Skip to main content

What Month Is It Again?

 It feels like it's been forever since I last had the chance to update y'all! I meant to get this blog post out sooner..


Personal Updates:

...but some things got in the way. The craziest thing that has happened to me in recent memory was that I had to go to the emergency room on the Saturday of Labor Day Weekend. Before I keep going, I'll let y'all know that I feel fine! I have a number of people checking up on me and making sure that I'm recovering without issue. Thank you for all the prayers! They're not exactly sure what happened, so I'm trying to visit a neurologist this coming week just to make sure that I get a thorough second opinion.


Ministry Updates:

The school year is underway! All of our ministers have had to think of creative ways to engage with the student body, given that some campuses are only online, some schools are not allowing physical gatherings of any kind on campus, while others are doing their best to accommodate for student life in this time. Continued prayers for our students and ministers as they reach out to the incoming freshman and students who are desperately in need of a community!


If you would, please pray about the following:

- That at the end of this ordeal, I can feel healthy and 100% again! It's been a wild ride since that fateful Saturday.

- That all of our students and ministers can continue to reach out despite the setbacks of this year. That the students attending these campuses will be open to Jesus-loving communities and friendships.


A socially-distanced, masks-required outreach at UTD. Many students were wandering around campus just 'looking for something to do.' All of our games allowed for space between the students, including Cornhole and four square.

Richland is one of our online-only campuses. This was their first physical meeting of the year at a local park to ensure their students were ready and engaged for the coming school year. Having an online-only campus presents challenges that we will need to think through!

This isn't a part of FOCUS, but I wanted to highlight ministry in all forms! My roommate has been using his Saturdays since the end of summer to coordinate outreach out to the homeless in our community. He has assembled a host of students to put together care packages, including food, water, socks, and toiletries to hand out and to speak life to this community. All of the care packages are put together through donations! If you are interested in learning more about this, please let me know and I can connect you!



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

November 2023

Happy Thanksgiving!! I hope y'all had a wonderful week and got to eat yummy food! :-) It's been a crazy month!! Our church had our annual fundraiser for the kids' ministry. We flew in Iain Provan for a weekend to speak at a joint-church service and Pizza Theology. I got to see a few movies—something that I've not done in a little while. Birthdays, parties, funerals, dinners. And today is Giving Tuesday! (And the month is still not done yet!) If you haven't heard, FOCUS has an annual fundraiser called Keep FOCUS Growing. A generous subset of our supporters has pledged to match over $55,000 in donations that come in during this fundraiser campaign which officially ends today! If you haven't yet, would you consider donating? To learn more and to donate, visit anyfocus.org/kfg ! We will also be posting updates on our Facebook page today. For a taste of what God is doing on our college campuses, read through this short testimony from Josh at UTA that was posted yest...

February 2024

Had the opportunity to see my friend, Kaytlin, off as she moves out of state! One of the strangest people I've met, but also one of the quickest I've connected with. (Does that mean I'm strange too?) We met at a church (not my church) pickleball tournament last year and someone asked us if we knew each other from before. My go-to response in those instances is, 'Oh yeah, we go waaay back.' But in reality, we had just met a few minutes prior. Happy Lunar New Year! I got to celebrate with these friends from church with some good food that we spent hours preparing. 新年快樂 (Happy New Year!) Alright.. my first time trying to make focaccia. It turned out more dense and bread-y than it was supposed to. But I'm going to keep trying! If there's anything you think I should try making, let me know. :-) Happy Valentine's Day! I got these flowers after the actual day because they're cheaper that way.. but the thought still counts, right? 😁 Whether you have a signi...

June 2024

  I got to spend some time with this group of guys in Colorado. It was so beautiful and I enjoyed getting to take some time off after the big SICM trip. It was also a sweet time to get to know these guys more in depth and experience their servant-heartedness while we were all taking care of each other: making meals, cleaning, and trying to include everyone in the fun.  From left to right: Stian (green hat, former UTD campus pastor, Collin campus pastor), Mick (blue hoodie, UTD alum, Collin campus pastor apprentice), ME, Kevin (tall guy, Collin campus pastor), Steven (glasses, Denton campus pastor), Brandon (old guy, UTD campus pastor), Jared (chain necklace, UTD alum), and Jonathan (Broncos jersey, UTD alum). I love seeing the stars—it's so rare to see them in the city. Obviously my phone does not do it justice by any stretch, but you could see stars stretching across the entire night sky in Colorado. When I look up and see the vastness of stars, it reminds me of how small we ...