Hey everyone! Sorry this month's newsletter is coming out so late. Thank you so much for all your support this year! It's been a blast getting to do ministry on these college campuses this last year. I hope you all are doing well, and please do not hesitate to reach out if there's anything I could pray for you about.
Early in April, we had our second Pizza Theology event of this year. It's the time that we have someone give a more in depth, lecture-style teaching on a specific topic that we feel our community needs to hear. This semester, it was about having a godly view on our physical bodies, how the way we view our bodies has been influenced by the secular culture, and what the Bible and God says about it. It was very helpful and started a lot of important conversations between our students and helped people view themselves and treat their bodies the way God does.
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| Pizza Theology at CARE Church! |
Another cool thing that happened in our community of churches is an event called Springjita! It's a fundraiser we do for the teens ministries in our family of churches. They have a big summer camp that is a huge impact on teens who want to grow in their faith and build community with others in their circles. So many of our students came out to help support the fundraiser, and they got such a cool picture of what it looks like to live in a generous community that values raising kids up for Christ, teaching them to important foundations before they go off to college. Several of the students that come to FOCUS on the college campuses we're at are students that grew up in that teen ministry, and many of them become valuable, strong leaders for our ministry.
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| Springjita Fundraiser at The Northeast Church in Garland! |
In April, we had our last Thursday Night Fellowship event for the semester! We had such a good time, and these last few weeks, we really started seeing the students loving every part of service. They were singing shouting for worship, taking notes and discussing sermon ideas together, and people were hanging out afterwards and going to our "after events" despite finals looming over them. We're really proud of our students this year; our student leaders did such a good job building a loving, vibrant community, and we had so many people step up to organize events like worship nights, help set up and tear down our Fellowship night sound equipment, and encourage people to be bold and meet new people/evangelize during our outreach events.
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| Last Thursday Night Fellowship at Texas Women's University! |
Last thing I want to share about before the student testimony is a guy I'll call 'A' who joined FOCUS in the middle of this semester. He's an eager disciple who's been willing to be a part of every aspect of community, from showing up to everything he can, to diligently studying scriptures in a 1on1 Bible study, to giving generously and being willing to join our campus pastors' financial support! The crazy thing is, he was not a Christian until this year. He was talking to an evangelist on campus who connected him to us through one of the University Resident Assistants, who is one of FOCUS's student leaders, and he came to one of our events and immediately was ready to be all in for Christ. I love how his story shows that there are people out there ready to "drop their nets" and follow Him, who see the pearl of great price or treasure in the field and are willing to sell all they have for the Kingdom. I also love how this attests to our presence on campus, that people, if they are seeking, can find out about us, that our students have networks, have connections, and a presence on campus in a way that really reaches people where they're at.
Our student testimony this month is from Denton's very own, Matthew! He's a great guy, I've been blessed with the opportunity to become friends with him this year; he's a sweet, fun, and passionate guy who is getting to go to the Leadership Conference we send students to every summer! Please pray for him, as well as all the other people going on that trip, that they would really take in what they're learning so they can be effective ministers in the following years, and that they'd grow in love and boldness.
Thanks, and love you all!
Steven
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