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?

Merry Christmas!

I wanted to stop in and wish each of you a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. You are such an encouragement to me; Thank you for reading along!

We got to wrap up the semester with such sweet moments I wanted to share with you!

Chloe, one of my corefas, had her last Christmas concert! TWU puts on a good show with their whole music department and it's so special. It also takes me back to my choir days, for whoever knew me then! They do a really awesome version of Silent night where they turn off the lights, leaving just the (fake) candles and the choirs walk down the aisles humming so you feel surrounded. As they sing it really does feel like a silent night, a chance of stillness to connect with the Father who gave us his son as a baby that changed the world. In the midst of the Christmas chaos that was a real blessing to me.

Our staff got together for our annual Christmas dinner. I can honestly say that these people here are some of my closest friends and they can make me feel so known. They keep me light-hearted and Jesus-centered and encourage me to love people deeply. I'm so grateful for them and this chance to work with such high quality people.

Bonus Owen picture!

I hope you have had a restful and joy-filled holiday. Thank you for being such encouraging partners in this mission to reach college students, making and maturing life-long disciples. 

Love y'all,

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you have had a wonderful thanksgiving with such good food and company!

November has absolutely flown by but I wanted to let you in on what's been happening in my ministry this month! 

We got all of the campuses together for another Pizza Theology, where Rikk Watts walked us through reading John. I love getting the chance to hear form someone like Rikk who has a passion for reading Scripture well in order to know God's heart for people. Every time he speaks to our group, I'm encouraged all over again to not give up growing in my own understanding of God's Word!

The theology part!

The pizza part, with Chloe!

I also got the chance to catch up with some sweet friends a couple days ago! 

Left to Right: Hannah Winks, me, Chris, and Becca

Y'all might recognize Chris, a student I discipled a few years ago. This group got back together because Chris was on leave after finishing Coast Guard basic training. She's about to head to Virginia then California for CG culinary school! It was so sweet to see her and to see how she's become a full adult since I first knew her. God has truly shaped her to be a more stable person for His glory and I could not be more proud of her!

I have run into students in pretty hard life situations this month, some dealing with fears and frustrations around immigration, one in a potentially dangerous relationship, and at least a couple dealing with being pregnant. All of that feels heavy and I've needed to make lots of phone calls to get help for people. I share this to ask for your prayers for these women and for wisdom for me as I try to walk with them. 

Help Us Keep FOCUS Growing!

If you haven't heard, we're in the midst of our big fundraiser so we can keep the lights on and reach new campuses in the DFW metroplex! There's some info below and you can click the picture to check out the giving page. Would you consider giving?

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I need you to know how much I appreciate your love and support. You make ministry lighter and partnering with you is so meaningful to me. Thank you for your role in my life and ministry, I couldn't do this without you!

Love,

Fall Retreat!

October was jam-packed, celebrating milestones and getting to retreat with the whole community for the weekend! Here's what went on:

Our friend Eli turned two! Darby, Drew, Eli, Shayla (not pictured), and I all have birthdays in October so we're constantly celebrating someone this month. 

Victoria, who you might recognize from a couple years ago, got engaged! So proud of these two for dating in a way that honored God.

And I turned 30! I don't know why this picture is so blurry but it reflects how much of a blur this day was. But I loved the chance to celebrate with this crew.

Fall retreat fell on my birthday again so I spend the first half of the day surrounded by college students - who would not stop singing to me! Seriously, any time a group saw me they'd immediately start singing Happy Birthday, it was so fun. 

Fall retreat is the biggest, most formative event we put on as a campus. It's where we get the chance to really emphasize friendships that center around the Lord. We have lots of fun together and worship with lots of energy! 

Hannah had her first experience coordinating food for 250 people - so many snacks.

If you ever wonder what I'm doing behind the scenes, it's checking people in, always.

Casey as Papa Smurf for the blue team

For the last few years our students have put on a gospel choir during the worship night, which is awesome every time.

Love y'all!