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August Update (Happenings from July)

Hey all,

August is here so the school year is about to kick back into gear. That means a lot of exciting things will be happening. First things first though! July was a month with its own excitement, and I want to share just a couple things with you guys.

All Staff Retreat

Our all staff retreat was this past week, and we got to spend time planning and talking about this year as a staff across our different campuses, as well as getting to know some of our new staff members. This year, we have 6 new apprentices who will be going through a ten month focused learning and discipling time, just like I got to do last year! I'm so excited for them and their next year, please join me in praying for them this year, that God would work through them and that they would learn so much through this experience that can allow them to go out and bless others.
Focus staff at from all of our campuses

Our new apprentices!

This event, and also a trip that our Collin Staff took to New Orleans this July, both served to refresh me and really encourage me as I look forward to working with these people this next year on the campus.

Minister Ordination 

Another really neat thing from this past month was our Staff Ordination Ceremony. This was a time when new staff were ordained as ministers and our whole community and church partners came together to commission these folks to be shepherds of our student body, and to take seriously the commitment of serving this ministry for the Lord. Not only were new Apprentices committing to the next ten months, but also many of our other staff, including myself made commitments for the next year or longer to stay and be pastors to our students. It was a really great time to reflect on the vision of reaching these campuses in DFW for Christ, and to remember what an honor and privilege it really is to get to do that. 
Our staff being prayed over at the ordination ceremony

Student Testimony

I wanted to share this testimony from one of our students here to give you a story to see about how your support really makes very personal differences possible. We couldn't do what we do at Collin, or any of our other campuses without you guys being a part of the vision to reach these students, and this story is a very real example of what that often looks like for our students. Because of God's goodness and faithfulness to be near to his children and work powerfully in their lives, we can celebrate and praise him for stories like this.





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