Skip to main content

SICM 2019


SICM 2019

When we last talked, I was wrapping up another school year, and packing and planning for our annual trip to Bellingham, WA for the Student Institute of Campus Ministry. It's tempting to say that these trips blur together for me at this point, (not in a bad way) and in some ways they do, but mostly they all have their own unique flavor and feel, mostly because they're each colored by a new cast of colorful characters, mostly in the way of the new group of students who go each year.

This year we had about 25 new students from our Denton campuses go with us and the students from other FOCUS campuses, which is really exciting. It was a really good crew. This trip isn't just a vacation, or some type of initiation to keep people around by bribing them with views like this: 


The students who go on these trips we fully expect this to be a turning point God uses in their life to begin their lives as disciple making Christians in their lives to come. It's a very very important week, and it's why we invest so much time and resources in it every year. We've seen it pay off for years and years.

A few of our students at our stop in Seattle on the way to Bellingham

Despite all the cool photos I could show you from the sightseeing day, this is the view most of the week. Students gathered, listening and learning from speakers who engage them on topics related to their growth and their ministry to others. 

A few more of our students after the fellowship worship meeting on Friday before we left. 

This is the Denton Staff for FOCUS this next year, minus Garrett, who went on a later SICM trip this year. Excited to work with these fine folks. Left half you might remmeber from this past year, but welcome Drew and Darby on the right!! They're answering God's call to relocate from our UTD team to our Denton team and we're extremely lucky to have them. 
Thank you for everything you do! Going in to the summer knowing all of you are supporting and praying is a huge blessing in my life. Thank you thank you thank you!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

An Amazing Start

 Hey all, Here to update you on the first few weeks of Denton FOCUS. It's been a whirlwind, we had two weeks of doing events on campus, lunches with new students, tabling and giveaways, big night events outside on campus playing capture the flag or lawn games. The 6 foot beach ball made multiple appearances :). It's been a really awesome start to the year, and so far the students have been responding really positively. By and large it feels like the ones we are meeting are interested in engaging, many of them wanting to get involved and even the ones who aren't are less hostile than some of our previous years, so that's something we are praising God for!  Our second TNF, last night. We got a bigger room thank goodness, our first week in a slightly smaller room had people lined up along the walls! Our first two Thursday Night Fellowships have seen a bit under 300 students show up, which is awesome! (Fo context, last year our biggest Thursday night was in the low 200'...

April

 Baby #2 is here! Joni is now almost a month old, and she is getting used to life and everyone in her home. This is the first picture we've gotten of her smiling at me! Jude is a great big brother, always excited to give her kisses and hold her with us. It's very sweet. She is doing great! Eating and sleeping well.   Ministry is going well! I took a week off and enjoyed some family time and now I am back into the swing of things. The end of semester is fast approaching and we are finishing up our series on Philippians at Thursday Night Fellowships. Our small groups have had a GREAT year this year. I am so encouraged by the stories of people loving it so much that they invite their dorm mates and classmates.  We're going to have one more TNF this week and our community members are going to have a time to share the ways they have seen God move and work this year. I'm so excited to hear about what they're experienced and see our community encourage each other in this w...

January

Hello all, I hope you had a Happy Christmas and a good New Years. We are back after a break for the holidays and in the midst of planning for winter retreat. We have a speaker, Dr. Lee from Fuller university coming in to speak to our entire student ministry about "Disruptive Grace." I'm excited to hear what he has to share and see the impact and growth from camp this year. It's always a special time!  At the local level in Denton, we are ready to start another spring semester. Our sermon series this semester is going to be about fear. Based around the John passage on "perfect love drives out fear" Given the rise every year it seems of anxiety and fear in our student body, we feel it's a timely topic and hopefully will minister the truth of God's word back into those thoughts and feelings.  Please pray for our winter retreat! It's looking like a very cold one. BRRRR. Hopefully we can make it excellent still. Love you all, thank you for your suppor...