Admin 'Appenings

The December update will be filled with family photos (sorry!) because they stayed for most of the month! Because my family (at least half of them) live in California, I typically get to see them once, maybe twice a year, so it's always a fun time when we are able to get together! I hope y'all had a Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year! It was my mom's 40th anniversary since deciding to follow Jesus, so we celebrated a little! We got her an embossed journal, some flowers, and a nice cake from 85C. Whoo! We went out to Nickelrama and got Nora so many prizes, including this Dora balloon wand. It was my first time and it was a blast! On my birthday, Steph's parents came over and we had some hot pot. Our table is definitely not big enough for everyone, so some of them got to sit on the couch and be served food instead of having to work for it themselves. It's been so long since we've done hot pot at home, I forgot how much of a production it is. Our family cele...

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...

It was a busy month, but I don't have the pictures to back it up! I've been helping teach a financial stewardship class to this year's apprentice class—helping them think through how to be responsible with the money that their supporters have generously given to them and used in a God-honoring way. It has been a great experience to help answer questions that they have regarding budgeting, saving, investing, and more! I recently started taking allergy shots. The doctor told me that I'm basically allergic to anything with four legs. And nature. So we're starting shots to hopefully tone that down a little. Supposedly this may help my eczema as well! It's been a battle with my eczema for over two decades, so I'm excited to see if this makes a difference. My church had a retreat a Lake Lavon Camp. It was such a great time getting to know some people in the church that I normally don't get time with, connecting with everyone, and feeling more unified! I had ri...

It's already October? It seems like the weeks just fly by nowadays. If you are an alumni from FOCUS at UTD or affiliate yourself in any way with FOCUS at UTD, I encourage you to come out to alumni night on November 17th and invite people that fit this description as well! It should be a fun night. I also want to tell you about Pizza Theology that's coming up! I've told y'all once, but I'll say it again. Pizza Theology is a night to deep-dive into something specific, with 4 hours of lecture total broken up by an hour of pizza dinner in the middle. In the recent past, we've done a night over Revelation, wisdom literature, what God thinks about our bodies, and how to think like a Christian. This Fall, we're inviting Iain Provan , a former professor with Regent College, to talk about his latest book, Cuckoos in Our Nest . This book goes over how to think through different topics of life in a Biblically-grounded way and what ideas may have snuck their way into ...

ANOTHER school year has begun! And y'all are still here with me. Praise God for His faithfulness and for your willingness to partner with what he is doing here in the DFW area. Little did I know when I first accepted the job to be an administrator for FOCUS that I would still be here going into my fourth year. Thank you, thank you, thank you! We have ten new apprentices this year spread out through our different campuses. The apprentices commit to ten months (mirroring the school year) of being campus ministers with the goal of learning what it is like to live out this vocation full time and seeing if God is calling them to this profession over a longer period of time. As you can see from the photo, we have nine girls and one guy ! If you remember from my blog posts in my first year, the apprentice classes take a lot of time on top of your ministry work—to re-lay a good foundation over topics like the Old Testament, New Testament, Holy Spirit, and more! What a blessed (but also gr...