Skip to main content

June Update

 

I thought I would start with this photo of me. It cracks me up. I was serving tacos at our end of year party, and this photo was snapped. Wouldn't you want to see that happy face as you were handed tacos? 

The summer is here! I have already been reaping the benefits of a slower schedule. I am thankful my last month of pregnancy is during this time. While I am still meeting with students, it is in a much slower pace than the school year. I am helping plan what I can before Bonnie arrives. FOCUS will host services over the summer open to all of our campuses to come and worship. I have been on the team planning hangouts after the service. Our goal is to help students make friendships across the campuses. We are optimistic our students will enjoy these creative events since we have historically just gone to restaurants afterwards. Who doesn't love saving some money and meeting new people? 
Graham was a part of the team who went up to Washington for our annual leadership training (SICM). We sent the most students we have ever sent this year: 155 students from all of our campus ministries! We are praising God because we had our biggest turnout post-covid. Think about that. Many ministries are still feeling the effects of COVID and the hit on their attendance. The photo is a tad blurry, but this means our campuses have 155 students on fire for Jesus. Pray they will be lights on their campuses come this fall. 

For our ministry personally, UTA send fourteen students to SICM this year. This was an even split between guys and girls. This is an answered prayer for our ministry specifically for the men who went. You guys would know how often I asked y'all to pray for God to bring us men who can lead. These seven guys are really great. Pray they will continue to grow their faith over this summer. Pray for the ladies too! 

For TCC, we sent one student named Israel. He is great and sincere in his pursuit of God. I want to call on all prayer warriors because this next year we are anticipating the biggest shift yet on that campus. Not only will the year start off with me on maternity leave, many of our oldest, foundational students are now transferring this upcoming fall. We do have seven-eight students who will still be around, but they vary where their walk of God is. Pray God will inspire some to live as disciples.  Pray for the others to grow in boldness and help us fill needs. This summer, one of the other pastors at this campus is doing a prayer walk weekly at TCC. I plan to walk alongside her till I can't no more. Pray God will use us on this campus how he sees fit. 
The guy on the left of Graham is Israel! They studied the Bible together this past year.

Some of what has been going on: 

Here is a glimpse of the send-off ceremony at SICM. The students pray over each campus and pray for God to move this upcoming fall. 

Here is Graham and some of our UTA guys. 



Here is Graham being a bird whisperer. 
Here is some of our students out to eat in Seattle!

Now what you've been waiting for... Here's me very pregnant at a baby shower. 


Shoutout to Tenth and Broad for hosting a shower too! It was very special celebrating with the church I attended while in college. These women were incredibly generous to our little family. 
Thank you for your prayers and support. Pray for us as our world is about to change dramatically in just a month. 


Comments

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 Collin College serv
1 comment
Read more

Warning: This Post Has TONS of Photos.

 Somebody pinch me. How are we already done with October?  October felt daunting to me. I had several big events planned on most of the weekends this month: FOCUS's fall camp, my annual visit to Wichita Falls with students, and visiting Tenth and Broad for their Diamond Jubilee Celebration of missions. All of these events were special and exciting, but I felt intimidated that they would leave me feeling drained from lack of rest. You know I love to host and make sure people are having a great time. I prayed and God gave me the strength to be present at all of these events. It really helps that I get to work with some fun people.  On that note, I want to say thank you again for supporting me in ministry. Your partnering with me through financial support makes this ministry possible. I am so grateful for your faithful prayers. It never ceases to amaze me how kind God is and I am reminded as I type about this past month. Thank you! Anyways, Let's get into the first event: Wichita
Post a Comment
Read more