November update

Happy November everyone!

I hope this fall season has made everyone feel warm, cozy, and closer to loved ones. As always, thank you so much for how you support the mission of college ministry. Every week, I am humbled a little more in awe and wonder at what an important mission it is to reach college students. This is the time they are most open and willing to learn more about Jesus and we are lucky to get to do that in the freedoms this country offers and in the context of a healthy community. So, thank you!

As always, we have our student update! Though he is no longer a student, this is exciting because I actually went to school with him. His name is Kurt Doty and he has been a part of our student ministry, church family ministry, and has been helping out with our SMU plant since it began in 2017. Please take a moment to read his story.


Pizza Theology:

Every Fall and Spring, FOCUS puts on something we call Pizza Theology. This is a time where all of our campuses come together to learn more deeply about Jesus. We brought back Bill Watson (who spoke last year about the Sermon on the Mount) to talk about seeing Scripture as a bigger story and our role in the continuing narrative of what Jesus did. The older I get in campus ministry the more I notice how fewer and fewer students even have a basic understanding of what is in the bible. That includes myself as a freshman many years ago. Despite that, it's a huge encouragement that our students from Denton would take 7 hours out of their Sunday (2 hours of driving, 1 hour of eating, 4 hours of learning) to come learn willingly about Jesus at an academic level for no college credit.

The response from the students was overall phenomenal. Students had so many questions! And even though it's two days later, I'm still hearing students in our ministry talk about what they took away, what they learned, how it prods them to read more scripture, and how many more questions it provided for them.

Q&A with Bill

Bill Watson
Fall Camp:
Every year, as y'all know, we have Fall Camp! This year we had 117 of our Denton students come to camp! Despite the torrential downpour and everyone being stinky, it was a lot of fun and our students learned a lot. Our students made bracelets, made and ate cookies, and bonded over Chik-fil-a, and prayed for each other. We touched on commitment and diversity through our theme for the year which is "All In". We are really hitting hard this year that being a part of God's family inspires us to be committed fully, and that God's family includes a seat at the table for every person! 

Our Denton FOCUS kiddos! 

Prayer Requests:
- It seems like now more than ever, young people are plagued with mental illness and debilitating insecurity. Please pray for confidence in Christ, healing and freedom!
- Please pray that our staff and students would be obedient to God's call to the continuation of inviting new people in our lives and to love people well


Love you all so much!

Shayla

Comments

  1. Awesome November 2018 Blog Update. To Answer The Question Of What Food I Like The
    Most At Thanksgiving Is " TURKEY BIRD " Of Corse. I Don't Get The Opportunity To Eat Turkey
    During the Year. So Turkey Is Special To Me.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

August update

I lean not on my own understanding

February