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!