April Update

Spring is in full season! That means allergies...

The semester is coming to a close, yet there are still so many things happening! God has been continually at work despite my awareness of it, and that's a really good thing. It can be easy for me to check out early thinking things are almost done, but God has been diligent in pushing me on to finish the race. Here are some the things that God has done this last month :)

March Update

 Marching On...

As the semester passes its halfway mark, I'm left with lots of thoughts on what the future holds, while also looking back and seeing how much God has been working these last few months. This month, we've had several more opportunities to interact and engage with students outside playing games which has been so much fun with the warmer weather. Here are some of the things we've been up to...

February Update

 A Chilly February

Wow, what a month! The last time I remember it snowing that much in February was back when I was in Elementary School. Nonetheless, we were still able to provide opportunities for students to be involved and relied more on our remote connectedness to help alleviate any boredom there was without power. God still showed us that we are equipped enough to handle situations like this and that He is still in full control.

January Update

What's up 2021

Last year proved to be fairly turbulent and unpredictable, which still seems to be the case now, however, it's exciting to see some changes that we've been making on our campuses! As this year begins, I pray that students continuously find opportunities to make new friends and that the Lord would work in their hearts to draw them closer to Him.

Outreach

This year we've ramped up our presence on campus and have started meeting every Tuesday to play games out in the lawn as students walk by to their classes. Turnout has been really great so far and it has already drawn in students to join our ministry! It's clear to see that people still want to make friends and this semester for many is their first one in college, so we need to be sure that we're faithful in reaching out.

A New Friend

This is Johnathan, he just arrived here from Malawi, Africa, and he's one of the students that we've met on campus this month. He's such a sweet guy and I've enjoyed spending time with him these last few weeks. It's people like Johnathan that remind me of the mission we're doing and it's crazy how God had thrown him our way at a time I was pretty discouraged doing outreach. Praise God!

Staff Meetings

I don't think I've mentioned our staff team before, so here it is. Each week, our Collin Focus staff teams meets up to discuss things that our students on campus need. This semester, we're focusing in on three main ideas: togetherness, prayer, and scripture. We've divided our team of 10 into groups to take on each of these ideas, and I'm on the team that comes up with ideas to bring about "togetherness." So, we've planned this semester outreach events like you saw above, park day hangouts, worship nights, and more. Look forward to these as the semester goes on!

Deep Dive

So, we used to have weekly fellowship nights on Thursdays last year, but we got rid of those due to Covid. Now, as we've gotten more of a feel for how to distant ourselves and be outside, we've returned to this idea but focus primarily on the teaching of scripture. Every Sunday evening we will have students come to a church parking lot where they can see each other, some for the second or even third time all year, crazy.

Apprentices

Towards the beginning of this month, the staff teams from all the Focus campuses went on a retreat to spend time with one another and do a book study over "Money and Power," super good. We were all tested so no one sick thankfully, and we all played games and hung out with each other. So here is a photo of the interns that you've seen in previous blogs, aren't we neat?

Garrett

This is my Garrett. I meet with him each week on top of meeting with my direct supervisor, Pedro. Garrett has led the Collin Focus team for several years now and is someone I look up to very much. He's smart, funny, and pretty talented to say the least. He gave me permission to use this photo which quite actually sums him up pretty well.

What I've been learning

God has really been showing me that I don't have to perform to earn His love, which is so freeing. Recently, I've been reading a book called, "The Vulnerable Pastor," which has been such a joy. So far, I've read the first two chapters and was taken aback by how much I can relate to the author wanting to have it all together. I'm learning more about how God works and wants us to play a role in His creation The part that stood out most was the idea that God is our dad that needs to fix a car, and even though. we may not know what needs to be done on it, he'll ask us to hand him a wrench or two or let us turn on the ignition to see if it's working. How neat it that?

December Update

The End of the Semester

December marked the end of a very tumultuous year that was challenging and difficult for most people, however, despite the difficulty this year brought, God was always on the move and it ended up pretty well. There were still opportunities for students to get to see one another in small group setting with a couple larger group settings as well, and the vast majority of our ministry had at least one person meeting with them regularly helping to disciple one another. In addition, my classes at the church proved worthwhile and challenging, and I learned how to write and present a sermon.

November Update

Reasons to be thankful

Just like that, another month has come and gone as we inch closer towards the end of this semester. This month has brought with it both challenges and blessings, but I'd be remiss to neglect the good things that have been going on...

1. Worship

We started off the month with our first in-person worship night. Sent Church in Plano was kind enough to let us use their property to host this event for our students. Before-hand, we played lawn games like spike ball and tossed around a football while there was still daylight. It was the first time students had been to an organized event since the school year started and we couldn't have been happier to help put it together. We wore masks and stayed outside the whole time to be safe, even if that meant getting a little chilly once the sun went down.

Our worship was led by William, Kylie, Luke, and Johnny who all did a phenomenal job setting the tone for the night to be centered around God. None of them go to Collin currently or are working alongside our team this year, so it makes it all the more special for them to come and help us lead in that way. Our sermon was led by Garrett who challenged students to think on the character of Jesus and who He is. Overall, there couldn't have been a better start to the month and we will continue hosting socially-distant worship nights in the near future!

2. Student Leaders

Our guy leader team has been growing closer as friends and in depth with the Lord. Throughout this semester, I've witnessed our student leaders coming into our weekly discussions prepared and ready to learn and reflect on ways to better their faith journeys. We recently finished reading the Book of John and spent each week going through the scripture and talking through what stood out and what we could apply to our ministry on campus. I'm continually thankful to be leading two small groups with Alden and Matt whom I've talked about in posts pervious, I couldn't do it without them.

3. KFG

What is KFG? Glad you read this, because this is an annual support drive that Focus has to "Keep Focus Growing." Some of our generous donors have banded together and agreed to match up to $42,000 in total donations during this campaign. So, if we receive $42,000 in total contributions, they will kick in a second $42,000. Your first chance to give will be on December 1st. Each year our ministry pulls in this money to help kickstart more Focus ministries at different college campuses in the North Texas area and to bring in new equipment used to reach new students. 

On a separate note, just this last week our students from all our campuses were challenged to give and raised over $13,000! It's cool to see God move hearts towards the campus vision.

4. You Guys!

I often reflect on how cool it is thatI get to do what I do because of all those that contribute to me financially. Thank you does not go without saying and I want to make sure that I show how thankful I am for every one of you that made this year happen for me. It's a hard thing for me to take on so much generosity and I often would rather "earn my keep," but I know that God doesn't need me to earn His love so I accept it humbly.

What I've been learning...

Ever since we finished our Old Testament class, it feels like the coursework has gotten lighter by comparison, but we've now transitioned into new classes and finished those up as well. We took a Financial Stewardship class and a class on Spiritual Leadership. Both classes offered more on practical lessons that I haven't been taught much either growing up or in school, so I've found this very helpful. We learned about investing, debt, credit, loans and much more in our Financial Stewardship class and how to honor God with our money, and learned ways to be an effective leader in the other class. What I appreciate most about the Apprenticeship is that these 10 months aren't specifically geared towards making us into campus ministers, but to better equip us with skills we can use both in and outside of ministry. My prayer of recent is that God would continue working in me what He started until the day of completion.

I ask that you pray for our students as the semester draws to a close that as we transition into the break between semesters, that students would not isolate themselves but would be willing to stay involved in community.

Alumni Testimony

October Update

Where we're at so far...

Wow, it's hard to believe October is already over! These past few months have felt to both fly by and last ages at the same time, but it's all good. This last month has left me pretty tired, but that typically happens to me towards the tail end of each Fall Semester by combinations of strings of long days and the changing weather. Our ministry is still in full swing and we're constantly meeting new students on campus that are eager to engage in new friendships with others. In addition, our small groups are still meeting together and  I've personally seen God changing hearts and minds to look more like that of Jesus which is super exciting. Even though we haven't been able to partake in many big events, I've been learning the significance of one on one discipleship and being faithful with what God has given me.

The Team

Pictured here is our "Corefa Team," or you can just say small group leader team. All the guy student leaders meet each week to discuss how our small groups are going and to have spiritual discussions. The meetings are lead by our senior staff in which the girls also meet each week but we find it more efficient to split into guys and girls to talk about things that are more geared to either gender. Altogether, we have 7 guy students leaders and 4 staff guys.

Leadership Conference

This last weekend, our guys met together outside and watched a live-streamed leadership conference that our church put together. This was to encourage and foster leadership among our team and we invited people in our small groups to come that we thought would benefit from hearing about it themselves. In it, we heard from pastors and other leaders in the community about how to lead well and what steps we could take to get there.

Outreach

Something new that I've tried is sitting down with a sign that invites people to come talk to me about whatever they want! I've found this to be a great tool in drawing in those that are looking for someone to talk to and takes away some of the burden of seeking out people myself because that can be tiring after hours of doing so. My favorite conversation so far has been with a Muslim girl that initially asked me about what I thought about Trump to which we talked about religion. By the end of our short conversation I had brought up the idea that Jesus would love unconditionally to which she agreed. It's moments like these that encourage me to keep up to good fight and run the race of faith.

Zoom Meeting with Ian Provan

One really cool opportunity we had was to meet with Ian Provan, a lecturer and Seminarian professor at Regent College in Canada who provided a lot of the material we covered in our Old Testament class that we finished last week. He is very kind and had thoughtful responses to questions that we had from taking our Old Testament class. Ian has taught for a while and the privilege to meet with him was an invaluable experience.

What I've been learning

One thing I enjoyed reading was the ending of one of our class books. My favorite part comes from pg.145 of "More Ready than you Realize." “But Jesus did not call us to a parking lot; he invited us on an adventure, an odyssey, a journey that will never end.”

One interesting thing that Ian said on our Q&A with him was after I had asked him why God would regret making Saul of the Old Testament (see 1 Sam 15:11). Ian had basically said that it was tough to say and that there are things we just can't understand from a human POV. However, it is safe to say that God has allowed us freedom to choose what to do on our own that God chooses not to be in control of. Sure, an all knowing God must know the workings of creation, and we as a people are within that sphere and yet God has given us control to choose for ourselves at the same time.

Please pray for our students to continually grow closer to the Lord and for all the students on campus to be reached out to and that they would find true friendship

Student Testimony