Hit the Ground Running

Nothing other than the title of this blog can describe how August went. As soon as we kicked off the month on our staff, we had our Licensing Ceremony. All of the Ministers who are on our staff are on staggered commitments. We do this os that we don't have any single year where FOCUS has to redo everyone's commitment at the same time. I and a handful of the apprentices from last year got to be a part of this, as we commit to staying on and accept our role as ministers in our communities. For now, I am on a one-year commitment, but in December/January, I will let you all know what the future looks like from here. 

(Me and the other former apprentices staying on staff)

After that, we dove headfirst into planning for our Welcome Week events. At the start of the month, things were looking very hopeful for us. We hadn't heard from the Student Life office on campus at all, but the campus police said that we were okay to have some informal outdoor events, as long as we enforced campus policies on social distancing, and wearing masks. We did the best we could within our power, but these students are adults, and ultimately have to make that call for themselves. That being said, I think generally the students were very respectful of each other's space while still being very interactive. That last part was certainly the biggest surprise to me. Wherever our people would go to meet people, there were people to be met. More so than some years in the past, there was an air of excitement to meet people on campus. The students at UTD clearly are starved for interaction, like many of us are, and I was very impressed out how responsible people were being, so they could come outside and meet the other people on campus. We primarily set up shop near UTD's main courtyard, called the Plinth, but I lead a small group to meet people outside of the resident halls. I took to of our new pastoral apprentices and a handful of our small group leaders, and we set up to play games like Frisby, Fishbowl, and we had an area set up on a handful of tables for people to do crafts. We had so much success meeting students near their housing. Every night that we showed up over there, we would have between 25-40 students come by and meet some of our people and want to get connected to what we are doing on campus. Here are some images from those evenings we spent meeting students:

Things didn't stay good for long. Despite our advertising being approved, and the campus police approving what we were doing, the Student Life office did shut down our presence on campus. The whole week after the announcement was made was very confusing. The rules and the severity of them were differing from the different offices on campus, but to avoid any issues, we moved all of our events completely online. We did daily Q&A events online and had different socials every day of the week. We had a very fun LatinX trivia day, a few large games like Jackbox (a game anyone can connect to with their phone), and a set of other games and cultural events. The week went well all things considered, but the confusion around the campus definitely hurt our reach. Please pray for the students here at UTD. So many of them have said to me and other people in our ministry that life on the campus is so lonely, and that just isn't what college should be. I know with the pandemic, extra precautions need to be taken, but it isn't good for all of these young people to feel so isolated. 

One last thing we got to this month, was our new way of doing Friday night services. In the past, our Friday Night Focus service looked a lot like a church service. When the pandemic first hit, we did our best to transfer that format online, but it just wasn't sticking well with many of our students. What we are doing instead this year is a service we are calling "Deep Dive". What we are doing with this new format, is using most of our time to dive deep into the gospel of Mark. Mark was chosen mostly because it is 16 chapters, so we can do one chapter a week. I'm actually kidding, while that is convenient, the real reason is because our theme for the year is "Voice in the Wilderness", which comes out of Mark 1. We have 2 weeks of this service under our belts so far, and so far reception has been really good. It obviously isn't as fun as having an in person service, but generally the students in our ministry are loving it for what it is!

Thank you all for continuing your support through this year. I am beyond grateful for this, and I am glad to give you all updates any time you would like. This year is already proving that it won't be easy, but I am confident in God's provision, and I know that if we are faithful now, we can have a great year of ministry.