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June 2023

Summer FOCUS is still going strong! Each week, around 300 students come from the four corners of DFW (like Denton and Arlington) to praise and worship God and learn to be more like Jesus in community. If you haven't had a chance to visit yet, there's still time! We meet on Thursdays at 7:30 in Richardson. Let me know if you want to visit! Our sermon series is about how knowing and following God compels us to not live in weakness, but to boldly proclaim how God's power is made perfect in our weakness. Give this sermon by Adriana, one of our pastors at Collin College, a listen! It's titled, Fear to Boldness.

Click here to listen to Adriana's sermon.

Something that we encourage over the summer, because we do not organize formal small groups, is for students to get together in groups of 3-4 and grow in their faith together in a more intimate setting. These were formally called PACCS, which stood for Prayer, Adoration.. something or other. This year, we're naming it 2:42 Groups; which comes from Acts 2:42: "They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." (The reason for the change was because it was difficult to remember what PACCS stood for.)



On a personal note, me and Steph just moved into our new house in Garland! Before we moved in, we found out that all of the (cast iron) pipes needed to be replaced. We knew it was coming in the future... we just didn't realize that the time was now. So that was fun (not really). The whole place is a mess of boxes that still need to be unpacked and there's been many times where I just can't find that one thing

We also had the opportunity to fly to California to see my parents. It had been awhile since I last went home; we tried to go home for Christmas a few years back, but the trip was canceled due to COVID exposures. When people tell me how fun California is, I ask them if they've ever visited San Jose before. But, (despite my sarcasm) we did get to go to the fun part of California. As a family, we went to L.A. to watch Peter and Brandon graduate from seminary and got to go to Disneyland! And getting to meet my niece for the second time was the highlight of the trip.

Lastly, I got my CPAP machine! And.. man I look so dumb wearing it. Does anybody look cool while using it though? It's so weird and I've only used it a handful of times so far. Will report back.

Me and my family at Disneyland (minus the parents). I think this picture was taken around nap time which is why she looks blobby. 😂

Me and my family at dinner on the first night we were all in California! If there's one thing California does better than Texas, it's the food.

Texas crew and my niece at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. This was our first time taking our niece out and didn't know what to expect in terms of temperament, but she loved it! She has absolutely no separation anxiety, lol.

One of the biggest things my parents wanted me to do when I visited was to build a gazebo (from a kit) that they had bought 2 years ago. (They only ask me because they know that I'll do it... and I have to wrangle people to help if needed.) That thing was nasty and had old water pooling in the box and bugs crawling out of crevices. If you know me, I'm not much of a nature or outdoorsy guy... but we got it done. 

For the past 3 years of so, Steph and I have wanted to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Despite personally having visited or lived in California for the past decade, I had never been to the famous aquarium before. All that changed. I wouldn't say it was a life-altering trip, but it certainly was very awesome - particularly all of the jellyfish. Something about them is so mesmerizing.

Peep Peter cheesing as he walks to his seat during the graduation ceremony! Congratulations to him and Brandon on (finally) graduating from seminary!



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