Tzu Ping Liu is an international student from Taiwan at the University of Florida who will be entering the Catholic Church this Easter — all thanks to a post he made on Facebook Marketplace and an unlikely friendship.
Liu — who goes by the first name of Davis — is a 30-year-old, second-year graduate student who is part of the Taiwanese military and came to the United States, accompanied by his wife, to study aerospace engineering. In need of some friends when he arrived, he took to Facebook Marketplace — a platform used to buy and sell items — to find them.
Robert Manoogian, a 20-year-old sophomore at the University of Florida who is studying mechanical engineering, came across Liu’s post looking for friends and decided to reach out and invite him to attend “Mass and Meal” with the Catholic Gators on campus.
“He came just to the meal part the first two times and then he started asking who Jesus was and then came into Mass with me and then he printed out a pamphlet on his own of the Mass in Mandarin and then the Mass in English as well,” Manoogian told EWTN News.
“I was trying to understand the process, like all the Mass, what they’re doing right now,” Liu added.
He explained that in Taiwan the primary religions are Buddhism and Taoism. Due to this, he had never been introduced to Christianity before arriving in the United States.
“When I first went to Mass with Robbie, I was really shocked because what I saw was all the students praying very deeply,” he recalled. “I have never seen this in Taiwan … So this really made me very curious about this religion. So I started looking on the internet, trying to know more about Jesus.”
He shared that he began to read a book given to him by Manoogian on salvation history, which he called “logical” in comparison to the religions in Taiwan.
“In Taiwan there’s a lot of gods and every god has his independent story and it didn’t connect to each other. So it becomes very confusing. It’s like chaos,” he explained. “Then when I read the books that Robbie gave me, I found all this logical. In Genesis, God created humans and then something happens from the prophets and then Jesus comes to the Earth and saves the humans. It’s all logical. So I was very curious about this story.”
Liu recalled the moment he knew he wanted to enter the Catholic Church. During winter break, he was struggling with doubts of whether or not he really wanted to get baptized and become a Catholic. He shared that on the Sunday before classes resumed, he attended Mass and the Gospel reading that day was on the baptism of Jesus.
“During Mass, the Father explained that even though Jesus was without sin, he chose to stand with the sinner. So it’s like he was walking the path of obedience to set an example for us. And it really hit me straight to my heart,” Liu said. “So this is a miracle that I can’t explain. It’s like God was speaking directly to me and then gave me the answer.”
Now Liu is a part of OCIA — the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults — and will be entering the Church this Easter with Manoogian by his side as his sponsor.
Tzu Ping Liu (Davis) and Robert Manoogian with Bishop Erik T. Pohlmeier of the Diocese of St. Augustine, Florida, after the Rite of Election, which took place on Feb. 28, 2026, at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Robert Manoogian
Manoogian added that Liu has also started sharing his testimony during Thursday evening dinners with other students who speak Mandarin and have never been introduced to Christianity, which has been “very powerful to witness.”
Liu shared that despite his wife being “shocked” by the news of him becoming Catholic, she was supportive and he is hopeful she will one day join the Church as well.
As for Manoogian, this experience has been one-of-a-kind and has strengthened his own faith by walking with someone whose only knowledge of Jesus was that he was born in a manger.
“It’s been like this big brother, little brother moment in a sense because I’m Davis’ big brother in the faith, in a sense, as a sponsor, but then he’s ahead of me in the same engineering classes that I’m taking. And so it’s like this weird dynamic that works out perfectly, that’s led to just a great friendship as well,” Manoogian said.
He added: “And it’s definitely deepened my faith because I feel sometimes people are like, ‘Oh, like how did you get Davis so interested in the faith?’ And I didn’t really do anything, you know? I just told him who Jesus was and then it was kind of planting that seed and it wasn’t me at all in a sense, which has been really cool to see.”
“A lot of the time we’re so focused on the right things to say to people on evangelization, but at the end of the day, it’s just introducing the idea and then God works through them and sparks their interest. So, it’s definitely grown my faith as well.”
Reflecting on their experience as a whole, Manoogian said: “I think that God can use any source, any moment in your life, any place in your life, to spread the Gospel — through something like Facebook Marketplace or even just in class — and the constant spreading of the Gospel to a stranger in the slightest way, like an invitation to Church, can change the trajectory of someone’s whole life.”
