Posts

March 2025 update

Image
Howdy! It's been an interesting month. I'll update more below but first is our student testimony from Caitlynn at TWU right here in Denton! Reagann actually got to baptize her a while back. Take a moment to read her story.  March:  As I mentioned, this has been an interesting month. We had Spring Break, and then spent much of the month planning and preparing to host 17 students and 4 staff from a campus ministry in Washington state. Finally, we hosted, aided, and assisted them for a week! Our ministry has a wonderful partnership with CCF, or Campus Christian Fellowship, in Bellingham, WA. We attend SICM up there every year! And every year, they send a group to one of our FOCUS communities to do outreach for a week during their Spring Break! It was an intense labor of love and planning. As you can imagine, there are a lot of moving parts, requiring significant coordination and communication on our part. Our students even joined in, helping with everything from finding host fami...
Post a Comment
Read more

February 2025

Image
Howdy, all! I'm excited to share some little updates from the last month of campus ministry. First is our student testimony. Please take a moment to read Laniah's story! Meeting one on one with one of our student leaders, Keelee! Please pray for Keelee as she will be graduating soon and transitioning into being a full time high school history teacher. She has been a big blessing to many. She's a kind and faithful friend. I will miss her.  Our students embracing each other while being prayed over. We haven't really sensed this warmth of community in many, many years. Our students earnestly love God and one another!  During our annual Gospel Worship Night, the fire alarm went off which sent a room of 250+ out into the frigid temps. Instead of waiting around, the students kept singing worship songs in public on campus. It was awesome! Samantha and I's core! We were having a galentines encouragement sesh before we read some scripture. A sweet girl in our core named Jole...
Post a Comment
Read more

January 2025

Image
Howdy, all! I'm excited to share some updates with y'all, but please first read Michael's testimony. He's such a sweet UNT guy. God has done much in his life the last few years to shape him. Winter Retreat:  We just had our annual winter retreat and it was one for the books. We had 700+ people attend, worship sets went longer every single time because the students would start singing again, the teaching sessions were so good and helped our students mature, and I'm personally so thankful to God. We've had so much new growth that it feels so hard to keep up and chaotic at times, but it's clear that the Lord is doing something much bigger and he's graciously allowing us to be part of it.  One of my favorite things that happened from weekend was hearing hundreds of college students sing "I have decided... to follow Jesus..." With much dancing and praising and singing. Since we've been back we've had the highs and lows of ministry. Everythin...
Post a Comment
Read more

December 2024

Image
Happy New Year, all! I'm excited to share snippets from the past holiday season. First, our student alumni testimony:  December was a good and chaotic month. There were many Christmas parties (students, staff, family), a stomach bug that took Grant and I out (and much of our denton staff) for several days, prayerful enrichment, and some much needed down time. Thank you each for following along, praying along, and giving along. Below are some snapshots:  This is a picture I took of my little brother, Damon, my SIL Mikayla, and my nephew/godson, Paxton! My mom got us all matching pajamas for Christmas eve. I would've included the group photo, but it didn't turn out very good. Each shirt implies that we each committed some type of Christmas crime and are being held in a correctional facility in the North Pole. I love my family.  Speaking of my SIL, she got baptized in early December. Her and Damon have been involved in maturing their faith and becoming leaders in the TRACK m...
Post a Comment
Read more

November 2024

Image
Keep FOCUS Growing is Underway!  $77,000 in Matching Funds Pledged for Keep FOCUS Growing 2024! Make a gift now  to keep us reaching new students and expanding to new campuses Denton FOCUS Friendsgiving It's an annual tradition in our Denton FOCUS community to have two cores plan a Friendsgiving. It gives students a chance to take ownership in the community, plan ahead, host, be thoughtful, and onboard other students in the community to contribute, celebrate, and to love one another.  Samantha and I 's core co-hosted with Michael and Jaxon's core (our group from Fall Retreat). Michael led us a in pastoral thought, someone from each group prayed for everyone, we ate, laughed, and played games together. Very thankful for our little communities that form within our big community.  Here's some photos!  My back porch filled with students eating thanksgiving food. We went around sharing a favorite Thanksgiving memory and got to know each other better.  A very int...
Post a Comment
Read more

October 2024 update

Image
It has been a busy, wild, interesting, yet encouraging semester. We've had many new baptisms, our student leader team is big, we're have 260ish show up on our fellowship nights, and have well over 300 involved with small groups. We just had our largest turnout for our Fall Retreat ever for Denton FOCUS. The Lord seems to be adding to our number daily and we are increasingly relying more and more on his grace (praise God).  Here's a snapshot and prayer request from our director of FOCUS (he's over at UTD), but very similar things are happening with them:  "So many students are studying the Bible for the first time, learning about Jesus for the first time, wrestling with his call to follow for the first time. They are facing down all sorts of strongholds in their lives--drug addictions, past or present abuse, mental and physical illnesses, identity issues, money troubles, problems in their families--basically anything you can imagine. But we know "The weapons we...
Post a Comment
Read more

September 2024 update

Image
Baptisms and Book Recs Hey y'all! Some great news over here. Since August, we've had 8 baptisms in Denton FOCUS. Most recently were 5 girls. Grace (UNT), Diana (UNT), MJ (TWU), Chris (TWU), and Nia (TWU)!  Chris, MJ, and Nia's Baptism! A TWU baptism for the ages! Josh and Emiliee Robinson of Denton North Church let us use their pool. Josh was in FOCUS with Ryan and I when we were in college! Diana's baptism. I got to study foj with Diana 2 years ago and her corefas Mackenzie and Mikayla from that year got to baptize her. What a sweet moment. Mackenzie is now on staff at Collin, and Mikayla is back in Houston :'( Grace's baptism. I had the honor of getting to baptize her. We were co-fas last year and I loved leading core with her. A very special moment, her friends and family together to celebrate! Sean and Vianet (also friends of Ryan and I's from college), have let us baptize countless people over the years. What a blessing they are! These baptisms are good...
Post a Comment
Read more