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February

Hey all,
Welcome back! I hope you've had a great month. Lots of exciting things have been happening this month at Collin, and I am glad to have people like you guys supporting me and praying as God continues to work on these campuses.

One  of  my favorite experiences of the past couple months has been learning about the Holy Spirit in our Into to Pneumatolgoy class. The other  apprentices and I read a book called Paul, the Spirit and the People of God by Gordon fee and we had an instructor meeting with us weekly during the past couple months to teach us and facilitate discussion on more of the ideas of the Holy Spirit that scripture talks about. I had not grown up with much knowledge or understanding on the Holy Spirit and what his work in our lives could look like, so this class was very much a learning experience for me, and I'm really thankful for it. I have already begun to be able to see and understand more of the Spirit's work in our ministry and in my own personal life. If you are curious about this topic as well, I encourage you to look into that book that we read. It has multiple scripture references built in so you can deepen your understanding of the Spirit and how being in relationship with him is such a big part of God's intent for working in us and through us in our daily lives.

Pizza Theology
Another neat thing that happened this month was Pizza Theology! We only get to have one of these once a semester, so they are very special. Just for a refresher, this is the event we do that brings all the campuses where FOCUS is together for learning and pizza. This semester's topic was on race and racial reconciliation. We wanted to provide a place for students to learn about what it looks like to be a person who treats this very sensitive race issue in a way that honors God. In addition to exploration of the Bible's references on this topic, and a sociological examination of where race is at in our culture, we also had different students in our communities prepare thoughts to share beforehand on what their experience with race issues has been, and that was extremely meaningful and eye opening. I'm so proud of those students who were bold and shared. They can be people who help our entire community approach this topic with a listening ear and a heart that is seeking what God would want for us in this area.

Discipleship Class. Students get an opportunity to have an extremely in depth study on a certain book in the Bible. In this case, it's the book of Genesis. 
Parent Night was another highlight of this past month. It's something we get to do every year. Parents of the students are invited to come and see what God has been doing on the campus that their student has been attending, and they get to meet the people who have been pouring into and loving their child, which is always such a neat experience. We had a great turnout, and some parents were even able to come up and share what they had been seeing God do in their child's life over the past few months, which is exactly the kinds of things we as campus ministers love to hear.

Wednesday Outreach Time at Spring Creek Collin
March is always a busy month in campus ministry because we have something called SSI. This is a time when students from a campus ministry in Washington state come down and spend their spring break here in Texas doing outreach on our campuses. I always have loved this part of the year. It's such a blessing to have these students spend their Spring Break serving people, and the more people we can have doing outreach on our campuses the better. Please be in prayer for the group of students who are coming down. Pray for energy, as they will be having many conversations with students and traveling a fair amount. Pray for them to be encouraged and inspired to go back to their own campuses and continue to outreach and connect with students their as well. We're excited to see God's work during that time, and I'm sure I'll have neat things to say by next month about that trip.

Students eating together after our large group meeting on Thursday nights. 
Thank you guys so much for what you do, and for being willing to be a part of the campus ministry at Collin. I think of you guys often and am so grateful to God for giving me people like you who are investing in his work on these campuses.

Much Love,
Ryan


A student named Sam getting baptized!

Another student named Sammy got baptized this month!


Comments

  1. Kelly SchlitzMarch 6, 2017 at 3:06 PM

    Hey Ryan! I am glad you are learning so much from that Gordon Fee book. When our staff found that resource, it really had a big impact on our thinking. I think you will be able to use what you are learning there with many of your students at Collin! Love you bro.

    ReplyDelete

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