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Showing posts from 2022

November '22 update

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 Howdy folks!  I'm excited to update you on a couple things this month, but first our student testimony from Lexi at SMU. Please read her story. It's so encouraging!  Next I want to update you all on our annual Keep FOCUS Growing campaign! It's right around the corner on November 29th, Giving Tuesday. Every year, we have this massive fundraiser to raise money for things like administrative costs (so that pastors don't have to raise that in addition to their salaries), and to have money set aside for growth initiatives. The longterm vision of FOCUS is to be at every college in the DFW area! So, please prayerfully consider this fundraiser this holiday season. This year's theme is "Faithfully Local".  Attached after this graphic is a story from one of our own students, Mackenzie. Please read her story as well. Thank you guys so much for being faithful with us! 

October '22 update

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Happy Fall, Y'all!  Here's our student testimony of the month. This comes from Ben at UTA!  Fall Camp: Thank you guys so much for praying for Fall Camp! We had around 140 show up. We played games, ate together, worshipped God together, prayed together, and they got to listen to alumni being interviewed and fellow students being interviewed on the topic of spiritual friendship. My own alumni-husband, Grant was one of the panel people. He talked about the sad trope of the loneliness of males and casted a vision for deep friendship well past college. It spurred two of our college students to initiate and get time with him! It's been neat to see the impact on our students already. After Fall Camp, a group of us went to Chili's for Drew's birthday (Drew is a co-pastor and married to one of our other co-pastors, Darby). There were probably 16 of us there. So even though we were all dog-tired, it was neat to get to spend more time with our students after Fall Camp.  Prayer

September '22 update

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Hey, everyone! It's been a minute. I'm so pumped to update you on what's been going on. But first, our student testimony. This is a fun one because Chukwu is here at UNT! We're so blessed to have him as one of our student leaders. Please read his story below!  Getting started: It's been 4 weeks since we've been back on campus, can you believe it? Welcome week was awesome. We met hundreds of people, so many eager and open students to know more about Christ and Christ-like friendships. We are seeing students coming in who aren't as consistent in getting time together but they're eager. So please praying for consistency for these new students! We spent lots of time playing games, having conversations, helping students find classes, and we even went to the kickoff football game! UNT lost miserably but it was still a lot of fun. It's been a great start so far, but it's also been a challenge getting students to commit to weekly bible studies where one

July & August '22 update

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Howdy, all!  Our Denton team has preparing all summer for the upcoming school year. We've been praying, strategizing, preparing, and coordinating to equip our new student leader team, to have a great upcoming Welcome Week - where we spend about 60h reaching new students on campus, and to enrich and bless our students for the next year! Thank you so much for your generous financial partnership and prayers. YOU are changing the lives of students!  Here are our student testimonies from July & August.  Here are some photo updates from the last month!  Got stung by a jellyfish summer small group getting cozy  My friend Sarah who directs UTA FOCUS, at the beach! Sarah planned a trip to Orange Beach, AL for 11 gals! It was so much fun, and restful. No amount of sunscreen could protect me from getting pink but that's better than a sunburn.   My other friend Sandra who works at Richland FOCUS, at the beach!  With Hannah, one of our recent graduates at the stranger things pop up in G

May & June 2022 update

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Howdy!  I pray you're all doing well. I'd like to start off with two student testimonies and then launch into a slideshow of what has been going on! It's been a crazy couple of months. Here are our student testimonies below! One of them is from a sweet guy named Matthew from UNT, who actually got baptized very recently at SICM in Washington.  Worship at our End of Year Party! The rain held off thankfully, and we had a beautiful, sweet, fun time with our people for the end of the year.  Worship continued ... The Giant Beach Ball lives on The student leaders I had to privilege of discipling this year! They're a special group, and I'm thankful to call them friends. As you can tell, they really love me too ;)  A group pic with *some* of the students that we took to SICM in Washington this year! This is from downtown Seattle. This is the first time we were able to go back since May 2019! We put on our own SICM here in TX last year, but since going back up north, we reali

April 2022 update

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 Happy April, everyone!  April is one of my favorite months. It's green, sunny, and of course we get to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. I personally have had a handful of highs and lows this year, but in the midst of that, God is faithful. His faithfulness has produced such good fruit and I can't wait to tell you about that. But first, our student testimony actually comes from a FOCUS alumni! She even served on our staff years ago. Please take a moment to read Dani Wu Howard's story.  Celebrating Keanna's birthday around a too smoky fire in the backyard. We had to move inside. Keanna is a student leader at TWU and has grown immensely in courage and love for others! She has blessed so many, including the girls she disciples at TWU. I was really encouraged that we had hundreds of students show up to our Pizza Theology around the biblical ethics of the body. It sparked many good conversations, prayers, and questions from our students. It was impressive that this many

March 2022 update

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Howdy! Happy Spring everyone! We have a couple of things coming up and I can't wait to tell you about them. But first, our student testimony from Anubhav. I've met this guy before and he's such a blessing to our SMU ministry. Take a peek at his story.  Spring Showcase & SICM:  A couple of weekends ago, many of you came to our Spring Showcase fundraiser for SICM! Thank you so much. It was a huge success. Thank you all for praying and giving! If you didn't get to attend, you can watch it online at anyfocus.org/showcase. You can make a donation if you like, but you can also watch it without any sort of donation and see all the talented people in our community. It was a great show, that I got to help my friends Austin and Sarah emcee, and I hope you'll consider watching it if you didn't get to.  A challenge: with it being 3 years since we've gone to Washington for SICM, it's been a little difficult for our student body to understand why it's such a p

February 2022

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Hey everyone! Hope everyone is staying healthy and safe. Happy February! I'm so excited to share about this last month and an upcoming exciting event :) But first, our student testimony! Please read Ashley from UTA's story! Before I share photos, I want to invite all of you to Spring Showcase! Many of you who have been with me from the beginning are aware of it. Each year, hundreds of our college students from FOCUS are invited to attend the Student Institute of Campus Ministry where they learn the foundations of being student missionaries on their campus. The trip is pricy, but a worthy investment that pays off for the rest of their lives wherever they go. This is a leadership opportunity enriches, empowers, and equips students to be lights to their campus where it is not always so bright. To help fund this opportunity, we host a high quality benefit concert and artisan market with all the proceeds going to directly benefit the trip and conference. You can purchase at anyfocus

January 2022

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Happy New Year!  I'm excited to update you guys on the last month. First, our student testimony from Collin College.  My lil sis in law and FOCUS student at UTD, Caroline holding Merry!  My mother in law feeding Merry Duchess potatoes through a piping bag because Merry had been a good girl  Me and Grant on Christmas eve  My dad and brother playing with my nephews on Christmas Eve  A Christmas gathering fulling of friends, students, and ministry partners Roasting marshmallows to celebrate all of us not being sick for once! Picture of the small group Grant and I host from Church on our Christmas game night  Mateo looking skeptical at small group about the game we're about to play  Even though I had a couple illnesses over the holidays, Christmas brought much needed celebration with loved ones.  Prayer request: please be praying for wisdom about Winter Camp as we approach that weekend. And be praying for our students and faculty as we return to campus with the new Omicron variant!