We Got Through February

We were supposed to have a staff retreat at the beginning of January, but it was postponed to February due to COVID. It was a refreshing time to get to fellowship as a whole staff team and listen to messages about humility, self control, surrender, intimacy (with God), and sacrifice. During free time, you could always find a group of people in a circle playing Hacky Sack.

The city of Richardson put on a Chinese New Year event in their small Chinatown plaza. It was cool to see some people dressed in traditional attire, but it was freezing cold that day (not pictured are the many hand warmers used to keep warm) and the event was poorly planned and executed (sorry to say). Many of the performances could only be seen by the handful of people in the front row and 90% of the pop-up booths were not even for Asian food. Disappointing to say the least... but I got a nice photo out of it.

Also for Chinese New Year, I got a meal with my family in Dallas. Thankful to have these people nearby!

How can I have a blog post without the ice storm?! Crazy times! Even now, as I send out this blog, the weather has been so unpredictable — summer weather one day and the dead of winter the next. I can't tell if I need to set my thermostat on heat or cool until the morning-of!

These are my friends, Carla and Mike. They just got married recently and I got to see them at Showcase this year! If you don't know what Showcase is (and maybe missed my previous update), it's a fundraiser to help send our prospective student leaders to SICM, a campus ministry training conference in Bellingham, Washington. If you missed it and/or want to give, you can view a recording of the evening show and find a donation page here: anyfocus.org/showcase.

If you've ever played Pass The Pigs, you may not have given it another moments thought. But a group of us have loved playing it at SICM and Winter Camp (after late-night delirium has set in) and so we decided to play it one night.

If you've been supporting me since last year, you'll recognize this same group of kiddos (okay.. maybe they're not kids). But what you might NOT have noticed is that William (on the far left) is actually Photoshopped into the photo. This precious group of people are my apprentice group from last year and I'm so proud of all that they've accomplished. William is still working with the teen ministry at the Wylie Northeast Church, Lindsey is going to be going to seminary in preparation of planting FOCUS at TCU, Taylor is working on her teaching certification to teach the next generation of students, Andrea is proving herself to be an invaluable asset to the UTD team, and Joey is going to be faithfully staying at Dallas College.

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Why are bananas curved in shape?

My mom celebrated her birthday this month and we all got on a video chat! (Peep the Zoom call in the corner.) My niece loves to clap with other people and so she was having a grand time. You'll have to go back (quite) a few blog posts to find when I first got my expander put in... who knew it would take this long for me to get my braces off?? Some friends told me that the braces were a part of my identity, so without them, what am I?! But seriously, eating is SO EASY again. Earlier this month, I got to go on a short trip to Boston with Steph and another couple. It was my first time (that I can remember) going to the East Coast. Being someone who grew up on the West Coast (and even now in Dallas), there has never been a rich history to the places I've been. But it was incredible getting to see the sights and walk The Freedom Trail. Going into Paul Revere's house definitely brought out the kid in me who loved him growing up, simply because we had the same name. Anyways, this ...

We Made It!

I attended UTD's end-of-year party because I heard that there would be a flash mob for Brandon (the party landed on Brandon's actual birthday). Don't tell anyone I got it for you... but you can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7Q7eRcecoM On our first day of SICM (Sunday), they had us join the end of their first service so that their congregation could pray over us, our safety and learning. What a sweet congregation! Their church really reminds me of the congregation at Northeast Garland, people who have really invested in a shared vision - in their case, it's to support and train ministers around the world. If you see the little posters on the back wall, they had posters lining around their whole sanctuary of missionaries that their body supports around the world. On one of the sightseeing days in Seattle, a group of us took the ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge. On the ferry, you depart from downtown Seattle across Elliot Bay, and get a grand view of the ...

Showcase is February 26

Showcase is in 1 week! If you haven't gotten your tickets yet, you can do so at anyfocus.org/showcase. All proceeds from the show go towards sending our prospective student leaders to SICM, a conference that trains and equips them to think pastorally on their campuses. This is a video of me and my family hanging out on Zoom on New Years Eve and celebrating the New Year for the West Coast (2 am in Texas). I decided not to attend any New Year's celebrations in person (and isolated myself for almost a week beforehand) in an attempt to not contract COVID before our staff retreat... I tested positive later that day. Though I tested positive for COVID on New Years, Winter Camp was a few weeks after which gave me time to recover. We flew in Rikk Watts to speak about the historicity of the Bible. It was nice to have some semblance of normalcy, as we had canceled Winter Camp the previous year. It was a lot of work, but definitely worth it to see the students bonding and having a good ...

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