The Students Are Back!

January for staff kicked off as soon as the year did. On the 1st, we left for our winter staff retreat that was about an hour outside of Austin at a place called Red Town River Retreat. We weren't the only group at the place, but the retreat was set up in a way were you weren't going to be distracted by each other. This year was apparently different than most because we had a visitor come talk to us at staff retreat. Brady Bobink, and his wife Shirley are from Bellingham, Washington and are leaders of a more than 30 year old ministry up there called Campus Christian Fellowship (CCF). They put on a student leader training seminar called The Student Institute of Campus Ministry (SICM) every May and June, and our staff has been taking students to this for more than a decade. I got to go back in 2015 right after my Freshman year, and a lot of what I learned there still shapes how I approach ministry today! For our "services" we would do some worship and then Brady and Shirley would answer question from our staff on different subjects. It was a huge blessing to hear their wisdom, and I know I was at least blessed by their answers. It was great having them, but that was not the sole purpose of the retreat. We as a staff use these retreats mainly as a way to build unity on our staff, and as a way to have fun together. It is a really strengthening thing for our group and I have felt like way more of a member of FOCUS staff in general, as opposed to just my campus team.

On a quick turn around from staff retreat, we had our yearly Focus Winter Camp. This is our biggest event of the year by far as a ministry. We take all the students from all of the campuses to Sky Ranch for Martin Luther King weekend, and we have times of teaching, fellowship, fun, and discussion.  I have attended the camp 7 times as a student, and it was cool to get to experience it as a staff member. This year we had our staff teach the lessons (In years past we have had guest speakers) and they took us through the different types of Psalms. It was an incredible series, and the speakers did a great job of not only teaching about the psalms, but also teaching how to relate to them. This event was great for my small group. All but one of them members came (the other one had the flu) and they did a great job of taking advantage of the free time to build their relationships, and really learn a lot from what each other were learning. The services were huge to say the least. Having students from all of the campuses did a lot to really nail home just how much God is doing in DFW. It was beautiful to see and I am excited to keep working to help students see just how beautiful the kingdom is.

(View from the back of the room during one of our services)

After Winter Camp, it was back to school for the students, and back to classes for the apprentices as well. We currently are taking classes on the New Testament, Strategic Leadership, Worship, and Maturity. These have been really challenging, and have added a lot of reading to my life, but I am already really excited with what I am learning. Especially about the New Testament. Coming into the class, I had this idea that I would understand a lot of what was going on, but I quickly learned just how little I knew about the world that Jesus came into. If I feel like I have it hard trying to do ministry in a secular world, at least I didn't have to do ministry in a world that wanted Jesus to be a million things that he wasn't. 

I am glad to be back to work. This upcoming month I will be making my decision as to if I will be staying on staff another year. I am excited to have that conversation and to see what the staff thinks about my options. My time on staff has been grate so far, and as always I am so grateful that you all are supporting me through this! I haven't said before, but if you all have any prayer request, please email me! I am always praying and thanking God for you all!