Skip to main content

Let's Start At The Very Beginning

And just like that, August flew by... thank you for your prayers and well wishes as we started the new school year! I truly appreciate each of you for being who you are and for your support in ministry.

The night we arrived at SICM (after a long 6 hour drive), we had dinner and our first session. It was a surreal moment for me as I had been planning this for the past 6 months. I remember calling the different camps about their availability for SICM during the big freeze! But here we are, getting ready to learn about how to become better friends and ministers on our campuses, about 200 of us in all!

This was the view right outside the cabin. What a beautiful place to be and learn!

These are two of my good friends, Zoë and Andrea! They have both been such a blessing to me in my time in Texas and FOCUS. I'm so excited to see what God can do through them as they partner with what He is doing at UTD!

About midway through SICM, we took the morning off to be able to sleep in a little longer than usual and relax. This is Austin Gage, one of our pastors in Arlington, definitely taking advantage of the time.

On the last morning of SICM, we took time to pray over each campus that we were sending people out to: UT Dallas, Dallas College (Brookhaven, Richland), UNT, TWU (Denton, Dallas), NCTC, Collin College (Preston Ridge, Spring Creek, Central Park, Wylie), UT Arlington, and TCC (Northeast, Southeast).

And here's the first FNF at UTD! It was (again) a surreal moment to be on campus as UTD was shut down for almost the last 3 semesters. There are so many students who are searching for a community to be a part of and I'm so glad that we can be a part of that for them.

After the craziness of SICM and Welcome Week, I went to Six Flags with my friend John Bunyard. Here's us on the (almost completely empty) merry-go-round

We have a 'carpool to church' event to help students find a home church while they are away at college. Our church hosted the college students to a pizza lunch to help them get to know each other and the FOCUS pastors and the church staff! Can you spot Zoë and Andrea cheesin'?



Comments

Post a Comment

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

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 ...
Post a Comment
Read more

May 2024

It has been 9 years since I graduated from UW and 12 years since I left Vancouver, where I grew up. This year, after a couple of years of thinking about it, Steph and I were able to explore Seattle and Vancouver together—both places that are a big part of my story. We were able to visit the church I attended growing up where a surprising number of aunties recognized me despite a big appearance change. One even commented on how I used to be so quiet and avoidant of people (hopefully you have noticed that is not the case anymore)! I was also able to meet up with some friends that I haven't seen in years (some, it has been since graduating college). This December, we are planning on visiting Cameroon with her family, where Steph grew up, for a New Testament dedication ceremony. A handful of New Testament translations that Steph's parents have worked on for the past 20 years are finally in print and available to the people of Cameroon in their heart language . Praise God for the ab...
Post a Comment
Read more