December: My Peer Team at TWU

Happy new year, y'all! I hope you've had a wonderful and safe Christmas and are feeling refreshed. I know I am looking forward to getting back into the swing of things and getting to meet with students again! 

I thought I'd continue on the train of introducing more of the girls in my peer team! Each one of them really does bless me so much. 

Maddie

I've mentioned Maddie before, but this is my cofa (we lead our core together)! I didn't know Maddie really at all before this year but I'm so immensely grateful to have gotten to spend so much time with her. We counted and most weeks we see each other up to 8 or 9 hours! Maddie is studying music therapy at TWU and this is her first year being a corefa. Maddie has been so willing and ready to learn how to lead and love people well. Last semester was difficult for her because she is immunocompromised so there is some risk for her to continue doing campus ministry during this pandemic. She has had to walk the line between using wisdom and discerning fear over and over again. And she has done so faithfully and prayerfully. The corefa role comes with a certain measure of responsibility that can be stressful. On top of that, while we take all of the precautions we can, there are some necessary risks when it comes to investing in students. She's getting that glimpse into what it means to suffer for the Lord - to willingly step into stressful, uncomfortable roles and to pursue obedience to God. Spiritually, I have seen Maddie grow a lot this year, especially in being others minded and really choosing selflessness in a world that tells us to take care of ourselves first. And she's a good friend to boot!

Mo

Moriah, or Mo, is a senior at TWU, studying occupational therapy. This is her first year as a corefa as well. As you might be able to tell by her bright smile, Mo is so much fun to be around! She brings so much energy to the room (or backyard, more likely) and she is really good at fun ice breaker questions. ("If a giant taco monster was attacking your house, what one thing would you grab on your way out?") Mo has been learning so much about how Jesus did ministry. At the beginning of the year, she was pretty nervous to be a corefa and to do one on one Bible studies since that was all new to her. But she has really pushed herself and the Lord has faithfully shown up in her ministry. 

Jenna

Jenna is at TWU too, leading a core with Mo. This is also her first year as a corefa. Jenna started out in FOCUS at Collin College before coming to Denton to study Interdisciplinary Studies. Jenna and I couldn't communicate more differently but I'm so glad I get to spend so much time with her. She's learning so much about following Jesus no matter what people will think or what they expect of her. It's so cool to see that shift in students as they realize the difference between what God wants for them and what the world tells them is good. Jenna is learning to love people based on their needs, not what they want to hear. What an important lesson to learn! I'm so proud of her!

Ways to Pray:

Please join me in praying for the start of this semester. Coming back from break can be a struggle for some. Many are feeling lonely and disconnected. Pray that we would be able to grow as a ministry this semester in building connections even as we are more fragmented.

As always, please feel free to reach out ay time; I'd love to hear how you're doing and how I can be praying for you! 

Kindly,

November: Let's Keep FOCUS Growing!

Happy November, y'all! I hope you are having a great month so far! I wanted to send this November update a few days before December because we are in the middle of our Keep FOCUS Growing campaign and I wanted to let you guys know about it! 

Every year, we have a fundraising campaign to raise money to support the operational costs of keeping our ministry going. This year, we are trying to raise $100,000. So far, our students have raised $8,000 which was matched by a generous team of donors! Those generous donors have also banded together and agreed to match up to $42,000 in total donations during this campaign. So if we receive $42,000 in total contributions, they will kick in a SECOND $42,000! If this is something you'd like to participate in, your first chance to give will be on December 1st, which is Giving Tuesday! So please, would you consider investing in this opportunity? Thank you so much for considering this, especially in the midst of a crazy year and season.

You can give on Facebook with no processing fees at https://www.facebook.com/anyfocusministries

or you can go to anyfocus.org/kfg

Updates!

Overall, things are going well! It seems like most people are super willing to continue to meet outside and distanced if it means they get to see people in person so it's cool to see them prioritize that. We've had a few students face being exposed to COVID but everyone has been responding so responsibly to really limit the spread. Please continue to pray for protection and wisdom for our ministry to be able to continue doing the important things!

My sweet peer team and I decorated pumpkins - but with a twist! We did this as a worship activity, so we reflected on the Lord and what He's been teaching us and then painted about it. It was so cool to see how the Lord is shaping each of these girls to know and love Him more and more. 

I know I've introduced y'all so some of these girls but I thought I'd do that a little more over the next few months because I love these girls a lot. These are the student leaders I get to spend time with each week, talking about life, ministry, and discipleship. My time with them is probably my favorite time of the week!
 

This is Katherine and Veronica at our outdoor peer team meeting. They lead a core together, so they are cofas (co-facilitators). Of course, as they were warming their toes by the fire, they claimed to be toe-fas and laughed for five minutes😊. 

This is Veronica! This sweet girl is a sophomore studying a crazy assortment of things (I think along the lines of business, nonprofit, and Spanish, but there's too much to remember). This is her first year as a corefa and I have loved getting to know her and help her learn to love her peers well. Veronica grew up in church and has a really good foundation in discipleship and knowing the Lord. Along with being a corefa, she is also an RA (resident assistant) so she invests in 40 girls outside of her core. And she is so stinking committed! She really makes a point to get to know everyone in her spheres and she's one of those people who almost can't help talking about Jesus. Currently, she's been learning to really rely on her community to know her and invest in her. It's so cool to see God lead her to trust Him and others more and more!

This is Katherine! Katherine is studying drawing and painting and this is her second year being a corefa. I really love my time with her because she's very thoughtful and has been learning to filter through her strong emotions to find truth. Katherine has such a heart for people to know the Lord deeply and she herself has grown in loving God fully in the last year. This year, Katherine and Veronica have a large core, which can be overwhelming. But they both have taken on that challenge and Katherine been growing a ton in being consistent with people and being disciplined with her time. What a sweet friend who is humbly doing her best to serve God and her community. 

Ways to Pray:

- Please pray for Keep FOCUS Growing, that God would provide for us this year like He has in the past.

- Please be praying for these students as they go home for thanksgiving and Christmas, that they would be able to serve their families and be wise about what precautions to take.

Love y'all lots!

September: Pizza and Friendship

    Here's how September went in ministry! Honestly, the days are blurring together and time is strange but God has been consistently showing up. Meeting with each of the girls in my peer team every week has been so encouraging. They are each learning what it means to surrender their whole lives to Jesus and to serve the people around them selflessly. 

    This is Mo (above). I have the pleasure of meeting with Mo every week. This is her first year being a corefa over at TWU and I have loved getting to know her and see her love her campus. She is learning so much about real friendship and has really started opening up to people. Mo has a deep love for Scripture and our conversations are so fun! She asks incredibly insightful questions and has an eagerness to face hard things. I've just been really grateful to become her friend! 

    And pretty much all of my one on ones with these girls are just as encouraging. A lot of September has just been building friendships with them. Each one is unique and so fun.

    

    This is Maddie (and Blue Belle of course)! Maddie and I lead a core together at TWU, so we spend a ton of time together. She is funny, sweet, and sassy and has become a really good friend to me. She's learning a lot about asking good questions, both with people and Scripture, and she's grown so much in each area. Maddie's grown up being pushed to be really safety-conscious because of some health issues. God has been leading her to see her identity outside of her health and to even sacrifice the safest option for the sake of others. She can get tired easily but still chooses to put herself in exhausting situations - what an encouragement! 

    And here's our core at Pizza Theology! Pizza Theology is an event we have every semester where we eat pizza and hear lectures about a deeper theological topic. This semester, we talked about how Christians can start developing helpful thoughts around the political world. We had some really insightful speakers share about their experiences and thought processes. They offered some helpful framework for approaching politics. One idea that has stuck with me is the difference between thinking in terms of power (What's the most effective or useful solution?) and thinking in terms of love (What's most loving for the people around me?). God is not always about efficiency and often does things in a roundabout way. Yet, I want to find the perfect solution in politics, the answer that will fix everything. If that's not what Jesus does, why do I try to do that? Definitely thought provoking!

    And here's a slightly blurry bonus picture of Blue Belle! Overall, it's been a super solid and encouraging month! Thank you guys for your prayers and support!

Love y'all!

 

August: Ministry in a Pandemic

Happy September!

Y'all, the Lord is working on these campuses. 

We kicked off the school year with Corefa Prep! We gathered our student leaders (corefas) to this super convenient park by my house where we were able to stay socially distant. Any people you see sitting together here live together. We have more corefas this year than ever before in Denton. God has really opened doors during this pandemic for these students to be able to commit their time to building His kingdom here. 

Gathering together meant that we were able to really cast a vision for campus ministry this year. We talked about discerning what necessary risks we might need to take and what unnecessary risks we can avoid for the sake of others. We get to really emphasize outreach this year because we don't have the normal flashy events that attract people. (None of our events were actually that flashy anyway 😆.) So, this year we're focusing on meeting people on a personal level and inviting them into a community that we have benefitted immensely from.

We knew doing ministry in the middle of a pandemic was going to be challenging. Our staff has been preparing for this all summer. And now that we're actually in the middle of it, I could not be prouder fo these students. They have responded prayerfully to each challenge they come across. One of our major themes as a ministry this year is suffering and sacrifice for the sake of Christ. These corefas are consistently choosing to suffer for the sake of others. Especially during our Texas summer, they are literally sweating it so they can protect their cores by meeting outside. They are sacrificing their preferences to hang out with their friends like they normally would and instead choosing to follow safer practices (distance, outside) - and for some of those physical touch people, that is absolutely a sacrifice. They are choosing to consider how they can be most effective and if the risks they are taking are worth it if they end up with COVID and are severely limited in their ministry.

So, we are rolling with the punches and God is so faithful!

The following week, we got to work! We went out on the campuses the week before school started to meet people as they moved in and were getting ready for the year. So many people were so receptive to what we had to offer. We met so many students who really just craved community and friendship and in person interactions. So many students have most of their classes online and the professors are having to change the format of the classes often - it was a stressful week for many as they kept waiting for information to come in. I think a lot of them were excited for the change of pace and for a chance to experience some normalcy and fun!

Becca, Jenna, and Shayla ready to do outreach at TWU!

We have 23 cores total this year and we may need to add more. The first couple weeks of core have gone so well and many of them have had to split up because more than ten people came! We're still working out some kinks and getting creative about how we can keep those cores safe but I've been so encouraged by the turnout. More than numbers, the people who are coming seem to really want to be there!

Here's my core's first core picture! Maddie, my cofa in the pink mask - Maria, under the checkered blanket - me, under my lawn chair - Aileen, in the back. We've had some interesting weather so we had to make a run for the union when it started raining on our core!

I also got to start meeting with my peer team! We met all together and I just had to snap a polaroid!

! also get to meet some of them in my backyard for our one on one time together and that means Blue Belle gets lots of pets! This is Kate!

So far so good! God has been tugging at hearts and showing us how to rely on Him over and over again. When things don't go according to plan, when I have to be flexible, God comes alongside me and gives me those chances to turn to Him for strength and comfort. 

Love y'all! As always, let me know if there is any way I can be specifically praying for you!

Getting ready for a new year!

    Hello! Since this is the start of the 2020-21 school year, I thought I'd take this chance to catch everyone up on what I do and what we expect this year to look like. If this is your first time on my blog, welcome! 

This is my peer team from last year!

    I am a campus pastor in Denton, specifically the UNT and TWU campuses. I found FOCUS (Fellowship of Christian University Students) at the end of my freshman year of college at UNT. I absolutely love the friends I was able to make as I became more invested in the community. I'm still close friends with many of the people I met during those three years. During my junior and senior year, I had the opportunity to learn more about ministry and serving people by being a corefa. (That's a core facilitator. And cores are our small, same-gendered groups where we learn to live out Scripture together and develop friendships.) I absolutely loved getting to build friendships with the girls in my core as we studied the Bible together and got to hang out around town! I was also invested in and developed as a leader by the campus pastors. That experience meant I grew a ton in my own relationship with God and in helping others pursue Him.

My core at Fall Camp 2016

My core at Winter camp 2018

    As I approached graduation in 2018, God consistently kept nudging me toward ministry. I was studying chemistry to go into forensic science and I care a lot about doing ministry in secular workplaces. But the more I prayed, the more I felt called to stick with FOCUS after I graduated. FOCUS offers an apprenticeship program where post-grads can commit 10 months to on-the-ground ministry with students and student leaders and intense classes that help develop ministry skills. So I got the opportunity to do this! I worked closely with our campus staff to plan events, think pastorally about students and leaders, and learn to guide our community as the Spirit leads us. 

This is the Denton staff I got to work with during my apprenticeship year.

These are the 2018-2019 apprentices I got to have classes with and learn from!

    I really fell in love with ministry during that year and ended up committing to four more years with FOCUS. Last year (2019-2020) was my first year of that commitment. I got to be a corefa again and a peer team leader. (Peer team leaders are usually staff members who lead a group of corefas. The group together is a peer team. I meet with each corefa once a week and we talk through core, leadership, discipleship, and life things together.) I really loved being a corefa again but I think my favorite part is being a peer team leader. I love getting to know these girls who have committed to serving God and their community while they are going through so much growing up in college. They really bless me so much and teach me again and again about faith.

Jess and I put together some care packages for the homeless.

    All that to say, I really am so pumped for the year! We'll face unique challenges as we figure out meeting new people during a pandemic. But the Lord is faithful and He is up to something. Maybe this year isn't about having lots of new faces around, although there is a big need for community right now and I pray that the lonely on campus will find friendship. But maybe this year for all of us is more about God solidifying His people to be ones marked by stability and perseverance. Instead of us finding our stability in routine, maybe God is teaching us to really put our faith in Him. We know that the Lord uses times of suffering to produce perseverance (Romans 5:3-5). This is a time for us to persevere, to really take the opportunities God gives us seriously, and to trust Him with the outcome.

    Already, some surprising blessings have come out of this time. Our plan for the year is to mainly focus on cores, keeping them small and taking the precautions necessary. Because we're limiting their size, we needed more corefas to step up so we could have more cores. Before we could even worry about that, God provided close to 15 more corefas than last year! So many students have more flexible time with online classes that they can commit to leading! Also, TWU tends to have fewer corefas but this year we have almost the same number of women's cores at each campus! I think God is preparing us now to really bless these campuses, and we haven't even started the year yet.

Ways to pray:

Please join me in praying for this year, for the students we need to encounter, and for the leaders God has given us.

Please pray for the universities to communicate their plans quickly and clearly so we can plan accordingly.

Pray for our staff to move with wisdom adn to strike the right balance of caution and boldness.

More about me:

Here's a few quick things you should know about me!

I have a doggo. That's it, that's all you need to know. 

Meet Blue Belle!

    Just kidding! You should also know that I am married to Jon Smith, who I met through FOCUS. We got married a year ago July! Does that mean I'm no longer a newly-wed?

    I'm so very excited to partner with each of you in ministry and to share with you what God does on these campuses. Please always feel free to respond to these updates and let me know how you're doing and how I can be praying for you!

Love y'all!

Here's some other fun photos from ministry life:

June: Wrestling with God

    I don't have any huge ministry updates for y'all this month. A lot of June has been getting regular time with students, fundraising, and starting to make plans for the school year. God has showed up so much in those things, absolutely! But, I wanted to take this opportunity to share with you some of the things I've been working through with God this month. 

    In a lot of ways, the Lord seems to be preparing me for this school year, more than he's letting me plan the year. Almost every part of the next year of ministry is going to be unfamiliar in some way. The universities are still in the process of making the tough decisions for what campus life will look like, which means that we're in limbo with some of our decisions. We're in the process of whittling down all of our big, community wide events - those don't seem to be very possible. We won't be able to plan much for our welcome week, a time when we meet so many new freshmen (and that's one of my favorite weeks too!). The main things we'll be doing are cores (with limited group numbers) and one on ones. In a lot of ways, this works out so well! One of our axioms is one on one is how it's done. A big part of our ministry's DNA is to develop personal, deep, discipling relationships. So, small groups and one on ones come naturally to our students. In other ways, that is intimidating to me. I say all the time that me doing ministry is God working through my weakness. I love meeting new people, developing friendships, and growing with people. But, those things don't come easily all the time. Sometimes, I really struggle to be relational. And, gosh, it really is crazy the difference being in person makes! I am really excited for this year and the changes we'll get to experiment with, but it's also a little scary to step into a year so new and strange.  

    What does this have to do with wrestling with God? Well, while I have been preparing for the year, I also have times where I avoid thinking about these things with God. I have this tendency (maybe some of y'all can relate) to value productivity over prayer. I would much rather work on a spreadsheet or make some phone calls instead of praying. I know, that sounds bad - but that's where I'm at. Even when I do spend time talking with God, I find myself wanting a quick fix, an easy solution. So I get discouraged and try to avoid really facing Him. During our online TNF service last week, we talked about Genesis 32 where Jacob wrestles with God. I was convicted in that moment - I hadn't been taking my fear and trepidation to God. I wasn't engaging with Him and therefore I wasn't going to find peace or change. So I've been trying to engage with the Lord more. Not to feel better or get answers on what we should do, but just to be with Him and to let Him reshape me as He wants to. I'm learning to value that time in prayer and listening to God over the things I could be getting done. God's kingdom work is often slow, small changes over time because heart change is a process. But our God is loving and knows us well enough to know what we need and how much conviction we can take at one time. Praise God he is patient and walks us through change!

    How are y'all doing in this season? How has the Lord been encouraging you? Is there any way I can be praying for you? Let me know!

Ways to Pray:

- Please be in prayer for all college students right now. Some of them are really struggling with the uncertainty of their classes, living situations, and jobs. Pray that this season will be one of all of us finding our stability in the Lord and not in our circumstances.

 

Love y'all!

Reagann

May: Bittersweet Endings

Happy June! 

I've always been a bit nostalgic when it comes to beginnings and endings, firsts and lasts. I take note of every last meeting of the year, every last Bible study with a student, the end of year parties, and the graduations. I also love the start of a new season, especially summer. Summer for our staff means a different pace to spend time fundraising, reflecting on the last year and planning for the next, and investing in our staff's pastoral development. I really love getting to take a step back and engage with ministry in a different way.

One of the lasts was our staff's end of year dinner! We got to be together (mostly at a distance) to celebrate the year. This was also Kristen's last day on our Denton staff. She moved over to the Collin team starting this month so I still get to work with her, just not as closely.

   

We started off June with our own SICM alternative! We wanted to be able to give the students we invited to SICM a chance to grow in their leadership skills so our staff put on our own Summer Leadership Training. So we got people together over Youtube and Zoom for some really great talks and Zoom discussions. I'm so excited for the leaders God is raising up in this generation!

Our church is still meeting virtually so we sometimes sit outside for church. Is anyone else loving the weather?

Jon and I started a garden! Gotta jump on that quarantine hobby train. This half has herbs and tomato plants. We just planted flower seeds on the other side and they're already starting to sprout! It's so fun to watch them grow. This is kind of corny but is this a tiny bit how God feels as we grow?

All in all, what a great start to the summer! God is faithful and walking through this season with our ministry.

Ways to pray:

- Obviously, there is a lot our country is working through with racial tensions. Our students are working through these things too. Please pray for them to seek God's wisdom and heart and for us as pastors to help point them to Jesus.

- I am 80% fundraised - whoa! Thank you guys for your support and prayers. Could you continue to pray for me to raise $600/mo? This would get me to that goal!

- Summer can be a tough time for students and there is so much uncertainty with what next school year will look like. Please pray for them to press into community and to seek God, especially in uncertainty.

Love y'all and praying for you,

Reagann Smith