May Update!!

Greetings!

Hello team. I have delayed writing this update. I believe that is because anytime I sat to write, a wave of nostalgia and grief came over me. My time with FOCUS has been the vehicle of all my favorite things about my life. It was my first job out of college. FOCUS is where I was raised up into a mature leader through multiple opportunities like seminary classes and many books. I met my husband and had a baby while doing this ministry. I have had the privilege of befriending and mentoring many students; some of whom have become pastors themselves. These are just a few of the blessings I have lived while working with FOCUS. Your generosity and your care for college students made these beautiful things possible. I hope you see this transition as a celebration of life and ministry. Thank you for all your kind words and ways you guys have personally connected with me in this time. Thank you for seeing the college campus as something worth investing in for the kingdom.

As I step into this next season, I carry with me deep gratitude and the lessons this ministry has etched into my soul. In the fall, I’ll be starting nursing school at TCC—a new path that I’m both nervous and excited to begin. I’m especially looking forward to having more time at home with Bonnie in these sweet early years. While this is a big change, my love for students, for Scripture, and for making disciples remains at the center of who I am, and I trust that God will continue to open doors for that to flourish in new ways. Please keep praying for the mission of FOCUS—pray for the staff, the students, and the campuses. And from the bottom of my heart, thank you for walking with me so generously and faithfully through this beautiful chapter.

Who knows? Maybe I'll start a bible study while I'm in school.

Photos from the month:

Here are our students at our leadership training in Washington. Bonnie is in the middle of the crowd.

One of our TCC students chose to get baptized while we were up in Washington.

Look at her go!

Here is my group and our wonderful, fabulous host mom, Wendy!

Look homemade pasta!!!

Wendy taught us how to make homemade noodles.

Here is one of our UTA students, Sudeep, getting baptized by Graham!

Us and some students on a hike!

Here's a glimpse of our end of year party!

Comments

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...

Below Freezing Baptism

Happy Snow Day! Of course, January would end white and icy. Graham, Waldo, and I are holed up in our third-story apartment. Pray, we figure out when to take our dog out in this weather. Waldo doesn't really want to put his paws on the ice and I can't blame him. While the month started off restful, the end of the month was full of activity fairs to meet new students. Graham and I were constantly printing off flyers and buying candy to prepare. We got a lot of free lunches, so I can't be too mad. Be praying we meet students who want community. The spring can be awkward for students because they assume everyone has friends except them. Pray they have the boldness to overcome that. We had our annual Winter Retreat this past month. A short story time: this retreat was my only interaction with FOCUS before working with them. This is where I learned about the ministry internship and saw this amazing community in action. I had never seen so many young people praising Jesus ...

February is a little slim on photos. Forgive me. The photo from above is from my small group making valentines for our ministry. Here's one of cards: I know, it's baby Yoda. So basic. Much of this past month has been much of the same: meeting up with girls and doing bible studies. We have seen some recent growth in our ladies side of the ministry. This has been encouraging, but it feels like we are bursting at the seams. It feels like there are always more people to meet up with. Pray that we are able to build up new leaders to help with this growth.. Especially pray for God to bring ladies to lead. Something exciting and new is that I have picked up some studies at DBU. Yes, there’s a FOCUS at DBU. It’s small and still growing, but we are there. It has been mostly pioneered by students from other FOCUS campuses. The staff at UTA has recently over the past three years joined in to help this group. For me, this is the vision of our ministry: equipping...

Emily's Ministry Updates

Search This Blog