The Beginning of Blessed Art Thou Tours, LLC
In January of 2013, my husband, Bruce, and I made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land about eight months after his conversion to the Catholic faith. We had a long journey to his conversion and to my reversion to the Catholic faith that enabled both of us to finally have our marriage blessed in the Catholic Church in June of 2012. Together we were beginning to grow more strongly in our marriage. We have been blessed in abundance ever since! Our trip to the Holy Land was our first pilgrimage together and it proved to be an extraordinary and life-changing experience for each of us.
During this time, I had a very successful but busy corporate job where I was traveling 33 weeks a year, and Bruce was working as a telecommunications specialist for an entertainment company that specialized in automated DVD rental kiosks. Six months after returning home from the Holy Land, my father moved in with us and I decided to quit my job to be able to spend time caring for him. What a precious gift to have so many special memories with Dad! Ultimately, we moved Dad into assisted living in the spring of 2015 and I reluctantly returned to corporate life in July 2015. Dad passed away later that same year in November.
Bruce retired in 2016 and began getting more involved in volunteer work. In November of 2016, we made a pilgrimage to Rome. After that trip, Bruce worked for a brief time as a Tour Coordinator with a US-based Catholic tours company where he was able to travel to Ireland with a pilgrim group. Unfortunately, I was unable to make this trip with him.
Meanwhile, after 30 years of corporate experience, my heart was desiring to serve in an apostolate for Christ. I am grateful to Spirit Catholic Radio for playing a key part in reverting me home to the Catholic Church after a 15-year exile. I joined their team in October 2017 to help with community outreach. In March 2019, I left the radio station and began working for St. Patrick Catholic Church as the Parish Manager, a job I absolutely love! Six months into my position at the Church, I coordinated a parish pilgrimage to Mexico City with a non-profit organization, Hope of the Poor. Both Bruce and I made the trip. Later, we found ourselves returning to the Holy Land again in November 2019 on a pilgrimage where Bruce was the Tour Coordinator.
In March 2022, I was feeling a strong call by our Blessed Mother to go on a pilgrimage to Medjugorje and Bruce decided he would come too. We were both very moved by the experience and began talking a lot about starting up a tour company. I returned to Medjugorje in October 2022, but Bruce was unable to join this tour. Together we returned again to Medjugorje in March 2023. Finally, in April 2024 I organized a group on my own and was the Group Leader of a pilgrimage with a beloved priest friend of ours along with Bruce and 13 other pilgrims. It was a very successful tour. In August 2024, while on a silent retreat at The Cloisters on the Platte, I received a strong message from Our Lord and Our Lady to begin our own tour company and to call it Blessed Art Thou Tours.
As a couple, Bruce and I are so excited to embark on this journey together, using our skills and talents to build a network of travel partners, clergy, and pilgrims as we travel together to encounter Christ through Marian-inspired Catholic pilgrimages to sacred and holy places.
Jolene Jefferies, President and Founder
Bruce Jefferies, Vice President
