May - SICM!!

 

The Lord has been so good to us this year! We were able to send around 150 students to SICM, our annual leadership training conference. Each of these students has expressed a desire to pour into others, to break the mold of self-centered individualism, and to love others more deeply. What a cool group!

I got to go to the first few days of SICM in Seattle so here are some photos from that. 

Really good ice cream, from Salt and Straw. I explored Seattle two days and had ice cream three times somehow :). (Left to right: Bella, Nia, Amyiah, Adriana)

Chinese food in this tiny, tiny restaurant with these sweet girls! (Left to right: Ciara, Alex, Adriana, Amyiah)

And golden hour on the pier. (Left to right: Amanda, Ciara, Adriana, Alex)

Amyiah and Nia being goofy on the ferry to Bainbridge Island.

My two favorite things to do at SICM are walk around Pike Place Market and take the ferry to Bainbridge! I thoroughly enjoyed getting to explore with these girls! Getting to talk to them and walk way too much with them really brought us together - huffing and puffing up hills will do that.

I also decided to do a hike that I probably shouldn't have at 20 weeks pregnant. But I did it and was proud of myself!

The hike back had a LOT of stairs that really slowed me down but these sweet guys refused to leave me, slow as I was. 

What a sweet trip! And everything I've heard from the TWU girls since they got to go through the actual SICM material has been nothing but encouraging.They seem lit up, so excited to get back on campus and reach new students, drawing closer to God all the while. Thank you for your prayers for this trip!

Fundraising Update!

You all have been so generous to me over the years, whether by prayers or money. I've been struck over and over again how grateful I am to have so many care about this mission and my calling to it. Thank you for sticking with me, with these students. 

May begins our season to fundraise for the coming year. I'm starting out at about 70% fundraised, which is really encouraging not to start at zero each year! The maximum I could raise this year is $3,800/month, about $1,000/month away from where I am now. Would you join me in praying for how God would want to provide what I need? 

And please, if you know anyone who might be excited to hear about what God is doing on these campuses, would you let me know? I'd love to talk to them!

Other end of year festivities!

My peer team, these girls have been such meaningful friends and partners in ministry this year.

We celebrated the end of the year with a Y2K themed party, complete with cheap pizza and side parts. 

Love y'all! 

April Update

We're wrapping the semester up already! Here's what we've been doing to celebrate another year of God bringing these campuses closer to His kingdom.

We've had our last Thursday Night Fellowship - complete with worship they didn't want to end.

We also had our annual Open House, geared towards parents, extended family, and anyone the students see as influential to them. It was such a sweet time getting to see students worship the Lord, next to their parents! 

One of the girls I meet with became a Christian in the last 3 years and that put a strain on her family relationships. She's been trying all year to navigate including them in her life and faith. At Open House, they were visibly moved by God's heart on display, which was a huge deal for the student. And it just reminded me how much God is softening hearts in ways we don't even know. These students often get to be missionaries to their families so we work hard to see their whole life be submitted to Jesus. I love getting to see a student's faith grow so big it can't help but overflow. 

Coming up!

We're looking forward to our final celebrations this week! We've got a baptism night, our End of Year Party (going big with a Y2K theme!), and a leader party all in the next week.

Then in a couple weeks we send people off for SICM, a campus ministry leadership training in Washington State. Aaaand I'm going for a few days so expect lots of Seattle pictures in the next update! Please be praying the students on this trip, for them to be able to fully grasp God's love for them leading them to disciple others in love.

Some other things I'd love prayer for!

- Most of the corefas at TWU are moving on to internships and student teaching, or graduating. Would you pray for God to make clear who He's calling into leadership next year? And that He would be preparing them well now.

- May starts my fundraising season! Would you pray for me to form even more meaningful connections with people who are excited about campus ministry? 

- We are considering some big changes in how we organize our student leaders and may potentially add different roles for students to fill. Would you pray for wisdom for our team? Our specific goal is around being able to effectively reach/befriend pockets of campus and not only people interested in joining a ministry.

- If you haven't heard, we're expecting our second kiddo in October! We would love your prayers for this pregnancy and baby!

FOCUS is turning 30 this fall! Whether you're an alumni, prayer partner, or financial supporter, you've been a part of this mission and we'd love to see you there! 

If you are an alumni of any of our campuses, would you fill out this quick form to help us keep in touch? 

https://web.charityengine.net/alumniupdate

And here's this month's student testimony!

Love y'all!

Spring Break Outreach and Other Fun Things

Spring Break Outreach

For the last couple of years, our Denton ministry had the honor of hosting some students from Washington state on their Spring Break mission trip to our campuses. Some of y'all might remember our friends in Washington as I've talked about SICM, the leadership training conference we send students to in May (more on that in a couple months!) The same ministry based out of Western Washington University sends their students out to colleges all over the country to practice outreaching to different campuses. We got to host this awesome group this year! They were sweet, energetic, and so so appreciative as they themselves came to serve Denton. 

We all got to try out new ways to reach out to students on campus and serve them. My favorite was our version of foot-washing, free shoe cleanings! Such a fun way to engage people in conversation.

The boys even got in on the fun!

Of course, we had to give them a real taste of Texas at the end of the trip!

The Worth Fort Stockyards were a must-see, especially the cattle drive. 

Then we went over to Dallas - Bishop Arts and the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge for photo ops (and weird jungle gyms!?)

We even had a special Thursday Night Fellowship - Texas style complete with line dancing afterwards.

Other Fun Things

Katlyn and I finished FoJ! Focus on Jesus with her has been so sweet and encouraging. Katlyn is a naturally gifted minister to the people around her and her desire to grow in her faith in all areas of her life is a real inspiration.

"My friend Cassy" - Owen

Denton North Church had our annual church retreat! I loved the chance to spend the weekend with friends, chasing our crazy kids around.

Owen loves when Casey holds him during worship.

I hope you all are doing so well and enjoying spring! Please let me know if there's any way I can be praying for you specifically.

Love you all!

Mission in Denton

Y'all, I have been blown away and so encouraged by these students this month. Titus 2:14 comes to mind as I think about them. "For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good." So many of the people I get to spend my week with are eager to do what is good. Even if they don't get it right all the time, they are soft to the Lord's grace and repent. 

Denton can be pretty dark as a city. Loneliness and depression are rampant, individualism and personal freedoms are people's gods, and in some corners hopelessness feels heavy. But I get to experience a different side of Denton where Christians want to be good neighbors and where they take the initiative to serve before they are served. Students are eager to take actions that would show God's love to people. 

Our staff has kickstarted a new initiative for outreach. We're calling it the 20/60 Mission - with 20 seconds of courage, God could change the next 60 years of someone's life. Part of the goal is to help lower the barrier of reaching out to people. It's not about 24/7 constant conversations and meeting new people. Sometimes all God needs is for us to be brave for 20 seconds, long enough to start up a conversation with someone and get through the initiate fears and awkwardness. I think this has been really energizing for our students! We've also been talking about Acts and mission in our sermons this semester and we challenged everyone to invite a friend to TNF one week so we could pack out the biggest room on campus we can get. They brought somewhere between 50 and 100 extra people!

We also had some students put on a Black History Month celebration. Amidst some awesome gospel choir songs, students shared their experiences growing up in their respective cultures and how God worked in that to teach them about his heart for people. 

One of the goals of this night was to help our whole community develop a deeper understanding of people and their diverse backgrounds. Many who shared are first generation African students who grew up in a family with very different cultures than the one I did. But these students get kingdom diversity. We weren't celebrating diversity for diversity sake, we were celebrating a God who loves everyone and is working to bring everyone into his kingdom - every nation, tribe, tongue, and people. They want to honor God first in everything they do, what an inspiration.

Glenda, one of the corefas I get to meet with, shared about her childhood and coning to understand her place as God's child.

Random cool story! A student gave $847 to our offering with a note that said "saved up since December. Thank you, focus, for ministering to Denton." That kind of intentionality is just pretty countercultural and it's amazing to see God work in hearts like that. 

Photo Dump!

I visited Chloe and Glenda's core and got to celebrate Jazmin turning 21!

Darby and I took Elias and Owen to the zoo!

Silly boy

As an update, I would still love your prayers regarding my personal financial support. Jon and I are navigating some financial shifts and I'm hoping to fundraise about $450 in new monthly support. While fundraising mid-semester can feel a bit daunting, I'm choosing to trust that God knows our needs and will provide. Thank you for your prayers and ongoing support! If you're looking to give or increase your giving, here's the link! (If you are already giving, you may need to still "create an account". We changed systems in July/August.)

Some exciting stuff is happening in Denton. Thank you for being a part of it! Peep the student testimony, Chloe is featured! 

Our 30-Year Celebration is just around the corner and you're invited! Please help us spread the word by inviting any of your friends who are alumni or with anyone who might like to join.

If you’re an alum, please take a moment to complete our contact update form to ensure you don’t miss any updates. We can’t wait to celebrate with everyone in October. Our big celebration will take place at CityBridge Community Church in Plano.

Love you guys!

Winter Retreat was Awesome!

Have we thawed out yet? I hope y'all are well and stayed warm this week! 

Winter Retreat

Right before all the ice, we had Winter Retreat! There were about 800 people in attendance, pictured above. This is my favorite big event we do, a whole weekend dedicated to connecting with God as the year begins. This year, we had Marty Solomon speak. If you haven't heard of his podcast, the BEMA podcast, I highly recommend it. At retreat, he talked about the story of Genesis and has an inspiring way of bringing the story to life. If you want to listen to the talks, here's the link.

The talks, the worship, and the many many walk-and-talks all culminated to such sweet and fruitful conversations. I think students are more eager to learn the story of Scripture - the story that, as Jesus followers, is now ours. They have caught a glimpse of the story God has been weaving from the beginning. What grace that we all get to be a part of it! Many I talked to want to learn to trust the story, to watch for how God is working things out even in the midst of suffering.

Owen got to participate in a dance class! We plan lots of fun activities, like dancing, improv, and crafts so the students can have fun and make friends.

My peer team this year. From left to right: Caitlynn, Glenda, Cassy, me, Mary, Chloe, Stephanie. Each of them have been such a blessing to me and I'm grateful to work alongside them on campus!

As a fun throwback, this was my core at winter retreat in 2016! I was a sophomore here, crazy what God has done in ten years!

UNT, TWU, and NCTC pictured together.

UNT

And TWU!

Bonus snow pics!

Prayer Requests

- I would love your prayers regarding my personal financial support. Jon and I are navigating some financial shifts and I'm hoping to fundraise about $500 in new monthly support. While fundraising mid-semester can feel a bit daunting, I'm choosing to trust that God knows our needs and will provide.

- I talked with a number of students at retreat who are in pretty tough circumstances. They're facing intense grief, anxiety for their families, processing past abuse, and more. Would you pray for these students to trust God and the story He's writing?