Shayla's Ministry Blog

Hello, all!  Thank You! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I am very grateful for each of you and your contributions to campus ministry and ultimately to God's kingdom. Your donations and prayer have a far wider reach than you even know. So, thank you. "Do not grow weary in doing good" - St. Paul, Galatians 6:9 Student Testimony Please take a moment to read this touching story from Gordon at UTD! Some photos: Students at the Survivor Season finale night at my house! From left to right: Samantha, Madisyn, Allison, Grace, Jenna, Hayden. Survivor night continued: Azael, Leo, Hayden, and poor Ella having to put up with those dudes. A few scenes from our Winter Formal Christmas party! We started the night off with some advent songs led by Becca, Manuel, and Audrey. Then we had a reading from Ayaeme. They did a wonderful job. Then Steven led us in Christmas trivia, then we had some line dancing. A wonderful way to end the semester with our students. Pictured is our staff pic t

Hey everyone! Some exciting stuff to read ahead. But first, our student testimony. Please read Rian's story. She's one of our Denton gals who has been a huge blessing at TWU. Your partnership directly impacts people like Rian.  Our annual fundraiser is happening in two days. Thank you for all the years of partnership, prayer, and giving. Here's a graphic that explains more. Some pictures from the month:  My little sister-in-law, Caroline, holding Merry. Merry belongs to Caroline's older sister and gets lots of love and attention around the holidays. Caroline actually serves as student leader at UTD, bonus: she's also a graduate student!  My husband, Grant, giving a sermon at church on questions about prayer. If you're interested in listening, let me know and I'll send you a link.  A very candid pic from our core friendsgiving. My core (small group) paired with Jackson and Chukwu's small group and we came together, ate, laughed, did a scavenger hunt toget

Hey, everyone!  I'm excited to share what's been going on around here. First up, we have our student testimony from Devereaux over at Richland college. She has a such a sweet presence, please take a moment to read her story.  The most recent big thing we had recently going on was Fall Retreat! We wanted to do a couple things differently this year. The first thing is that we had Ronnie Worsham come talk to our students on Sunday morning. It's hard to describe succinctly what he talked about, but I think what he shared ministered deeply to all of us. The best I can describe his talk is this way: living a life of faithfulness makes you a person that is God's love to people, and that is life-changing. It was inspiring and I think helped us all grow up a little bit.  The other thing we decided to do differently was to have our first ever Camp Cup, where the winners get a limited edition camp shirt and a free meal at Hawaiian Bros or Torchy's. This allowed people to know

 Howdy, all!  This month's student testimony is special as it comes from one of our guys from UNT, Azael. I've gotten to know him over the last 6 months and his story is truly heartwarming. He's a humble guy who has been changed by Jesus and Jesus' people believing in him. Check it out:  Prayer requests:  - please pray over our staff! Reagann is a new mom navigating ministry, Darby and Drew are within a month of giving birth to their son, Ryan and his wife Nicole are expecting their second, and please pray for all of our immune systems!  - pray for UNT and TWU to be changed by Jesus - pray for sustained energy for our corefa team (our student leaders) - pray for Fall Retreat, our upcoming retreat where so many new friendships are bonded! Please pray that students will desire to go and that it would a nourishing and life-giving time to them  Some photos I took the last month: I had the honor of hosting a birthday party for Allison, one of our sweet gals who is a huge ble

Hey everyone! It's been a minute. A lot has happened since I last updated and I'm excited to give you some hilights. First, our alumni testimony. This one is special because it's from a friend named Jessica whom I met during my first year with FOCUS staff! It's really neat to read her story and see how far the Lord has brought her. Take a peak!  Let me just say God is good and the amount of interest we have seen in Jesus and Christian community since school has started could not be pulled off on our efforts alone. We're simply joining him in what he is already doing. Here are some pictures to give you a glimpse. Thank you for investing in them! Playing games with new students at the campus Fuzzy's A couple of our male staff with some of our male leaders! After and epic game of capture the flag Campus worship night! 106 degree heat in public on campus. This was a joint ministry effort with a few other campus ministries. Several students joined by seeing what was

 

Hey everyone, happy May!  I wanted to give you some hilights for the end of the year. As always, here is our student testimony for the month from a student named David who goes to Collin College!  Senior Epistles:  At the end of the year, we have seniors come up and share wisdom they learned from their time in FOCUS to the rest of the community. A lot of the themes were centered around good rest, making lifelong friends, sticking to a Christian community, prayer, maturity, and how God has helped them grow during their time in college. What is significant about this group of seniors is that many of them were freshmen in Fall 2019, pre-pandemic. They've gone through all the waves of what college was life was like and the many transitions covid brought, to what college is now. I was especially sad for this group to be leaving but so proud and grateful for them in the ways they've been part of our community. Below are some pics!  Anell!  Isaac! A twin to Isaiah below teehee Isaiah!