Finishing Strong

I'm writing with great excitement and anticipation for what is in store. This is my last blog post as an Intern. Starting in June I will be transitioning into a staff position with FOCUS. I am very excited and thankful to be continuing to work along side others who are just as passionate about this mission field. Once I am on staff I will still be writing a monthly blog. As I am finishing up this season I would love to have some feedback from you! I really want these blog posts to be informative and helpful for those of you who follow them. So I have a few questions that I would love to have you respond to. Here is a link to a form where you can answer these questions. Feedback Link

1. What do you enjoy about these blog posts each month?
2. What more would you like to see or learn through these blog posts?
3. Are you interested in learning more about my ministry work?
4. How has God been working in your own life? (I would love to be encouraged by you and the ministry happening in your life too!)

Spring Showcase

Spring Showcase is an event we do each year to help send our student leaders to a discipleship training course in Bellingham Washington. Spring Showcase is a live musical performance and art sale. This event was a huge success this year, we had around 800 people attend the event and we raised around $17,000. Not only was it a success because of the funds we raised but the event itself was a blast. We are blessed to have so many talented people who were willing to donate art and their performing talents for this cause. The discipleship training course we are sending our students to is next week! This training course is called SICM, Student Institute for Campus Ministry. This year we are sending 115 students to learn how to study the Bible with people, lead a small group, and growth in their own walk. As a staff member I will be going with them this year, and I am excited to get to experience SICM for a second time! I went 5 years ago as a sophomore and it not only gave me practical advice on making disciples but really gave me a vision for what community on a college campus can look like.

Flash Back! This was in 2011 when I went to SICM as a Sophomore.

End of the year Formal

At the end of every school year we have a formal event to recognize and thank the students and staff who have served in our ministry this year. This is such a special event, because these students have worked so hard to love and reach out to their classmates and other peers. It is awesome to reflect upon the year and see how His Spirit has worked and brought us together. We also celebrate by dancing and having dessert!

These are the 9 student leaders (missing Austin Daniel) that I have been meeting with every week these past 10 months. They have all worked so hard to glorify God and serve God by loving people and making disciples. 

We have some really talented dancers, who are also so willing to teach and include others. Here they are doing some swing dancing. 

Wedding Season

My good friend Ryan got married this past weekend! It was a beautiful wedding and an awesome time with community. A couple weekends ago he took his groomsmen to Austin, where we went camping, swimming, cave exploring and ate lots of great food. We all had a great time and had a lot of laughs. The caves were my favorite part of the trip! I'm really excited for him and Nicole! They are a product of our ministry. They met through FOCUS in college and have had a support team through our community. FOCUS has helped them to grow into a loving relationship that reflects the character of Christ. It is so encouraging to see the strong marriages that are being formed through our community and the support they have to ask question, be held accountable and encouraged to live out dating and marriage relationships that are selfless and rooted in the Spirit. 

Prayers

Be in prayer as we leave on the May 12th for Washington state to take our students to SICM! Be praying that their hearts and minds would be open to catching the vision that God has for these campuses. Be praying that they can be molded and shaped by the Spirit to become authentic, and radically in love with Jesus disciple makers. 

Be in prayer for all our student as they move into the summer. We don't have as easy access to our students during the summer because many of the go back home. Be praying that they are safe and protected in heart, mind and body. 

Don't forget to read the student Monthly Testimony!