I have something really cool to tell you about! If you don't know, I (and the other apprentices) take a number of Bible College classes using the material and curriculum of Regent College's corresponding courses. Last month, I told you about how we were able to get one of their professors, Dr. Rikk Watts, who teaches a few of the courses we use (one of which we are currently taking) to come speak at our Winter Camp. Well, he wanted to stay connected with us, and he is doing us the enormous honor of attending our weekly classes to hold a Q&A for us! He loves Jesus so much, is so smart, and has a huge passion for educating and preparing his students for following Christ well. He's been so kind to us as well, it's been a true pleasure getting to hear from him directly after listening to his lectures each week.
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| Video Call Q&A with Dr. Rikk Watts |
We just had our Showcase fundraiser for SICM! For those of you who are unfamiliar, SICM is the 'Student Institute of Campus Ministry' up in Washington state that we send our potential student leaders to each year (except these last two years because of Covid) to learn how to do ministry on a college campus and get some practice doing it as well. It's not a cheap trip, mostly because of the plane ticket and housing situation, and so we put on a number of fundraisers each year to help out our students who cannot afford the whole thing. Showcase is the biggest one each year; it's a DFW-wide musical, dance, and art talent showcase where we invite members of our community and churches to perform and create art to sell. This year was such a success! It was so polished, so professional, and people were so generous.
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| Showcase 2022! |
Lately, we've been revamping our outreach efforts. We've made a bigger push to encourage our students to join us in evangelizing, and we've tried different events to get people interested in what FOCUS has to offer them. We've already seen much more student involvement, and lately, I've seen God working a lot through one of our students, Taylor! She's new to our community, but has been faithfully coming to our outreach events and has been so good at getting people to stop and talk and engage with us. She's a great example of someone who isn't super experienced or sure of themself, but is willing to try, and I know God loves that and that He will use her powerfully in the future, if He hasn't already.
This picture below is from our Valentine's Day outreach event where had some display boards with 'love' themed prompts for people to stop and respond to. The idea is that people get to see what others write and have that stir up conversation. It's also very encouraging to see people write Christian-inspired or influenced answers! Anyways, this event was one where Taylor really did an awesome job at. She was a natural at getting people to participate, and she would always strike up conversation with them, invite them to FOCUS, and get their number to give them the details of our events. I've started to see a few of our other students showing a similar boldness and passion for evangelizing recently as well.
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| Love-Themed Display Boards |
I have some exciting news to share with you all! I have decided to stay on with FOCUS staff for three more years. They offered me a position in Denton, and after considerable thinking and praying about, I decided to accept the offer. I'm excited that I get to continue working with the amazing people in FOCUS and continue serving God on these college campuses in Denton.
This month's student testimony is from Anubhav, from SMU! I've been very proud of and impressed by our ministry at SMU this year. They've overcome some challenges and worked hard to build up their leader team. They're relatively new and so are smaller, but God has done some great things over there. Anubhav is just one of the students impacted by them.
Let me know if there's anything I can be praying for you about!
Love you all!
Steven
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