Denton TX College Missions

 Hello all! Today is a great day for an update right? It's been too long.  First, for those of you who do not know, my wife Nicole and I are expecting our first!  It's a boy, and we're expecting him June 1st, so we've got about a third of the pregnancy left! It's an exciting time and we're really ready to see what this next chapter will be like. Neither of us have raised a child yet (obviously) so please be praying for us as we begin! We're so grateful for a healthy and relatively smooth pregnancy so far.  We're also trying to figure out our next housing situation, and trying to find an opportunity for buying somewhere here in Denton and really putting down some roots as we look towards more years here serving on these college campuses. We haven't had any luck yet securing a home, but we're in process of looking and making offers so prayers for that would also be much appreciated.  On the campus ministry front, things are going really well! Our c...

 This is the time of year that throughout a big chunk of church history, Christians celebrate the season of Advent. I'm working through a book right now called Advent that asserts that we would do well to remember this time of our calendar each year, and use it as a time to reflect and take stock of the reasons the world needs the incarnation, both the one that happened at Jesus' birth and the return to come where all will be set right.  It's continually been hitting the right notes for me in this year where much is happening and much of it is challenging. I'm remembering through this season that what we need now as the church is a deep seated expectation for that second coming, where as Revelation says, heaven will come down to earth, and we know the kingdom of God that started with Jesus will be brought to bear fully in a renewed creation. I hope you will joining me in reflecting on our hope and our expectation for that future in the midst of all the things that we ar...

 Mid way through another fall semester of campus ministry at UNT and TWU! Small cores capped at six and meeting outside socially distanced has been working well for us this semster! We were blessed with a large number of student leaders this year so the amount of people we're able to reach through these small groups has been really encouraging and awesome to hear about.  We had a virtual pizza theology this past month, over the topic of "In it not of it, how to think like a Christian in our society." With all the heated perspectives being advanced in front of the election this year, we wanted to give our students a space to reflect on some of the key parts of our role as disciples trying to navigate living for Jesus in a society that is in a tumultuous place in some ways. While we missed having a chance to do all of that in person like we normally do, we're finding these alternative virtual methods something to be thankful for nonetheless.  Here's a student testim...

Hello all, We're two weeks out from what is typically our craziest week of the school year: fall semester welcome week. This is when campuses usually throw big events to welcome the incoming freshman, and welcome back students who have gone away for the summer. Obviously, this is prime time for a ministry to be on campus to be visible and engaging with the new students. So many of the people we have throughout the year come from us meeting them during welcome week. This year, things are going to look different. So as you support campus ministry faithfully, let me tell you what we're going to be doing this year to still be faithful on our end to minister to college students. Outreach: Reaching out and meeting new students is a vital part of our ministry, and because of COVID, the way in which we do that is going to have to look different. Not all of the students that normally attend classes are going to be in person on campus, so we can't expect to rely on holding in person ...

Hey all, It's been a little while since I last sent out an update, I hope this one finds you all well and COVID free. As we're all well aware, life is still happening despite all of the changes, and I wanted to update you on what ministry has been like for these past couple months. Virtual/in person. We've been blessed to be able to continue doing ministry given the technology that we have. Dallas is a hotspot for Covid-19 cases, but in the midst of that, we've been able to continue to reach out to students. It has definitely been more difficult. Our students feel like so many people right now - isolated. So it makes phone calls, streaming of worship services and preaching, and interactions that we can safely have in person so much more meaningful. It's in these times I'm reminded of how good we normally have it and how much of that we take for granted.   Our services we have moved to streaming online, which has been a new challenge but going very well! ...

Hey friends, What a wild month. I've no doubt you feel similarly. The types of situations we have going on are unprecedented for at least the past many decades. I wanted to give you guys a quick hello and insight into how ministry has been looking the past few weeks. In a lot of ways, everything is the same, just online or over the phone instead of in person. I'm thankful that the bulk of our time before all of this was focused on ministry at a 1-1 level, so that is something we're still able to do albeit in the virtual format. So my days look similar, but instead of driving time I now have more time for learning and continued education in ministry, which is actually a huge blessing. For some official insight though, here's a letter from our director, Brandon, on how we're responding to all of this as a ministry. A Letter From Our Director On COVID-19 To the FOCUS Community: I want to update you on how FOCUS is responding to COVID-19, especially in...

I just wanted to take this post to extend a special thank you to those who support our ministry. I try to make it clear how thankful I/we are that you support this mission by investing in it continuously, but today I want to make a special post to say that again. I love that there's a community of people who believe in investing in college students and believe in the impact they can have in the kingdom if we push them to follow Jesus and become disciple making disciples. Here's a story from one of those students that shows the beginning of that journey for yet another student so I hope you enjoy hearing about this, but again, thank you so much.