Exciting News!!

 Howdy!

Life Update:

     Spring break has happened which means the school year is going to FLY by now. That being said, I am both sad and excited to announce that I will be transitioning off of FOCUS staff to pursue teaching! I will finish out the school year with my students and then at the end of May, I will no longer officially be a campus pastor. I am sad to be leaving college ministry and will miss the unique opportunities I have now working full time with college students and investing in their lives, but I am so excited to reflect Jesus in elementary schools.

     My husband, Austin, will also be transitioning into the engineering field after he finishes his apprenticeship with FOCUS. 

This is a picture we took in Waco the other week! We will certainly miss what we get to do full-time with FOCUS right now, but we are so excited for our  new season of bringing Jesus into different work spaces and getting even more involved with our church!

     Neither of us will be fundraising this summer, but I would ask you to pray about continuing to support FOCUS' mission. I have been deeply impacted by this ministry and I'm sure you have read in my blogs or heard in conversations with me of others who have been also been very impacted. I know many of you are aware of the housing market right now, and I have friends/pastors that will need some extra help in their fundraising this year because of the raise in their rent, so I ask you to please consider giving towards this need so that our pastors can still facilitate Kingdom-work in DFW Through FOCUS!

In Other News...

     Our core at TCC Northeast is going incredibly well. It's now grown to a size where we can split up men and women to have some even more intentional conversations! We decided to split up only every other week though, just to keep the momentum and friendships across the ministry as a whole in a good place. We had a hang out over Spring Break that encouraged me because it felt like our students were really friends with one another- not just peers that attend a bible study together. Our TCC team (staff) is really using the next few weeks to keep building close friendships amongst our students because we are convinced that God can do SO much good work through authentic, vulnerable, godly friendships.

This was our hang out at the mall over Spring Break!

     On another note...I am so excited to announce that I've been working on putting on a conference for women in FOCUS about body image! It will be called, "Wonderfully Made". For those of you who know me closely, you know that this issue is very near and dear to my heart. I feel very passionate about God's healing and restoring power manifesting in how we think about food and our bodies. Please pray for this! It will happen April 30th.

PRAYER

- Pray for our students going to SICM this summer! They are currently raising funds for that. If you are interested in supporting any of them, reach out to me!

- Pray for mine and Austin's job search!

- Once again, pray for the Wonderfully Made conference as I finish planning and executing that; pray that the women who attend would be ministered to and that the spirit would use our speakers and conversations to move and work!

Life Long Impact

WELCOME SPRING! (Kind of...)

February was a cold month, but nonetheless, one that I certainly see God's glory in. And I'm definitely thriving with the past week of sunshine and warm weather we had here in Texas- hopefully each of you were blessed by it too! But here's what's going on in ministry!

STAFF RETREAT! 

Our staff team with FOCUS took a 3 and 1/2 day retreat where we paused our regular schedules to focus on God, rest in him, and connect with each other. I personally was really impacted by our talks on surrender and sacrifice. I really think being reminded of Jesus' sacrifice for us put into perspective how doable the sacrifices I get to make every day in ministry are. I left the retreat fueled to love God and people more whole-heartedly than before. 

A few of us went on a hike at Ink's Lake!

Resting in God's creation is so energizing!

LOREN IN THE SPOTLIGHT:

Loren is the other blonde girl in these pictures. She's in my core this year and has spent pretty regular one on one time with me and my co-fa, Sam (also pictured below between Loren and I). Loren was already a follower of Jesus, but the FOCUS community has really blessed her by giving her people to walk with in her faith and pour into her life as she makes important decisions and simply is molded by the people she's around. Loren is eager to learn more about Jesus and is bold in her beliefs. I'm excited to see how God grows and uses her. She is going to SICM this year- so pray that God uses that time to really sharpen her discipleship skills to make more disciples on the UTA Campus! I love this girl.

Sam, Loren, and I grabbing coffee one day! So blessed by their friendship and meaningful conversations with them!

Got to have some girls over at my apartment one day for brunch! I love how much our community values and lives out community.

WHAT'S SICM??

So I breezed over this detail when I mentioned SICM above..but SICM is the Student Institute of Campus Ministry where students go on a week long trip being thoroughly equipped in how to make disciples on the college campus, but the tools given are certainly ones that apply for a lifetime. Loren and 3 of the other girls pictured below are going this year!!

HOW TO SUPPORT SICM

Every year FOCUS puts on a showcase of talent from our community as a fundraiser for SICM. This year, my good friend, Audrey came. Audrey is actually the person who got me involved in FOCUS to begin with! So I'm very thankful for her. She's now working as a journalist, but we are still friends and she to to support our ministry by coming to Showcase. If you want to support students going to SICM, you can still donate! This is an expensive trip that our students need help paying for, but I know the impact is really life-long and worth investing in! You can watch Showcase and/or donate towards SICM here: https://anyfocus.org/showcase/

So glad Audrey and I are still friends and God is using her in her church to lead and love people as she continues to learn more about herself and her faith!

Thanks for y'all's support! And for staying updated with my work (or God's work, really).

 

Where God is Working and I am Learning!

Baby it's cold outside!

    Hope everyone stayed warm and was able to rest a bit given the snowy circumstances in Texas this week!

    I have been doing everything virtually (meeting with students, large group fellowship, etc.) for the past 2 days, and I am just SO thankful technology can be such a help to us in times like these. I know technology certainly has its downfalls, but man it is a great tool to connect with people when in-person is not an option.

Core Wednesday night!
We watched an Episode of The Chosen together

Thursday Night Fellowship on Zoom

GOOD NEWS:

1. Winter Camp went really well!

    - Thank y'all so much for praying. I really believe that made a difference and we had pretty minimal spreading of sickness! 

This is me and my co-fa, Sam at Winter Camp!

2. Ministry at TCC is going SO well!

    - It is evident that God is on the move here and wants to work on this campus. He's been growing it with students who are hungry for God's word and community. I can't believe it's only been one semester, and I'm so excited to see where this current semester goes!

This is our consistent crew!

What I'm learning... 

    Being a follower of Jesus means being a life-long learner. "Disciple" after all does mean "student", so here's what I've been learning lately. 

Right now I'm reading a book called, Why Emotions Matter by Tristen and Jonathan Collins. In addition to this, I've been listening to a podcast called Cultivated from Christianity Today (I've been especially influenced by the episode featuring Tish Warren). These resources, along with personal experiences, I've been learning a lot about my feelings and the need to process them. God created humans with emotions and emotions are GOOD. We are mistaken if we think emotions are unnecessary in the Christian faith. We also often think that following Jesus means being really happy all the time...or what I've heard called and "emotional prosperity gospel." This is just not true- our Lord does not reflect this! Emotions that are seen as more negative like grief and shame are certainly uncomfortable, but if they are left ignored, we leave ourselves and those around us in a destructive place. I'm definitely still figuring out emotions and find them super interesting, but there's some of what I've been thinking through recently!

Lastly,

PLEASE COME TO SPRING SHOWCASE! It benefits students who will go to the Student Institute of Campus Ministry this summer in Seattle to learn how to effectively make disciples on the college campus!

It's going to be an AWESOME show with music, dancing, and improv! Plus you can buy art made by some of our staff and students- prints, ceramics, jewelry and more.

 

Ministry as a Lifestyle

 Happy New Year! 

I'm back from a little holiday break and ready to share some of my life and heart!

    I know the majority of my posts are about campus ministry as that is the real purpose of my blog, but ministry doesn't just stop there. Being a disciple of Jesus is not something you clock in and out of, so despite not being on the college campus as much in December, I still got to co-labor with God in other ways. 

    First, Austin and I made and delivered some Christmas treats to our neighbors in our apartment complex. It was such a neat opportunity for outreach we just couldn't pass up. I'm so glad Austin had this idea! We got to show warmth and friendly faces to the people on our floor that we have never met before despite living there for 6 months. Even though we didn't get to have any crazy, spiritual conversations, we got to demonstrate the thoughtfulness, hospitality, and generosity of God to people who may not see that very often. I hope we can build on some of these relationships we started. Pray for that!

    Another thing I got to do quite a bit of was spend time with my little cousins. Because they live in the Austin area and I am in DFW, I don't get to see them in person too often, but I believe God has put it on my heart lately to intentionally pursue these sweet girls in my life. I hope my love and care for them reflects God's love and care for them, and I want to be in their life enough for them to feel like they have a tangible example of what it looks like to be a follower of Jesus. A lot of my time with them was spent playing, making Tik Toks, and decorating cookies with them...but I personally think this is just as valuable as any sermon I could ever give.

    Lastly, I went on a girl's trip with 2 of my best friends! One of the girls is actually still a student-leader at UTA, but the other is an alum. The 3 of us went down to the Austin area for a few days and got to enjoy each other's company while also seizing opportunities to bless one another through encouragement, finances (buying someone's food/item), and acts of service (driving, accommodating to someone else's plans, etc.). Friendship is maybe my 2nd favorite gift from God..my first favorite is laughter and there was a lot of that on this trip too ;)

How are you engaging with and blessing the people God has placed in your life? Your friends, your family, your neighbors, or coworkers? How does God want to work around you?

I will have plenty of campus-related updates to give next month as we have winter camp coming up super soon!! (January 14 - 17)

PLEASE PRAY:

1. For Covid cases to fall before camp and for protection from Covid spreading at camp

2. For students who are hesitant to go to be open and motivated to go

3. For God to work through the teachings, worship, and relationships at Winter Camp!

Highlights of Fall 2021

Merry almost Christmas!

     I'm pretty sure I feel this way every year...but I am shocked that an entire semester has gone by. 

     To wrap up the semester, I wanted to share some highlights of where/how God has been moving in our ministry.

     This is MaLiyah (and the rest of us celebrating her birthday). I know I've mentioned her before because she was in my core last year and had kind of an odd story since she came mid-year- while many people join FOCUS after the first few weeks of school because they were met at some sort of welcome-event. 

I AM AMAZED at God's work in her. MaLiyah is someone that I definitely see as a spiritual leader in our core and in her family now. She loves the Lord and is actively taking steps to grow in areas she sees a need to- such as investing in deeper friendships and reaching out to new people to share her life and faith with them. Being naturally more reserved, MaLiyah has really stepped out of her comfort zone in order to be a better disciple. I am thankful for her friendship and the Spirit's work in her.

       This is our UTA women's leader team. They have also been such an encouragement and testament to God's work. Some other girls who were in my core last year, Lizzy and Sarah, are in this picture now as leaders! It has been so neat watching God grow them as disciple-makers. They have both grown A TON in their leadership and I am so proud of them for the initiative they have taken this semester in pursuing young women the way they were pursued last year. What a beautiful depiction of our faith- once we are blessed with it, we go and bless others with it! In addition to those girls, it really is amazing to look at this picture and see all of the ladies who are committed to serving God and college students on UTA's campus. Our ministry could not run without our core-fa's, and it's my prayer that the skills and character developed here will be taken into whatever place they go after college.

     This is my friend, Stephanie. Stephanie is in my core this year and while she grew up with Christian beliefs, this is her first time in Christian community. She is loving the friendships she's made as well as how she's been prompted to think about her faith more critically through discussions in core and sermons at TNF. Stephanie just decided she wanted to study the Bible more deeply and in a one-on-one setting next semester and I am eager to see how Jesus continues to reveal himself to her. She will be studying with my friend, Melina. Please pray for them as they do this!

     And last, but certainly not least- PRAISE GOD FOR HIS WORK AT TCC NORTHEAST!!! Our core has been growing and the group pictured above has been consistent for the past 4-6 weeks. What's even more exciting is the fact that the majority of these students are completely bought in and want to be a part of this ministry taking root and growing on this campus. Many of these students have expressed that they didn't expect anything like this at Tarrant County College and are incredibly grateful for our the community we've created. I truly believe we are bringing LIGHT and LIFE to this campus.

I pray each of you has a wonderful and restful Christmas and break from work!

Here's how you can pray for us:

- WINTER CAMP! It's coming up in January- pray for students to be prompted to come and for God's hand of protection and order to be over it.

- For myself and our students to be truly replenished over the break...not with laziness and selfishness, but with slowing down and connecting with God, his people, and the rest of his creation.

TCC Taking Off

Hello and Happy November!

    The main thing I want to share about today is our plant at Tarrant County College, because I have GOOD NEWS. God is truly moving there and I believe he wants to do something. Here is a picture of a few of us at the zoo together:

Rowan works at the zoo in Fort Worth and got us all tickets- SO sweet. We love community building.

    The 3 students in the picture along with the other campus pastors on my team have been very consistent in coming to the core we started at TCC. They are also all doing a one on one bible study with either Graham or myself. Rowan has been such a neat girl to meet with. Though we have very different interests, I truly enjoy and learn from our time together. I am SO encouraged by the work the Spirit is doing in her through our core and FOJ studies. She shared this past week that she used to only think about God's existence every now and then...but now she considers him and even thinks about communicating with him on an almost daily basis. WOW. She really seems to desire to be like Jesus and is very open to looking more like him so far. I am excited to see how her devotion to Jesus continues to grow over the rest of this year.

Finally became an official student org that can reserve rooms! Thank you to those of you who prayed about that!

    I know that impressive numbers are not what our ministry is striving for, and I certainly believe God's work is present and valuable in just the 3 of them- BUT something super exciting is that FOCUS was able to table at TCC's Fall Fest the other week and we were able to reach a lot of students through that! And as a result, we've had 6 new people come to core and multiple others who gave us their phone number and email that aren't able to come this semester because of class interference, but are interested in coming next semester! I'm feeling very hopeful about this ministry.

Me and Eldrian doing some outreach/tabling on TCC's campus!

    It is very evident that the staff/faculty WANT student life to be there. What an awesome opportunity for our ministry to really partner with the university and make a positive impact on this campus. I believe a Jesus loving community can have a symbiotic relationship with their college campus. On top of that, I remember at the beginning of the school year, I had at least 3 (if not more) students tell me how lonely they felt at school. This breaks my heart, but I think it also affirms the idea that FOCUS can really meet a need on the TCC campus by befriending and loving students in a way that points to Jesus.

    PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR MINISTRY AT TCC!!! I am specifically at the Northeast Campus, but we have 2 other campus pastors at the Southeast Campus where God is moving as well! Pray for God to use our ministry to be a light on the campus and pray for Kingdom-work to happen at TCC. Community colleges often are overlooked and not seen as a place where one can develop fruitful relationships and have meaningful experiences, but that is a lie we are fighting against. Thanks for being a part of this mission in your financial gifts, prayers, and encouragements!

PS: Check out this student testimony for encouragement and 

more specific prayer requests within our ministry!

Fall Camp!

Happy Fall!

We're a just little over a month into this year of ministry now, but we are making headway!

     As a brief update, we just had our Fall Camp with UTA and it was awesome! We had about 80 students (a good mix of new students and students who are returning to our ministry) come and worship, make friends, hear student testimonies, and enjoy God's creation that weekend. I really believe Fall Camp is a time where people begin to see themselves not just as an attendee of an organization, but really a member of our body which really opens doors for discipleship!

Big group games- YAY. Orange team did in fact win, in case you were curious.

This is me, Sam B, and Loren. Sam and I lead core together and Loren is in ours! We have loved having her around and I can see how the Lord is so kindly providing her community and teaching through our ministry.

Worship at Fall Camp

Here's what one of the freshman in our ministry said about Fall Camp when she was asked to share about it at our Thursday Night Fellowship:

This is my first year being in FOCUS and honestly I can say nothing but good things. This past weekend I had the privilege of going to fall camp and had a blast. I’m not gonna lie, I had been contemplating going to camp just new cause I wasn’t sure what I was going to get out of it. But it wasn’t about what I was getting out of it, it’s what God was planning to do through me while being there. I enjoyed playing sand volleyball which brought me so much laughter. My walk and talk allowed me to be open. I got to know everyone on a deeper level and enjoy God’s presence. One of the important things I learned while at camp was about the Lords sweet word which is like honey there was a table set up with a the scripture from psalm 119:103 which says “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”

Also on the table was a bottle of honey. As I tasted the honey the sweeter it became! It was nice to have the physical resemblance of what Gods word taste like. Gods word is truthful and Lord has so much love for us and he will continue to guide us no matter what. I know that God has so much in store for me.

And when I allow him to speak through me it’s sweeter than what I would think.

This is just one story of quite a few that came from Fall Camp this year. The Lord is at work at UTA and I am incredibly thankful for it. I'm eager to share how he continues to move over the next few months.

PRAYER PLEASE!

• TCC Northeast just approved FOCUS as an official student organization! We've had about 3 students coming to our core there regularly so pray for healthy growth as we are now allowed to advertise through flyers and tabling and such!
• While my core at UTA is going well, there has been some hesitancy in studying the Bible one on one...so just pray for open hearts to explore the scriptures!