Local priest brightening people's days on Tik Tok

 

GOSHEN, Ind. — A local Michiana priest has become a viral Tik Tok sensation as he spreads joy by dancing, singing, and flipping into the hearts of his community and even the world!

With 12,000 plus views on one video along coupled with hundreds upon thousands of views, Padre Jose Emmanuel Arroyo-Acevedo has been posting daily videos pairing his zest for life with his love for God and his community.

“I am amazed how a video I post, within 30 minutes could have a thousand views!” says Padre Jose.

Padre Jose has been an ordained priest for almost a year now serving at St. John The Evangelist Catholic Church and school.

Unfortunately, stay at home orders have been affecting his typical daily interactions with the community and his students.

To try and help provide that connection to each other and Mass, St. John’s has been posting daily Mass videos in Spanish and English.

However, Padre Jose felt this was not enough.

A parent reached out to me and said we need to do something for the youth, they are stuck at home and bored to death and they need some hope” says Arroyo-Acevedo “I said, let’s do something for the youth!”

Arroyo-Acevedo wanted to do something to help him engage with the teens and younger youth so he learned what and how to “Tik Tok” when he had never even heard of it before!

Padre Jose has multiple videos under @padrejoseemmanuel all from doing the latest Tik Tok trends and dances for the teens to creatively making up his own videos for preschoolers to help them understand Jesus and the Mass and even to differentiate between their hands and feet!

“Oh my goodness it did not take long to realize there are inappropriate things for our youth out there and I want to make a difference” says Arroyo-Acevedo “Talking and doing videos, sharing my talents, my God given talents with everyone—I love it! The backflips, the dancing, the stair shuffle, all of it.”

Not everyone has reacted positively to the videos, “They criticize us saying why are you not doing serious stuff” and Arroyo-Acevedo says “we do serious stuff as well but we have to have a bit of a fun side to ourselves!”

Especially in such a difficult time, like we are currently facing with the coronavirus, we all need some positivity.

“Everyone has joys and sorrows and we just cannot pile up sorrow upon sorrow just belly aching about the difficulties we’re facing, but realize we can have fun!”

Padre Jose says he plans to continue making videos because it allows him to share his gifts and love for God and the community  through a platform he hopes to bring love and respect too.