Welcome to MyOrthodoxFamily.com! Tell us who you are.
My name is Robert John Koys, better known as just “Bobby.” I am a 22-year-old man from Chicago, Illinois, and I’d be glad to share my story with you.
I was raised in the Chicago suburbs, and have recently moved to the city. I have not officially been confirmed as an Orthodox Christian yet, but I have enjoyed my journey here, through all its ups and downs.
I was baptized a Catholic, but became skeptical of religion around high school due to the rise of “New Atheism” on the Internet that was prominent in the first half of the 2010s. Eventually, however, I came back to religion and began a spiritual “quest for truth” when I entered college. It is here that I discovered the beauty of Orthodoxy, and although there have been many bumps in the road, I’m in a great place in my faith right now.
I started my Instagram account because it simply felt like the right thing to do. On there, I plan to connect my love of philosophy and general pop culture with the teachings of the Church. I want to try something new with bringing more people to the Church, as the type of evangelism I have in mind doesn’t seem to be happening elsewhere. Not in English, anyway. In the meantime, I am a college student studying business and looking for employment, but am open to the possibility of becoming a deacon.
What do you most enjoy sharing? What do you feel most called to share?
I enjoy sharing my presence with others. I’m a very extroverted person, and can generally get along with people very easily. I like to make people think with my passion for philosophy (my friends like to discuss politics and religion a lot, haha), make people laugh, and nowadays, share the Gospel, usually through my actions, for, as the saying goes, they typically speak louder than words.
The world of social media is complex. What do you see as difficult and as redemptive about sharing your journey in this way?
Social media is the new way people share ideas, and being on there is a great way to share who you are and what you believe. Doing so can be fun, but also challenging. For instance, I’ve had to delete a couple of posts on my account because the premise, wording, or something else, didn’t feel 100% Orthodox, even though I was trying to make it as such. Better to stay silent than to mislead.
What is your earliest, distinctly Orthodox memory?
Funny you should ask. I remember having a dream around the time I was five years old about a building that I never saw before. I was an infant being carried by a man and a woman, and there were many people walking towards this building.
During my early stages of Orthodoxy, I briefly attended Liturgy at a Serbian parish near my hometown that ended up being the building I saw in that dream. It was viewed from the side of the church’s kitchen entrance, which does not look like a church from that angle, so I didn’t know it was a church until I saw it in real life. The man and woman carrying me ended up being the church’s deacon and his wife, and everyone else walking toward the church was a parishioner I saw at the Liturgy. Funny how God works.
What do you hope will be the mark you leave on the world as you pass through it?
A Christlike life first and foremost. Everything else being just using my gifts on behalf of God.
My Orthodox Family 