Blessings Even in Hardship

Hey friends and fam! Thanks for giving my blog post for February a read! Again, thank you all for your support, both financial and spiritual. God has been moving powerfully in the lives of our students this year, and it wouldn't be without your support! The beginning of the month was a little strange in ministry since the snow storm, but I think God has taught me a lot about ministry in that time that I probably wouldn't learn otherwise. Let's jump in!


Snow? In Texas?

I think we all know, but it snowed for a few days. My housemates and I were without power for about 3-ish days, so we stayed at my supervisor's house until the power came back on at least somewhat regularly. While it was pretty annoying to be away from our house and stuck not being able to do my usual work, I think God still taught me a lot. My supervisor, Peter, lives with 5 other guys who are a part of (or were at one point) UTD FOCUS. Staying with them for the short time we did gave me a great example of what it would look like to make college a really enjoyable and memorable time for the guys who I live with. In all honesty, it's very easy for me to come home from doing ministry work all day and interact very little with my housemates. But, God taught me through Peter's housemates that my ministry is at home, too. I've slowly started building stronger relationships with my housemates since then, and I can see how God may work through them!



The view from outside the front door after the first batch of snow. Even though it was absolutely miserable, I took a walk around the neighborhood. Snow and ice is part of God's good creation too, right?

A group of my housemates and Peter's housemates hanging and playing games together :)

We got to participate in one of their roommate nights which I've started to copy at our house. It's been a great opportunity and tool to facilitate relationship and community growth.

While I was settling down for the night, Peter's dog, Penny came and slept next to me. She's the sweetest.

Bonus Penny picture!!!

Spring Showcase

Spring Showcase is coming up April 3! Spring Showcase is an entertainment fundraiser put on by FOCUS every year to raise money to send potential student leaders off to a week long leadership conference to learn more about how to lovingly and effectively minister to the college campus. Typically, FOCUS sends potential leaders to SICM (The Student Institute of Campus Ministry) in Bellingham, WA in the summer for this training, but SICM isn't taking students this year due to COVID. So, FOCUS will be preparing its own SICM-esque material to train our leaders for next school year. Since COVID hit around the same time as SICM signups last year, those students who were invited last year will also be invited this year. So, we need all the financial help we can get to help prepare these students to minister to their peers next school year. I've linked the website for more information above on the Spring Showcase heading. It'll be a great show!


In Christ,

Jacob






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Back to Work

Image
  Hey friends and fam! We're back on campus at work from the winter break! Staff Retreat Since ministry gets to be pretty slow over the winter break, the staff typically takes a short retreat to rest and reflect on ministry and our values and vision. I was so thrilled to get to go for the first time this year, although it was a bummer that not all of the staff went due to COVID. For those of us who did go, we took extra precautions the two weeks leading up to the retreat to ensure we didn't bring the illness and spread it to those at the retreat. A good amount of our time was spent just hanging out with the other staff members. It was great to get quality time with the other ministers that I don't get to see or talk to often. It was also a great opportunity to grow closer with the pastors on the UTD team and connect with them in a more personal way than we would over the busyness of the semester. Another big part of the retreat was discussing the book Money and Power by Jac
Read more

Chalk Art and Surprise Parties

Image
Hi friends and family!  Thanks for taking the time to read my blog update for the month.  I've got some cool stuff to fill y'all in on with more pictures this time! As always, I sincerely thank God for all my donors' support, whether financial or spiritual.  It's such a great opportunity to reach the college campus for Christ. Core At first, it was hard for me and James to get our core guys to where they feel comfortable around each other, but God has been hard at work with that this month!  Our guys have been talking and joking with each other like they've known each other for years.  Forming relationships with the guys in your core is definitely what I enjoyed most when I was in a core my first semester in FOCUS and last year when I first led a core.  It's such a great feeling to start forming strong relationships with these guys that you spend a day every week with. Our core was also featured on our Instagram page recently! Check it out! View this
Read more

Holidays in the Park!

Image
Hi friends and family!  Thanks for taking the time to read my blog post for the month!  Ministry has truly been a sweet blessing, and it wouldn't be possible without your generosity.   Holidays in the Park     November was really dominated by our first large event of the year, Holidays in the Park.  In a normal year, we would have multiple large events throughout the year, but because of COVID, we have to scale down on them pretty heavily and change how they're run and structured.  Since we didn't get to do an event for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, we decided to put them all together for a whole day of holiday fun and fellowship.  We started off the day at a park in Richardson playing Halloween-themed games and even had a mask decorating contest.  Throughout our time at the park, we had spiritual activities interspersed between park games like cornhole and ultimate frisbee.  A favorite activity (at least for me) was the walk-and-talk where you pair up with someon
Read more