Wrapping Up Another Year!

   We're wrapping up the school year - students are out for the summer and our pastor team is transitioning to planning for the next school year. I really can't get over how much God has shown up this year. In the fall, we were blown away by how many students were on campus. This was our first year post-COVID where it really felt like there were actually people to meet. Our small groups have been massive because so many people wanted friends and a chance to connect with the Lord. And so many stuck around! What a sweet blessing. And I love love love all of the end of the year pictures I got these last couple of weeks!

Our staff team could not pass up an opportunity to take a picture with this gorgeous sunset. I'm so grateful for this team that supports each other so easily. I love that the people I work with are some of my closest friends!

We had a great turn out for our End-of-Year party despite the weather threatening rain!

My sweet, kind small group this year has been such an encouragement and a real source of friendship to me! This doesn't happen every year in my experience (and that's okay!) but these girls have really learned to pour into others and to care deeply. They check on each other often and have real friendships outside of simply meeting in a group once a week. I've loved watching them grow closer and spur each other on towards love and good deeds!

Madai and Hannah, who I had the pleasure of facilitating core with, were such a blessing to me this year!

And of course, my amazing peer team! I feel like I brag on these girls all the time but they have just blown me away with all of their hard work this year. They have each worked so hard to balance challenging school and work schedules while they dedicate so much time to pouring into students on campus and in their small groups. I am so proud of them for being responsive to God's call to serve others when it would be easy to be self-protective and pull back from other people as things get hard. 

And we had some graduates too - Madai, Markia, Keanna, and Olivia! (Actually a lot of people in our ministry graduated this year but these girls were from peer team.) I'm so excited to see where God takes them from here!

    I've felt extra nostalgic as I think about how ministry will look different after baby Owen is here. If I haven't said, I plan on sticking around and learning how to do campus ministry while being a new parent. I know it'll look different but I'm already so excited for him to get to grow up around college students. At our last small group, we wrote encouragement cards to each other and they surprised me with a card just for Owen. How sweet and thoughtful is that?! I love that I have so many girls around me who are so excited to be a part of his life. I know there will be challenges and I won't get to do things in the same way but I am just really looking forward to getting to share my life and kiddo with these students. 

    With that, I am also entering my fundraising season and praying for God to provide how he sees fit for us and this baby. Currently, I have about $1,500 a month left to raise. So many of you support me (in numerous ways!) and I am just incredibly appreciative of your hearts for me and these students. If you're reading this and you would be interested in joining my prayer or financial support team or increasing your giving, I'd love to talk with you about that! I'm including a very short interest form if you want me to reach out about any of the above options. Filling out the form isn't a firm commitment at all, just another way for me to answer any questions or let you know more about how ministry is going.

Interest Form

Another way you can help is by letting me know if you have friends or family that may be interested in supporting me. My main hurdle in fundraising is building new connections with people who have a heart for campus ministry or young people. So if you know of anyone who might want to hear more about what I do them please let me know!

And of course, if you would join me in praying for God to provide for me and for the rest of our pastor team, I would really appreciate it!

Here's our student Testimony for May!

Love you guys always! Thank you for being a part of the work God is doing on these campuses!

April's Update!

I don't have many pictures this month but it has been a great month!

We had our semi-annual Pizza Theology, where we take a deep dive into a topic and eat pizza for dinner. This semester we talked about wisdom and the Wisdom Literature focusing on Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. A lot of the things we talked about have stuck with me. I hadn't fully thought about how essential growing in wisdom is for spiritual maturity until now. 

One of the things that specifically stood out to me was how nuanced wisdom is. Proverbs often contradicts itself and other wisdom literature like Ecclesiastes. Often Proverbs is trying to catch general wisdom - if you treat people well, you will be treated well. But we also know that this isn't always true and that does not mean someone is operating outside of God's wisdom. It's so cool to me to think about how God wanted to equip us with the tools to wrestle with complicated life situations. True wisdom is complex!

If you want to check out some of what we talked about, our audio is on Spotify: 

https://open.spotify.com/show/16Dvs8bb4ihm7Uc5Iuy35W?si=GT6Qh_F5Tg6VrTqBN7BYGw

I am so incredibly grateful to have you guys partnering with me in ministry. You are a big part of the reason I'm so excited to continue doing college ministry because your excitement for these students is infectious. Thank you for believing in them!

Love y'all,

An Update and Important Request for You!

Here's the Important Request

On February 21st, the U.S. Department of Education announced that it intends to remove regulations that explicitly protect religious student organizations like FOCUS. These regulations say that public universities and colleges cannot deny us the rights and privileges afforded to other student groups because of our beliefs, practices, policies, speech, membership standards, or leadership standards. 

The public has until March 24th to comment on the proposal, and we are asking everyone in our network to do so - staff, students, donors, and partner churches. We have set up a webpage to explain the situation further and make it as easy as possible to comment. Check it out at anyfocus.org/campusaccess

This could have real consequences for our ministry, so please rally with us and share with others who care about protecting religious groups on university campuses across the country.

Ministry Update

February and the first half of March have been great so far! With the crazy weather we have already had this semester we already canceled two TNFs - did y'all have super intense thunderstorms a couple weeks ago? But ministry is still moving and things are going well! My core (small group) is thriving and building some real friendships. 

We decorated cookies for Valentine's Day!

I've successfully helped influence Emily to love plants!

As a way to meet people on campus, we invited them to make Valentine's Day thank you cards to people they appreciate. Taylor and I had fun getting crafty!

These sweet girls really make my week special. Our student testimony this month is from Christianna, one of the students I've been lucky enough to meet and be friends with all year. Here's her story!

Please also be praying for our preparations for SICM. Students are working hard to fundraise so they can go to this incredible leadership training opportunity. 

The Bumpdate!

We got to see the little guy last week at our anatomy scan! He's doing great so far and moving around a TON. Thank you so much for your continued prayers!

Thank you so much for your continued support. I'm so incredibly grateful for you all. Please let me know if there's any way I can be praying for you. Love y'all!

Love,

Ready For Spring!

I hope all my Texas readers are surviving the ice and staying warm! It's been a minute since I've gotten to update y'all so I thought I'd take this chance.

If you didn't already know, we have big changes coming to our little family. We're having a baby in July!

We're so excited (and a tiny bit nervous)! The Lord has been sweet to us in this journey. I'm learning to trust Him more because I'm faced with something I just can't control. Pregnancy has also treated me pretty well so far too. I haven't had many ups and downs, only some nausea and growing pains. It's also been so meaningful for me to get to share this with the girls I meet with every week; they have been so kind and supportive and excited for us. Keanna and Rian even got us this custom ornament!

Everyone's support has meant so much to me. Thanks to many of you for your kind words and encouragement! 

Here's what's been happening in our ministry!

The biggest thing was we had Winter Retreat! All of our 11 or so campuses got together for a fun weekend. Shoutout to my Fellowship Baptist Church Family - we were at RiverBend Retreat Center, where I grew up going to camp!

My sweet core (small group) was so encouraging to be around - what a fun group of girls! Hearing many of their reflections afterwards, I know that God used this weekend so bring so many people into a deeper relationship with Him. Many chose to give up things the Lord was calling them to and others chose to more fully commit to serving people God asked them to. 

I also just wanted to share these pictures from our staff's Christmas party. I love the people I get to work with!

Sabbath

We've got a lot of stressed out students so we've been talking often about how important regular time before the Lord is. A lot of our students have been taking this to heart this semester and already I'm seeing people handle their anxiety better and seek the Lord's will and approval first. Since some of you might have some down time right now, I thought I'd send a basic plan that we've been using to help us quiet our hearts before God. Feel free to use this or adapt it if you're looking for some guidance in rest!

Here's our student testimony for February!

Love you guys much, 

Help Us Keep FOCUS Growing!

Every year, we put on a big fundraiser to help us keep the lights on as well as move forward in planting new campuses. Many of you so generously support me each month and year financially, but it takes a lot more than that for us to do ministry! We need money for things like outreach activities/materials, administrative support, planting new campuses, health/retirement benefits, etc. This fundraiser is all about being around for the long haul and expanding our reach.

This year our theme is “Faithfully local”.
One of our core convictions is that we go TO the students and do ministry where they live, eat, study, and play. We move into the neighborhood, so to speak. We contribute to the good of the campus, seeking to improve the culture and experience of each place, and we do so for the long-haul – something especially unique at community colleges that have few long-standing student organizations. 
When new students show up, we’re the locals ready to welcome them to the neighborhood. We train our students to do that well, knowing it’s something they can replicate in the future, wherever God leads them after college. 

Keep FOCUS Growing is about bringing vibrant Christian community to every campus in DFW, and ensuring that we can remain “Faithfully Local” to college and university students for decades to come. 

Here are the details: Some of our generous donors have banded together and agreed to match up to $54,000 in total donations during this campaign. So if we receive $54,000 in total contributions, they will kick in a SECOND $54,000! Your chance to give will be on November 29th!

Many of you already give so generously to me specifically. I don't want anyone to feel pressured to give to this as well! This is simply another opportunity to support us if you are able and willing. And prayers go such a long way in this so if you could be asking God to provide for us, I'd really appreciate it! If you have any questions, please reach out!!

Love y'all,

The Semester So Far: God is Faithful

    How are already halfway through October?! I've been wanting to update y'all on a lot of things so this might be a bit longer but the first couple months of school have already been so good!

    You might have heard me mention that this year I'm focusing the majority of my time over at TWU! My peer team (the core leaders I meet with) are all at TWU and I am leading a core there too. And I have absolutely loved getting to spend more time on this campus! Welcome week (the week before school starts where we try to meet the new and returning students getting on campus) was just a blast! TWU itself doesn't have a ton of events until the end of the week so we spent a lot of time hanging out in the student union, playing games and chatting with anyone who wanted a place to hang out.

TWU takes over Rusty Taco.

Of course we always end up at the Denton Square at some point. We have so much fun exploring, playing games, and hanging out. Two of the girls pictured here ended up in my small group and I've loved getting to know them more!

Students love crafts at TWU so we did a lot of those! Here is us doing Tie Dye a Tote Bag! I met a girl here who I actually get to study the Bible with now!

    Welcome week was so incredibly encouraging. Both UNT and TWU have really high enrollment numbers this year so at times I was honestly a little overwhelmed with the number of students on campus. But God has been so faithful to bring us people looking for community and friendship. We have a lot of students who grew up in church but at some point stopped making that a priority. As they come to college, they are curious and interested in who Jesus is. Honestly, some of them don't stick around as they get busy with school work or other ways of spending their time that are more attractive. But many of them stay. The fruit I can already see God forming in their lives literally leads me to tears when I think about it. Our God is so faithful.

    The first week of school, we had our first Thursday Night Fellowship. I was blown away by how many students were so excited to get together and worship God. We packed out the room!

    Our team strategically decided that we needed to focus more effort at T-dub because 5 of our 7 student leaders are graduating in the spring. Our prayer is that God will raise up new leaders out of the girls currently in cores. So that's my role right now! We have four cores and about 60-70 girls overall in the cores. I meet with all of the corefas (student leaders) at TWU each week. They have also been such a source of encouragement to me. Most of them are seniors and very busy in their majors, yet they carve out a lot of time each week to invest in their cores, classmates, professors, and anyone else they meet on campus. I have not gotten a picture of my peer team yet but I'll share one when I get them together soon!

    The other main thing I do at T-dub is lead a core! I get the privilege of facilitating core with Hannah (middle) and Madai (right) and have absolutely loved that! You might remember Hannah from my peer team last year too, so I get to spend another year with her!

    Our core has been so incredibly sweet! Watching them become friends and care about each other is such a cool experience.

And the last big update: Fall Camp!!

    Last weekend, we took the students to Mt Lebanon Camp and spent about 24 hours playing, worshipping, and building friendships in our community.

Our whole Denton community!

The TWU girls representing

For a fun core thing, we bleach dyed shirts and they turned out so cute!

From left to right: Me, Madison, Hannah, Christianna, Madai, Abby, Addy, Madeleine

If you can't tell, I'm just pretty obsessed with these girls. 

    All that to say, thank you for praying for us! I have felt your prayers as we've been working on these campuses. Hearts are soft, making a way for people to see their need for Jesus.

    I'm so grateful to each of you for being a part of this mission with me! Thank you for your prayers and support. If there is any way I can be praying for you or anything you need, don't hesitate to reach out!

Love y'all,