End of the Year

The school year is officially over. With all this quarantine stuff this semester has absolutely flown by. I've been spending time reflecting on the year and all that God has done in what feels like such a short amount of time. He really has done so much up here in Denton, and I'm sure everywhere else. It seems that a main theme at least here has been setting down roots. Denton FOCUS has undergone a lot of change in the last couple years, and it has made building a consistent culture in our ministry pretty hard. A lot of the younger students didn't really have great examples of what it looks like to mature throughout their college experience. This year though I feel like the Lord has been raising up leaders to set the example, and putting people in places where they can become pillars for our community for years to come.

My Guys

(The one on the right. All these guys don't have photos by themselves)

Some specific examples of how I've seen God working this year would be through my peer team. These guys have done an amazing job of leading their small groups all year long.

Johnny is a super sweet guy, who is one of the most encouraging people I know. I don't mean he is just nice, but he really does encourage you to try your best, when you're around him you just want to give it your all. He's had a rough past, but I believe he is learning how to turn his misery into ministry.

(middle one)

Johnny led Core with Joseph, who is one of the most well spoken college students I've ever met. He is very eloquent, and has a way of really being able to capture people with his words. He is also incredibly self motivated, and is always striving to learn more and grow. I can't wait to see how he uses these gifts to further the Kingdom even more.

Justin and Esdras were my next pair. Justin is one of our leaders who has been around for a long time. This year was his 6th in FOCUS. Over that time he has become one of those pillars I was talking about. He is a very skilled leader who has some really solid pastoral intuition. He also is just a light to whatever room he's in.

His co-leader Esdras is similar in his skill for community building and looking out for his guys. The exciting thing though is that he was only a sophomore this year. I'm so glad we have a couple more years for him to impact our community.

Lastly we have my co-leader Tyrus. He has a heart for God and listening to the Spirit like no other. His prayer life is exceptional. He is a constant source of laughter and joy, and I'm really going to miss having him around now that he is moving on and working full-time. I've been blessed to have all these guys in my life this year, and they have all impacted our community greatly.

Summer Leadership Training

Sadly we had to cancel our annual leadership conference up in Washington this year. But as an alternative we are putting on leadership training virtually with some socially distanced options for those who want them. It will be three eight hour long days of training on discipleship, small group leading, question asking, friendship building, bible study and more. We are expecting around 20-30 students from Denton alone to participate in this. That blows my mind. We have that many college students who are willing to give up part of their summer for learning how to become leaders in the Kingdom.

Summer means partnership building, so a huge prayer request is that Darby and I can meet our goals this summer and be in a place where we can focus 100% on ministry next year without having to worry about more support raising.