February: Showcase and a Surprise

Wow, March has really gotten away from me already! I'm so sorry my February update is late, but here it is! I'll be keeping this update to stuff that happened in February, but I also have a surprise at the end from this week! Since February was so short, Showcase overtook the month! Remember, Showcase is our yearly fundraiser to help send some of our students to SICM - a disciple-making leadership conference up in Washington. We put on a show packed with various musical and comedy performances given by students, FOCUS alumni, staff, and people from outside our little community. We also put on an art sale where people donate their art - paintings, calligraphy, woodwork, crocheting, food, and more. Showcase was such a success this year! We still aren't sure exactly how much we raised. but I'll update y'all on that next month. But I heard multiple times how this show was our best one yet! We had a lot of great performers and they worked so hard to serve these SICM students. Here are some pics Sean Do captured of the show.

Sweet Clarissa, a Denton leader who brings so much life and energy wherever she goes.

Sirak, one of our staff members over at Richland and a very talented musician.

Ana (middle) performing with her mom and aunt.

The art show also went well! I worked with the team on this so I felt incredibly invested (and only a little stressed) in this part of Showcase.  We had a lot of really gifted artists donate some great pieces and we sold almost everything! It really was pretty challenging and intimidating for me to be one of the main people running this part - this was my first year doing that. But I was so encouraged by everyone's willingness to jump in and help, and they were so sweet too. We had a lot of the SICM students volunteer to help out the show. What a hard-working, grateful group we have this year!

This isn't the best picture but Aaron Hollingsworth made this piece for us to raffle off. We ended up making $1,200 off this piece alone!

Ashlie, a UTA student hand-painted these Bibles and journals!

 

This piece probably went the fastest. This is a Bible Project poster, signed by Tim and Jon themselves! 

My sweet mama made delicious cupcakes! Thanks mama!

Overall, what a sweet, encouraging, exhausting day. Thank you to everyone who was able to pitch in in some way - that means so much!

Speaking of SICM students, meet Bo. 

I just had to share this story with y'all. Bo is an international student we are sending to SICM. I've been working with him on fundraising but it's a little complicated because his parents are back in Hong Kong. They send him lump sums once or twice a year to cover his schooling and housing but it's hard for him to plan out his finances this way. He doesn't know really anyone in the US except for people in FOCUS to ask for help fundraising. So I walked him through his budget and what he was spending. We found that he could save a decent amount if he would severely cut down on eating out (typical for college students). He's been so motivated to save up money that he said he wouldn't eat out at all. After a fundraising session with a number of students, we all went out to Chick-Fil-A for lunch. Bo decided this would be his last Chick-Fil-A for a while. This is him very sad, eating his last few bites of chicken. He was being dramatic and funny here - this kid definitely makes me laugh! Since then, I think he's stuck to his plan for the most part, at least only eating out a third of what he used to.

If you would like to support these SICM students and help them raise the money they need, feel free to go to anyfocus.org/sicm and donate to the Denton campuses. 

Surprise!

I know you've been anxiously reading to get to my surprise! Here she is! Meet Blue Belle, the newest addition to our family. She is a 3 year old blue pit mix and I'm already obsessed with her! She is so sweet and cuddly, not aggressive at all, and a great listener. So far, she seems great with people and dogs and responds really well to our commands when she knows what we want. She's settling in great!

Ways to Pray:

- Pray for our SICM trip in May. Obviously Coronavirus is a concern and something we're keeping an eye on. Pray firstly, for those sick to get well and for a quick dissipation in general. But for the trip, pray that we would not have to cancel the trip and that things would calm down. Pray for worried parents and anxious students to be cautious but not to let fear rule them.

- Pray for students like Bo who are fundraising. Pray that God would provide for them as they learn to trust in Him.

Love y'all,

Reagann Smith