Shayla's Ministry Blog

Howdy, howdy, howdy!  Save the Date! We have 30 years of campus ministry to celebrate and you're all invited. One of my good friends, Krysten, is pictured in the center right. She was one of the first FOCUS apprentices at UTA!  Please read Chloe's story. She is one of our student leaders and worship leaders here in Denton! She's been very faithful with TWU! Washington students enjoying the sun on top of the parking garage at UNT! Spring Break Outreach: Another year of hosting students from Bellingham, WA in TX for their Spring Break mission trip! This year we had 8 people from Washington where they got to be hosted by FOCUS students and staff, got to do on campus evangelism, and make new friends! Pictured is Drew from FOCUS leading a devotional for them before their first morning of outreach.  A picture of the Washington students with Chelsea Davis and Cathryn (focus staff). Chelsea and Brad are FOCUS alumni and made smoked chicken, mac and cheese, and collared greens for...

 Howdy, all!  As always, I'm excited to share what's been going on here in Denton FOCUS. I'll give a brief rundown and then share more through a series of pictures.  The rundown: February is this interesting liminal space of managing of what we're doing while staying open to new opportunities and thinking ahead for next school year. Crazy, right? Some new things we're trying because we have the staff numbers and student numbers: we switched from 3 planned after events after our TNF service to the students inviting each other to multiple things they can do after TNF (might sound trite but I promise it isn't). We have a Stop the Rot social campaign coming up on campus to invite students to stop brain rotting and start flourishing as God intended. We have a lot students who are not corefas who have been in ongoing coaching to further our reach on campus and the response has been posititve - taking ownership of where God has place them. All of this is in the midst o...

Winter retreat was over a week ago! What a phenomenal way to start the semester! It was our largest turnout ever (around 830 people came). The students are so hungry for God. You could see it in the way they worshipped, the way they loved one another, and the way they were so responsive to the teachings from guest speaker Marty Solomon.  Marty did 5 different teachings through Genesis and myself and others were laughing, crying, getting convicted and a lot of audible responses from the audience. It had been a minute since I felt like I learned something new from Genesis. I really learned so much and so did our students.  Here's a picture of Marty teaching. He has some pizzazz to his teaching style and the students loved it! You can learn more from him from the BEMA podcast.  Here's a snapshot of worship from one of the worship sets. I wish y'all could've been there. There was so much energy and unity in the room. Dancing, jumping, shouting, hugging! We have much to lear...