Monthly Ministry Update
The Beginning
Hi friends and family! Welcome to my ministry blog! August arrived marking the start of my apprenticeship with FOCUS! Although only a few weeks have gone by, it has already been full of exciting events and sweet moments of communion with God. I have often been left teary eyed as gratitude has swelled in me for this opportunity to spend the next 10 months serving college students and building a deeper foundational understanding of scripture. I am so thrilled to share how God is already at work and how your partnership is building up the Kingdom of Heaven at Collin College.
Hitting the Ground Running
This is the apprentice crew for the 2023-2024 school year! The 10 of us get to serve college students at the following campuses: UT Dallas, University of North Texas, and Collin College (Plano, Frisco, and Wylie).
Staff Retreat
Each semester, all the FOCUS staff members gather together for a four day retreat to refresh before the start of the school season starts. During this retreat, we looked at Jesus's temptations in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11). We reflected on the three temptations that Jesus was faced with and that Christian leaders continue to be faced with: the temptation to be relevant, to be impressive, and to be powerful. In addition to this scripture, we also renewed our perspective on the vision, method, and purpose of campus ministry. The vision is making and maturing disciples on college campuses. The ways and means are love and self-sacrifice. The purpose is to make Jesus known. The retreat also provided the time to be in nature, play pickleball for the first time, meet and befriend different campus ministers, and have meaningful team bonding sessions with the Collin team. Needless to say, spending four days with people who have given themselves to the mission of God for college students, mediating on Scripture, spending time alone with God in prayer, and praising God in his creation, was life-giving and encouraging and felt like fuel for the events to come!
Our FOCUS staff picture. I am so honored to serve alongside such Kingdom-devoted individuals! |
The Collin College Team
Collin staff and Core Facilitators at our Prep Day! |
Thursday Night Fellowship
The students packed out the Cougar Cafeteria. |
Closing Thoughts, Prayers, and Thanksgiving
- The student leaders - Being a student leader is a commitment of self-sacrifice rooted in love. It can be busy for students to juggle reaching out to their peers, inviting them to events, planning their small groups, attending classes, and some of them even working a job on top of this as well.
- New and returning students - during our week of outreach, I met many students that expressed how they had been praying and looking for community. Please be praying that the Spirit would work in the lives of these young adults and lead them to himself. Additionally, please pray for students who don't yet know who Jesus is. May their hearts also be softened to hearing the gospel.
- My fundraising - As I mentioned above, I have gotten to experience the generosity of God through his people during the fundraising process. I am deeply grateful to have been able to fundraise 88% of my salary for the year (praising God for this provision)! As the semester goes on, I deeply appreciate prayers that He'd help me to be fully fundraised.
Comments
Post a Comment