Settling In

Thank you!

September has brought so many exciting and encouraging adventures, and I have been reflecting on how I got here. The reality is I would never be able to do this ministry without you. Partnering together has provided me so many opportunities to invest in students, to grow in knowledge of the Word, and to develop my ministry tool-belt. So I just wanted to say thank you again! Your generosity has greatly impacted me and the students on campus. 

Fall Camp.

September brought Fall Camp along with it. Every year FOCUS puts on a 22 hour camp for our students at a retreat not very far from Dallas. This is a time when students can get away from their schoolwork, focus on God, and develop their relationships in Core as well as the community at large. This years camp was full of fun games, powerful student sharing, and only a little rain... We had these posters where the students could write about how another person in our community had impacted them and lived out the one another verses. These posters were an absolute hit and contained so much incredible sharing. 

Outreach.

Our year long outreach plan started up this month, and with that came some amazing experiences. We designed some display boards to draw in people and ask them about happiness, what makes them happy, and if religion influences people's happiness. We had so many of our students show up to help us, and because of that we were able to reach a bunch of new people. I had quite a few really amazing conversations myself. People were very open to sharing about this topic, and expressed a wide range of opinions. We probably had about 10 students in an hour and a half say they wanted to get involved with FOCUS!

Studying the Bible. 

I started my Bible study with a guy we'll call Jim. Jim expressed so much openness and eagerness when it came to diving into the Word. He has a good amount of gaps in his knowledge of the whole story of the Bible but wanted to jump into filling those gaps in! Even at the very beginning of the study he asked questions like "How do you grow to have a personal relationship with God? Through knowledge or emotional experiences?" I can't tell you the last time I had a young college student ask me a question like that! God is doing some great things with Jim, and I can't wait to see where it all goes!