Tuesday, March 29, 2022

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!






Tuesday, March 8, 2022

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).