing to experience every year.

Her advice for anyone trying to keep the spirit of Steubenville alive is to “surround yourself with people who also share a relationship with Christ. It is much easier to maintain a relationship with Christ if you allow him into your own friendships. If you feel like there is no one to talk to about your faith, or to hold you accountable, or go to Mass or Adoration with, its going to be hard to grow and maintain a relationship with Christ. If we are made in the image and likeness of God and He is a community of persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, don’t you think we’re also called to be in community with each other? I sure think so. Never be ashamed to have a relationship with the One who gave you everything.”

Fun facts:

A few years ago on Saturday night of Steubenville when everyone was getting pumped up, a couple of friends and I dressed up as a chicken, a gorilla and a banana and danced down the main isle. It was wild. We were chaperones, not teens, by the way…

I do not have a twin named Ashley, so no, I don’t know where she is if you were wondering.

If you look me up on Facebook you will see that my name is hyphenated there, but technically it’s not… I got my Facebook in 8th grade and wanted to be like Mary-Kate Olsen… I need to look into changing it.

My uncle invented the loudest whistle in the world. nbd.

I’m for real in love with donuts but I am also fructose intolerant, so please keep me in your prayers.

I’m a worship leader but I have zero tattoos, what’s up with that?

I met the Jonas Brothers in a Build-a-Bear, Kevin shook my hand and Nick and Joe hugged me. I was shook.

Written by Paul Masek
Paul Masek is Lisa's husband and is honored to be the father of four practically perfect kids ~ Jacob, Audrey, Kyle, & Dominic. For fun, Paul loves hunting, fishing, eating, and hanging out with the fam. He claims to be the funniest person he has ever met - and his wife says he hasn't met enough people - because she is funnier. He also loves stirring it up and is the director of the REAP Team for the Archdiocese of St. Louis. You can find out more about Paul by following him on Twitter & Insta - @clasekmasek