Skip to main content

Hey Friends!

 I survived my orientation and my first staff retreat. Our retreat was at a beautiful ranch in Whitewright, Texas. Whitewright is not necessarily known for its scenery, but I was pleasantly surprised. I say this because my high school is just fourteen miles down the road in Leonard. It was fun to share small-town Texas with my metroplex companions. My retreat consisted of playing board games, worshiping and encouraging each other before the semester begins. I left feeling refreshed and ready to work.

My apprentice team at orientation.

This is a photo from an impromptu trip for snowcones on the retreat.
August is packed with reading the Old Testament. The apprentices and I will spend eight hours Monday through Friday reading, along with taking an online class. I am ready to immerse myself in God's Word like never before. One of my goals throughout this apprenticeship is to become more scripturally literate. After almost two weeks of studying, we will finally get to go meet people on campus. I am ready to see what God is doing at UTD and be a part of His work. Pray for the incoming students.

Thank you guys so much for making this apprenticeship a reality. Thank you for your encouragement, prayers and financial support. I am grateful to be able to grow during this next year and serve students going to college. If you made a pledge to support me and haven't started giving yet, please go to anyfocus.org/donate to set up a recurring gift.




Comments

  1. Kelly SchlitzAugust 8, 2018 at 3:30 PM

    Hey Emily! I am stoked to have you as an apprentice this year. It was fun getting to know you a little better at our retreat!

    I am praying for you and the rest of the apprentices as you begin your Old Testament studies. Get ready to learn a ton about our good God!
    Love you!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

August 2023: Is Bucee Going to FOCUS?

Greetings from Buc-ee's Above is a photo from Buc-ee's on the fourth of July. We got to met the celebrity beaver while visiting my family.  For any of my out of state friends, Buc-ee's is a huge gas station and this beaver is their face and mascot. I just had to get a photo of these two with him.  Here's a photo from our church's dog event. The guy above's name is Mauricio. The dog he is holding is his. We had a good laugh that his beloved dog was a pampered shih Tzu. He and Graham have become great friends over the year. He will be leading in the fall. Pray for our men's side of the ministry. What happens every four years or so is that many of our people graduate. We are coming into this year with fewer men leaders. Pray for them to have courage and boldness to reach out on campus to their classmates, friends and whoever. I'm hopeful with guys like Mauricio that we will meet the people God wants us to this year.  Ministry-wise, we have begun the prepara...
Post a Comment
Read more

August Update!

  This update is full of prayer requests and news! Let’s get started.  I just got back from our summer staff retreat with our entire staff team. One of the key parts I want to underline is: we have not had our entire staff together on a retreat since my apprentice year. Our staff has boomed in size because we are taking on nineteen apprentices this year. Nineteen. It’s exciting to experience a surge of new people and to see our team grow. I had a strange moment during the retreat where I realized some of these apprentices were students when I started back in 2018. Now, I get to partner with them in reaching our campuses this fall. I guess that’s what happens the longer you work at a place.  One of the most exciting updates I have is that we will be pioneering five new campuses this fall. Each team is focusing on a different campus. One thing that has blown me away during my time in FOCUS is how the Lord has worked on community college campuses. I remember visiting a Colli...
1 comment
Read more

Big News at the Bottom.

 Happy New Year!  The photo above is of some of us at Inks Lake State Park during our staff retreat.  We made it to the new year! I hope you all had some time of rest during Christmas time. Since you last heard from me, our semester ended and students went home. At UTA, We did a Christmas devotional service and then ended with a party. At TCC, we went to Chick-fil-a and all got free sandwiches. I love the rhythms of ministry. We always end with parties and food.  Over our break, we rested. We read our assigned reading for the break; a fabulous book called To Love as God Loves by Roberta Bondi . If I could surmise what I learned,   it would be that many things i.e. our sin and our lack of humility get in the way of loving those around us. The book looked at how monastic church mothers and fathers tackled this common issue with prayer and seeking God. This book was what our retreat centered around. Graham preached the chapter about love. Also, We went to Hous...
Post a Comment
Read more