First Ministry Blog of the School Year! Woo!

Hello!

Here's what went on since I last wrote to you guys! 

Staff Retreat

If you're new to my ministry blog, FOCUS has ministries at 11 campuses in the DFW area! We have 31 full-time campus ministers and 19 full-time apprentices at these different campuses. It is rare for us all to get to be together since we have such a large staff spread out across DFW. So at the beginning of August, we take a retreat with all of our staff to build our relationships with one another and reset spiritually! We did that this past week and it was so refreshing. I am so blessed to work on a team of people who truly love God and love the students that God uses us to minister to/do life with. 

Our staff director Brandon had a couple of verses on his heart for our staff this year. The first is Galatians 2:20, which says, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." This theme of "dying to self" is what we reflected on a lot in our sessions together at the retreat. It sounds so easy to "deny yourself", but is so hard to deny our sinful nature day to day and reflect our Lord's character. The second verse is 2 Corinthians 5:15, which says, "And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again." It follows the theme of dying to self, and that we live for Christ and the things of His Kingdom! I want to leave you with a few questions to reflect on and go to God with:

 What are things, people, or situations that you need to bring to the cross? What area(s) is/are hardest for you to deny yourself, and how might God be calling you to give those things to Him? 

A picture of all of our staff in one of our sessions! 

SICM / Weeks of Welcome Prayer Requests! 

This weekend, we leave for a leadership conference with 200 of our students across our campuses. It's called, "Student Institute of Campus Ministry" or SICM for short. This is where we prepare student leaders in our ministries for the first couple weeks of school! There are so many students, especially with this being the first semi-normal school year since COVID, that are desperate for the hope Jesus can give them, along with a solid community they can be a part of after a year and a half of isolation. 

After SICM, we immediately start our "Weeks of Welcome" at UTD. We have events planned for almost every night of those first two weeks to hopefully meet as many students as we can. 

Here are a couple prayer requests that I would appreciate you guys praying for this month! 

-Please pray for these students leaders to be able to soak up as much information at SICM as they can, and that they will feel equipped to go out and preach the gospel/invite people into a Jesus-loving community! 

-Pray for God to prepare the hearts of the incoming students that he wants us to reach. We are so excited to be in person with students again and want to make the most of this opportunity. 

I am so thankful for all of your support, and can't wait to send my next blog with TONS of good news and ways that God worked! 

Love,