FInish Well

We had our last Thursday Night Fellowship of the school year and it was bittersweet. These students have been such a joy this year, their energy is infectious! They even forced the worship team into an encore this week, these hooligans love to worship the Lord together ;).

As a ministry, we value deeply principle of raising up leaders. We devote a lot of time to developing people and one way we do this is through teaching leadership axioms. These become a large part of our ministry "toolboxes" that help keep both students and pastors on track. As the year comes to a close, I'm reminded of one axiom in particular: Finish Well.

This axiom is about realizing that we are often most remembered for how well we finish our time in a relationship or organization rather than for how things go in the middle, or even for our greatest accomplishments. Denton is notorious for being a place that people pass through. A college town, many leave for the Big City (i.e. Dallas) after graduating so they can start their careers. But as someone who has stayed in Denton for just about ten years now, watching so many people leave can weigh on me. On one hand, I'm so excited to see people go and live their life, hopefully made better by their time in Denton. On the other hand, I miss them! And I see so much need in Denton for people who are rooted here and in it for the long haul. Just this week I saw probably three or four For Sale signs in my neighborhood. It’s a bit of a transient place which is a breeding ground for loneliness.  

We talk with our corefas about finishing well every year. Following through on our commitments, being faithful to the end, and preparing people in our care for things to change. We talk about how making and keeping promises creates stability for people. I've come to realize that every commitment has a trade-off. For our leaders, committing to come to an event like fall retreat means that they can't work that weekend and lose out on making money. Or committing to study the Bible with someone means that they need to find another time to work on homework. And at the end of the semester, we all take a look at what's next. Our pastors have prayed for years to have more students stay in Denton as they graduate, even if it means a bit of sacrifice. And many have! They decide to commit to our church or another church in Denton and take seriously the call to serve. This has been transformational to our church and I believe our town!

Just this month we had a church retreat and I've been struck by how many of these people have gone through FOCUS and decided to stay in Denton in the last few years. I'm reminded the work God is doing on these campuses is about more than helping people while they're in college. We get to be a part of raising up the next generation of church leaders, missionaries, and disciples. Disciples who then go and make disciples. What a blessing. 

Church Retreat!

Bonus Easter Pictures!

My sweet parents!

Student Testimony

Washington Visits Texas

Every year, we send students ripe with potential as leaders to Bellingham, Washington to attend SICM (Student Institute for Campus Ministry). Over our time doing this, we've developed close ties with the people who host us, CCF (Christian Campus Fellowship). We have stolen many ideas from them and visa versa and have gotten to encourage and pray for each other. During their spring break, they invite their students to sacrifice their spring break and go to other colleges to evangelize and minister there. This year they came to Denton!

What a whirlwind this week was! 15 students and 4 staff blessed us with their kind hearts and willingness to do whatever was necessary to reach our campuses. I feel like our week of housing, feeding, shuttling, and facilitating their time here was truly a testament to how we are blessed when we serve others. 

SOme of our church's small groups provided dinner and company most nights.

Owen loved hanging with his new friends.

They spent the majority of Monday through Thursday at UNT, TWU, and NCTC, practicing outreach! I think this was such a helpful reminder to our staff and students how important it is to reach out to people and show them the love of Jesus. I heard of many interesting interactions and conversations and quite a few led to people wanting to connect with a godly community more, praise the Lord!

The visitors went home today and, while I am very exhausted, I am encouraged! We'll miss our Washington friends!

Hope y'all are well! 

Through Cold Nights To Sunny Days

 Happy March! I hope you all are enjoying nice weather as much as I am!

a cute afternoon picnic

February was so fun at TWU! So many students seem to really be connecting with each other and taking faith seriously. I've had to chance to study a range of material with different students to challenge us in our thinking. One book, People To Be Loved by Preston Sprinkle, has helped us think through Christianity and same-sex attraction with a lot of nuance and love while seeking God's heart for people. I've loved getting to see those girls confront what they've grown up thinking and take those questions to the Lord. I'm also reading Liturgies of the Ordinary by Tish Warren with another student as a way to reflect on the rhythms of the day in light of God's presence. It's easy for me to go about my day on autopilot but what if I saw making my bed or brushing my teeth as a chance to connect with God and remember just how loving and faithful His is? I find books help me to be more reflective and I am more ready to listen to God's voice throughout the day if I have some of these ideas on my mind.

Owen has gotten to hang out with so many friends recently! He loves when Becca visits him.

Becca and I are trying to build a presence at the campus rec center to meet people and workout together.

Owen got invited to a student's birthday party. I'm pretty sure he thought the balloons were just for him.

And we had lunch on campus again where he played his favorite game - hide-and-seek - with friends and strangers alike.

We had the honor of celebrating Black History Month with a special TNF service put on by some students in our ministry. A big theme for the night was Kingdom Diversity. We wanted to celebrate the ways God has made us all unique but with the purpose to worship God and love people.

The fire alarms went off during the service so we had to evacuate into 20 degree weather. But instead of complaining, these amazing students just went right on worshiping!

And below is Caitlynn's story! I've had the pleasure of getting to know her this year at TWU and I'm so excited for what God is doing in her life!

Praying for each of you. 

Much love,

A Packed January

Staff Retreat

Our staff kicked off the year with staff retreat. We even managed to squeeze it in before the snow! We spent the week reflecting on 1 Corinthians 13 and what love is about. "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." So simple, but if we really made this truth the center of our lives, recognizing how God loves us and striving to love others this way, how radically would we be changed?

Sweet friends! 

Something we talked about was this artwork. Man is on the left and God on the right, stretching so far out of heaven to reach man. But the man is laying back with barely any effort to reach out to God. He's limp-wristing it. How often do we love with a limp wrist? Maybe there's some effort there but are we always protecting, always trusting, always hoping, and always persevering? I fall short of this so often. This was such a helpful topic going into the spring semester. I want people to know deeply what it is to be loved for who they are and not what they can do.

Snow Days

Owen had fun in the snow!

His first time sledding was a success too.

Winter Retreat

Our biggest event of the year was amazing! Over 700 people came to worship God, hear about what true discipleship looks like, and invest in each other. I've heard from so many that this was probably their favorite retreat yet!

Owen and Jon came and Owen loved getting to hang out with the other staff kids. 

These are the other moms on staff with super young kids! It's been so sweet to figure out this working mom thing with them. 

Baptisms, TNF, and other things!

I had the honor of baptizing one of our TWU girls, Caitlynn! The water may have been close to freezing but this girl is on fire for the Lord! 

Thursday Night Fellowship is back and going strong! Winter retreat gets people fired up, which brings so much energy to our time together as a campus.

And finally, there's been some fun things at TWU! I got to bring Owen to campus and have lunch with some sweet girls. They promise to teach him the way of energy drinks when he's a bit older.

We also had a time of scripture reading on campus, completely led by students!

It's been a whirlwind but God is not stingy with his blessings by any means! I hope you are encouraged by the energy and true discipleship God is bringing to these students, because it's life changing.

Love y'all, thank you for being such an important part of this mission!

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! And that everyone stays warm in the coming days.

We wrapped up the fall semester with a Christmas party for our students to celebrate the work God has done this year. Songs, snacks, trivia, and dancing (of course) made for such a fun night!

I finally got a picture with my team of corefas! From the left, Jackie, Mary, me, Avery, and MJ. Love these girls!

Owen and Jon made a quick appearance, too!

Our Denton staff got together for dinner and games. I crushed it at MarioKart, for the record. A nasty stomach bug made its way through our staff and church so there were many missing but still much fun was had. 

Owen has decided to create a ministry based solely on waving to passing cars outside our house and saying "cah-cah" (car). We spent a lot of our downtime doing this, much to the entertainment of our neighbors I'm sure.

December is a slow month with the students being gone on break, but we will hit the ground absolutely sprinting in January with Winter Retreat. This is probably our most impactful event! Please join me in praying for good weather and smooth planning but mostly for students to come and be impacted by God's presence. The trip is $175 for four days and this can be expensive for many college students so would you also pray for that not to be a barrier? I can't wait to tell y'all how it goes!

This is one of our sweet Denton students with a heart for the Lord!

Love y'all!

P.S. Owen's contribution to this blog:

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Happy Thanksgiving!

I thought I'd take this chance to write about some ways I'm grateful. I hope you'll do the same, no matter what kind of season you're in. I'm reminded that our praises and thanksgiving to God cannot and should not be dependent on our feelings or our circumstances.

I'm grateful for each of you! No matter how brief, you have impacted my life. By following along with my ministry experience, I am grateful to share with you the highs and lows of life. Thank you for reading, praying, encouraging, and/or giving. 

I'm grateful for our Denton students. I've mentioned being a bit shocked by how many new students we've had this year but their zeal for the Lord is such an encouragement to me. I may have a (tiny) bit of experience following God but they keep me on my toes and remind me that our God is sooo creative. He's not asking us to follow Him the exact same way year after year. There are new areas where He is moving and leading people all the time and praise him for that! 

A group of students playing Cornhole at a Friendsgiving.

I'm so grateful that God has placed a desire to learn and grow in faith in so many of them too! Here's the crowd at our Pizza Theology - 400 students willing to spend 4 hours studying 1 Samuel.

I'm grateful for the Denton team, who love me so well in my weaknesses. They accept me as I am and point me to Jesus. And they love my kid, too!

I'm grateful for our church community. They so eagerly want to know what it is to love God and love people.

I'm grateful for my husband Jon and the sacrifices he makes that allow me to do ministry. His kindness and generosity often inspire me.

Thank you, Lord, for sweet gifts too many to count. I ask that you would cultivate gratitude, contentment, and humility in my heart and life.

Keep FOCUS Growing

With much humility and trust in God, I ask that you would pray for and consider giving to our annual Keep FOCUS Growing fundraiser. This is our keep the lights on campaign, as well as a chance to invest in new campuses as God opens up opportunities for us around the metroplex. Hopefully y'all can see how ripe for the harvest the field of college ministry is! This Tuesday is Giving Tuesday, a great chance to invest in this corner of the kingdom. Check out anyfocus.org/KFG for more info.

Love y'all so so much. Happy Thanksgiving!