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 yesterday! (Giving Tuesday is today, 11/28.)

In this busy season, it's particularly easy to think of many reasons to be thankful, big and small. I'm thankful for...

1. having a job with a vision that I can pour into wholeheartedly
2. having good friends to share life with
3. the ability to bless others with what I have
4. my family that is planning on visiting for Christmas!
5. my family in Texas (blood, in-laws, and friends)
6. a loving wife who puts up with my shenanigans
7. all of you! Y'all who support me, read my updates, pray over our ministry, and more. 💕

You might recognize some of these lovely people. They are the apprentices from my first year on staff with FOCUS! (Though we're missing a few.) Me and Steph had them over for dinner the other week to reconnect with and get some face time! After the apprenticeship, most of them went on to work corporate jobs and are now scattered to the four winds (in DFW).

We hosted a Friendsgiving at our place the other day! This picture was taken after all of the chaos of getting the food ready and getting everyone served. But ultimately, we were able to relax and help make connections and build community—which was the greater goal in this event and in the decision of purchasing a house. I'm so thankful to just be able to afford a house. But 'tis so sweet to also have a wife who shares the vision of opening our home for everybody so that they may have a place to call home if their family is far away.

Stephanie's parents invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner (on Black Friday). Can you figure out which dish I contributed to the table? If you guessed the scallion pancakes, first of all, whoa. But also, yes.

UTD had their alumni night and it was so sweet to see so many familiar faces in the crowd. It was really special to be able to attend and get to reconnect with some old friends. But the only picture I took was of Joshua playing with Octi on the ground in front of me during the sermon. 🤣

Here are five of my friends [Stephen, Angela, Patrice, Nhala, and Daijon] that came over for several hours on a Sunday just to help me with work! When I tell people of counting shirts and separating them for orders, they always tell me it sounds like fun and quick work. But let me tell you... it's neither. With 6 of us, it still took about 2-3 hours (and this is the smaller, second round of shirt orders). Anyways, the point is not to tell you about how long it takes, but to showcase some of my friends who are willing to sacrifice their time to help me. 🥰

This picture is from the same night as the previous picture with the shirts. Me and Steph only planned on having 2 friends over for dinner that day. (But maybe as you can tell from how much food has been prepared, that didn't go according to plan.) Let me preface with saying, I love inviting people to things and I love cooking. I didn't start the day out with a grand plan, but after one of our friends dropped out of dinner, I thought I could at least invite a few more people over. When push came to shove and I had tallied everyone that was coming over, about 15 people showed up hungry. OOPS! The invites really got away from me quick...

It was my sister's birthday earlier this month! I'm so glad that she was able to find community and friends (just as I did) when she visited (and eventually moved to) Texas. Which is basically the exact same story I had coming to Texas in 2016. We're so blessed to have a loving and open community. Take it from me, you don't see this everywhere!

This is my friend, Hannah. I stumbled on her parked car at UTD and thought I'd snap a picture. She wanted to get in the picture to show that she's proud of her parking. 😜 And because she is so proud, I think she'd want me to share it with all of you!

One of our pastors compiled a video our FOCUS campuses and Family of Churches singing the same song and played it at our joint service. (Our Family of Churches consists of 5 sister churches in the DFW area that all run independently, but have the same mission and vision and were planted by our community.) I just thought it was really sweet and wanted to share it with y'all!