Emily's Ministry Updates

  Can anyone believe how fast November was?  I cannot! This month has been full of reflection on what God has done since I came to FOCUS; ministry has marked my past three years of life. I am thankful to get to be doing the work I get to do. As I have been reflecting, I have been thinking through our life-long journey of looking more like Christ. God has grown me a lot over these past years. First, I now am able to ask tough questions and be bold. Second, He has given me the opportunity to put my multitude of words and thoughts into sermons this semester. Believe it or not, sermons and speaking in front of people has freaked me out in the past. Lastly, I have been given many opportunities to trust God and his perspective during 2020. Hello, coronavirus ministry. At DBU, our ministry has been focusing on Colossians 1:28-29: “ He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I stren...

Happy November! A personal update: I am an engaged woman. Why I feel this deserves a spot on my blog update is because ministry is extremely personal; we share life together. The girls I have had the honor of serving alongside or studying with are a part of my every week. We talk about Jesus and our lives, and this weekend, I saw how those very ladies were there when Graham proposed. We have a lot to rejoice about. God is good.  Anyways, let’s get into the month.  Something exciting to share is that I will be teaching for the rest of the month. I am teaching on Mark till our students go on Thanksgiving break. I love talking and people listening to me, but this has been very new to me. I simply have been working through a commentary ( New International Version Application Commentary) and teaching through it. My first sermon was on Mark 7:24-37. That passage is about the story of the Syrophoenician woman where Jesus calls her a dog. Just from preparing for that sermon I was tau...

  Hello all! Let’s jump in. Here’s just a yay-time picture to start off. My friend Amber was baptized in September. I love what all this photo captures: my friend giving her life to Christ and this pandemic. Imagine her grandkids one day looking back on her in a pool wearing a mask. It makes me giggle. This photo reminds of how our God is really changing people’s lives and calling them to be obedient to him despite the crazy times we live in. God has been faithful in providing me new relationships and studies at UTA & DBU. The ministry at DBU has slowly taken up the majority of my schedule. I see that as God answering my prayers from when I had covid. I was nervous while being stuck at home that it would be hard to meet new girls. I was immediately given four studies just from DBU when I came back from covid. God was kind to hand me ministry opportunities and so many for that matter.  I’m still getting to know these ladies during our meet ups. Be praying for all my new st...

As promised, here is your mid-month update! I have a few stories to share along with some big news.  Let’s hop to it.  This year’s welcome week was unlike any other year I’ve experienced, but that is true of many 2020 experiences. A typical kickoff for the new semester involves movie nights, carnival-like events and so much free food. Our student leaders and the whole staff would be on campus for every event to meet students. This can be exhausting, but incredibly worthwhile. This year there were no events to welcome students. The campus was eerily empty despite the fact students had moved in. Yet, we did what we could do: we went on campus and created our own events to meet students.  Our events were simple. We divided our leader team up and sent them out in small groups across our campus. The campus had guidelines that we followed like wearing a mask and staying in groups of no larger than ten people. These rules were simple enough to follow. Some of our lady leaders ho...

Let’s jump in. This month went in a different direction than I had expected. I have some neat stories to share about welcome week, but I was not on campus this year. I spent the end of August quarantined with covid-19. Forgive me for just now sharing this; thankfully, my case was mild with me being congested and having no taste. My testing positive led to one of the strangest two weeks I have experienced in a while. I had to struggle with several questions during my time away. All of them revolved around God’s timing and why I was sick.  For a campus pastor, everything we do in the summer ramps up for the new year. We fundraise and rest to be ready for this very season of meeting new students in August. A fact that has been drilled into my head is that our ministry is built on the work done at the beginning. So with having covid, I grieved not being on campus with my friends doing what I had been praying about all summer. Our team did an amazing job being wise and meeting new peopl...

Hello friends!  I am so happy it is August.  If I’m honest, I've had mixed emotions around the fall and how COVID was going to impact the work I love. There was so much in the air initially surrounding the campus and that challenged the part of me that desires control and certainty. The Lord has been kind to me, reminding me of His character through scripture and people. I want to share some verses that have ministered to me as I think about the upcoming semester in 2 Timothy 4: 2-5: “Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.   For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.   But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of...

Below is a picture of one happy dog named Harvey. I don't have many photos from this month because I have not seen many people in person. I did, however, see Harvey. Does anyone else feel like they were unprepared for the heat of the summer because we’ve been indoors since March? I do. July seems to have smacked me in the face, at least temperature wise. Thankfully, ministry is going along as usual.  As a FOCUS staff, we have been watching and waiting for any update on what UTA was going to do in the fall. The campus has announced they will be doing a mix of in-person classes and online.  It seems the campus is being thoughtful as they consider their students and the impacts of COVID. Also, students because of this announcement are making decisions whether they want to live on campus or not. I have spoken with several ladies who are currently planning on being on campus in the fall. Pray for our students as they weigh the costs of staying on campus or being at home...