Reaching Out

SSI (Spring Student Impact)

Our Washington students being silly!  

This last week we had 10 students from Washington state come to Texas and do outreach with us during their spring break. We've been hosting students from a campus ministry at Western Washington University for the last several years. During this week we train them on how we approach outreach on our campuses and equip them to help lead in reaching out to others on their campuses. We call this week Spring Student Impact. This last week was a blast, we had organized outreach events Monday through Thursday from 11 to 5. We met a lot of students and got to know our campuses even better. One of the stories that was really impactful to me was from a conversation an SSI student and one of our students had with a guy at UNT. These two students had been praying and asking the Lord who they should go talk to and if there was anyone that they needed to be mindful of. One of the students sensed the Lord telling them to go to the fountain at UNT and the other one kept hearing the word death. So after praying they went to the fountains at UNT. They saw a guy sitting there and started talking with him. They asked him if there was anything he needed prayer for or if there was anything he wanted to talk about. He told them that actually he would like prayer because a few years ago his mother and grandmother had both passed away around the same time. He told them that he has been recently trying to process everything that happened. He told them that he especially had been looking for a community to help him sort through the loss of his family members. This was really a great reminder to me that the Lord is already at work in the lives of his lost children. When we submit to his Spirit he will direct us to those people. 

We also just spent time inviting students to hang out with us and play games. Games are a great way to meet new people! 

This is Rhett, Kristen and I at the beginning of SSI week, being silly. Rhett and Kristen are our Apprentices this year and do a great job at loving our students. I love getting to do ministry with them!

This is an example of an outreach activity we did. We often get these boards out and right a question or statement and have students come and respond. We did this multiple times through the week with different statements. 

Spring Showcase is this weekend, April 7th. If you live in the area or are interested in coming I hope to see you there! You can purchase your tickets here.

TESTIMONY

"When I first came to college, I was worried about finding a good, Christian community on campus. Luckily, I had a friend from home invite me to FOCUS at the beginning of the year, introducing me to a community that radiated acceptance and spread God’s light throughout campus.

Right away, I felt immediately included and got involved in a small group, which provided me a great community of believers and friends. Establishing this strong base at the beginning of the year eventually helped me through the tough times I faced later on; I was confronted with many things I had never been tempted with before during my first semester. That semester, while in a musical, I was around many older people who frequently drank. I drank a couple of times and justified my underage drinking while judging others for falling short in the same way. In my family and high school, I had been labeled the “good kid”.  I had never built up the self-control against these inclinations and felt ashamed when I gave in to temptation. However, with the help of my Corefas and friends in FOCUS, I was able to stop these bad habits before they became too serious and find forgiveness through Christ. Now, rather than judging others who struggle with that temptation, I can empathize with them and share how God used FOCUS to help me overcome my own obstacles!"

Sienna Walter

UT Dallas

Business Administration

Freshman

PRAYER

Be praying that the students that we met and befriended during SSI week would desire to know Jesus more.

Be praying that our Spring Showcase would raise enough funds for over a hundred potential student leaders to receive campus ministry training at SICM this summer.