A Big Thank You!

 To start this post, I want to communicate a ton of thanks for helping to make our annual Keep FOCUS Growing campaign a success! We were able to raise enough to receive all of the promised matching funds, which after all of that is added, we earned more than $125,000! God was so faithful to us through all of you, and we are extremely grateful for that! So, Thank You from all of FOCUS and from me for helping us to remain faithfully local! 

Now, let's talk about my ministry this month! November is normally a very "go through the motions" time of year, but in 2022, that was far from the case. The student leaders that I am in charge of have been dealing with very unique cases, that for some reason all bared their heads at around the same time. The issues range from having to speak into universalism, to having to answer difficult questions about why God does the things He does. What I have been so impressed by through this, is just how faithful to the guys in their small groups my leaders are! All of them come to me with their difficulties and questions and as I help them process these things, I remain blown away by how seriously they long for their guys to know and love God. It is such a blessing to work with and for guys who are taking their role in leadership so seriously!

FOCUS also had our Pizza Theology service this month! For those unfamiliar, every semester, we have a 5 hour service on a Sunday that we call Pizza Theology. It is 4 hours of high level teaching on a topic, with a 1 hour break in the middle for Pizza. This semester, our topic was Revelation, so of course it was the simplest thing we could cover in 4 hours. I kid of course. The service, though dense and difficult, was phenomenal! We weren't able to answer a ton of questions (because who really can on a topic even Jesus said he knows little about), but we did equip them with the information needed to understand why it is such an important book. We also I think left them with some important questions to be considering with not just Revelation, but with all of the prophecy in the Bible. It is in there for a reason, and so it must be important to God! If you would like to look over our packet, or review the material we covered, it can all be found here!  

Because of the Thanksgiving break, and a vacation of my own earlier in the month, that is all I really have to cover for this month. I just want to reiterate, Thank you all so much for your generosity. Not just to our fundraiser, but also toward me all of these months! You all make this mission possible, and I am so extremely grateful for that! With that said, here is our monthly testimony from my friend, and UTD Alumni, Rhett Pippard!