March Update!

 We finally took some group pictures! Y'all probably know by now I love pictures so I'm going to start by sharing those. 

This has been such a fun staff team! 

Top, left to right: Darby, Shayla, Drew

Middle, left to right: Steven, Becca, Ryan

Bottom, left to right: Keanna, Cathryn, me

And our corefa team this year! A bunch of goofballs.

And Keanna! She's one of our apprentices I've had the pleasure of supervising this year. And she's sticking around another year!

SICM season is upon us! SICM (Student Institute for Campus Ministry) is an annual conference we get to take our students to in the Seattle/Bellingham area. It's a great chance for our next class of leaders to bond but the main purpose is to train them in disciple-making and send them back to DFW as missionaries. I love this trip and these students! 

Many of them have to fundraise (the picture is from one of our fundraising meetings). If you would like to contribute to our scholarship fund to help these students go on this pretty life-changing trip, I'll include a link below.

anyfocus.org/sicmpayment

I would love if you could join me in praying for these students! They really are tomorrow's church leaders and I am praying for God to root their identity in Him so that everything they do flows out of what they see the Father doing.

One of these students. Kadie, just got baptized! Such a sweet thing to see the heart change God is bringing to so many.

And here's some random things that have happened in the last month.

Owen and Eli love their babysitters!

Owen got to see a real-life sloth on campus! 

Owen loves his staff buddies - Steven and Joey!

And that wraps up March! I'm praying for you all this Easter weekend to be reminded of Jesus' love for you and to find rest in Him.

Love y'all,

Perfect Love Casts Out Fear

 I've been thinking a lot about fear this month. We just finished a sermon series called Perfect Love Casts Out Fear (based on 1 John 4:18) and it hit home with so many people, including myself. This generation of students is often described as anxious; we reference the Fear of Missing out and Fear of Better Options that keeps people from community and friendship. But there's also just a very high rate of fear and anxiety in the world. World events, the future, disease, death, exams, social situations - there's so much we can find to be afraid of or at least intimidated by. 

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:18)

We can't control what's going on around us. I often tell my students that they are not responsible for how other people respond, only how they do. We can't control other people and we often have little say in our circumstances. But we can control our response to the things that worry us. We can choose to take those worries to the Lord and let Him love us with his perfecting love. He can reshape us. He can reshape our priorities, our emotions, and our concerns if we let Him.

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:18)

So, I've been thinking a lot about surrender and trusting the Lord. I thought I'd share some reflection questions that came out of the sermon series:

In prayer - 

- What am I actually afraid of happening? What's the worst that could happen?

- If that happens, what would I do?

- How likely is that to happen? Is my fear reasonable? (We talked about how fear is a natural safeguard against dangerous things but our minds build these  thought patterns that can lead to anxiety when that isn't the appropriate response.)

- What is God's heart in this? How does He want to take care of me? What might he want to teach me here out of His love for me?

I hope some of that makes sense and is an encouragement to you. I think these sermons were good for our students and for me. If you wanted to listen to any of them, they are on Spotify!

Sermons

Pizza Theology

This semester's theology talk with pizza for dinner was so good! We talked through how the Bible came to be as we have it, why it can be trusted, and how to study it more holistically. What a good time! 

Photo Dump

I am reminded every day how blessed I am to get to do what I do. And that absolutely wouldn't be possible without you paving the way with your prayers and generosity. Sincerely, thank you. 

Kindly,

Winter Retreat and the Start of the Year!

What a good start to the year so far in Denton! I'm feeling refreshed and I'm excited about what I see God doing on these campuses. It seems like our students are the most invested in building God's kingdom I've seen in a number of years.

And oh how sweet it is to do ministry with my kid along for the ride. I love watching people love Owen. They get so excited for him to be around! A student described him as "a little drop of sunshine" and I couldn't agree more. My meetings have more interruptions these days but I think it's been so good for the students to have him there. So many of them have broken family backgrounds and have expressed how cool it is to watch a baby grow up in a better environment. 

I have also been able to be on campus more this semester, meeting new students and doing outreach! Owen is a pro at running an information booth. I've missed being on campus so it's fun to be back!

We had WINTER RETREAT!

This was probably one of our best retreats. I've heard so many students speak about how impacted they were. The theme was Disruptive Grace and the Lord seemed to disrupt and exceed people's expectations of how He works and how much He loves them. So sweet! You're welcome to listen to the audios from the weekend, they're so good!

Spotify Link

Our little community has experienced real growth in terms of both numbers and maturity. However, many of our students and staff have experienced real hardship, too. There have been family deaths, medical emergencies, depression, family hurt and drama, and other tough situations. Will you join me in praying that those facing hard things will be able to turn to God for strength and comfort? Thank you.

Love y'all! Praying for you.

Pray with Me for Winter Retreat

We're already hitting the ground running as the spring semester approaches! This Friday kicks everything off with our annual Winter Retreat. Generally, we tend not to put a ton of emphasis on events but this one is our biggest and often most impactful of the year. We take the long weekend and invite students to spend time with friends in fun and worship. The winter break can be difficult for many students but we find that God uses retreat as a catalyst for real change in many people's lives and faith. Would you join me in praying for this weekend? Pray that people would be willing to take a chance and give up their time for this. Pray for us to be open and looking for how God is moving in people's lives. Pray for GOd to draw people closer to Him. And pray for deepening friendships to help people grow in their faith in community.

December

Owen and Eli love hanging out at staff meeting.

We had our Christmas party with the students! This group is so fun and fun loving; they jump at any chance to hang out together. And most enjoyed getting super dressed up!

My staff and friends, they make ministry so meaningful.

We got to dedicate our sweet boy to the Lord alongside some close friends. I'm overwhelmed with gratitude for this church and community that wants to support us and love Owen so well.

Merry Christmas!

Love y'all!