Skip to main content

Hello again, it’s time for your ministry update!

If you remember from my last update, FOCUS had a Science and Faith panel.  I want to first thank you for all of your prayers and tell you that it went very well. We had about thirty students show up. We had hoped it would be an outreach event to bring in people outside of the ministry. It ended up being an event that equipped our students on thinking through science and their faith. The panelists did a great job taking on the questions that were submitted. The event did not do exactly what we had set out to do, but it was nice to see our students learning more on the topic.

A photo from the Science and Faith Panel. 
Above is a picture of a girl who has become a dear friend of mine, Jessica. We have been doing a bible study since the beginning of this semester. It has been a joy being able to see God answering my prayers for her. Jessica, last semester, was not interested in Christian community. She went to one of our services in the fall and kindly told me it was not for her. We continued to meet up, becoming better friends. Jessica rode the ups and downs of her first semester. It was the typical transitions of moving to college and stresses of changing majors. Whenever we would meet up, she would share about the ups-and-downs and I would share my own experiences. Sharing my experiences, of course, would lead to me saying something about Jesus. Fast forward, Jessica and I are now studying. She has recently has joined my bible study group and is infectiously excited about learning about God.

I tell you this because our bible study this past week was wonderful. Jessica and I were doing a lesson on grace. The setup of the lesson is several verses on grace that we discuss. We were reading Ephesians 2:4-10, verse 8 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast”. We camped out on this verse. Together we processed through how Jesus died for us and how it is through him that we are reconciled to God. At the end of our time together, she talked about how she began to see this gift mentioned in verse 8. This is huge!

I am excited to see what God has in store for her. Continue praying for Jessica and that God keeps opening her heart.

Below are some photos from my small group:



"For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do". Ephesians 2:10

Comments

  1. Hey Emily! Thanks for sharing about Jessica. It's so neat to see people open up to Jesus through a slow process like that, and I know your friendship with her has been a big part of making that happen. I am praying she would experience more and more of God's grace and commit to follow him!

    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...

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...

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...