Jacob's Ministry Blog

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 ...

Hi guys! Thanks for taking the time to read my blog post for this month!  I wanted to take some time to thank my donors for their generosity to allow me to do campus ministry full-time this year. I also appreciate all those who are praying for the ministry and the campus! Ministry and college studies are particularly challenging this year. God has been hard at work this month! Let me catch y'all up (also, sorry for the lack of pictures this week guys).  Core With some of our guys being able to only join us for core every week online, my co-leader (James) and I decided to move our core completely online.  While I definitely preferred being in-person with a small group of guys this year, I don't mind being online if that means our guys are comfortable and safe! So far, we've been casting a vision for the guys what we want core to look like this year: a group of us that aim to be vulnerable and explore our faith together and build strong friendships along the way.  We a...

  Hi friends! I can't believe it's been a month since I first started.  It's been a busy month! Welcome Week     Every year most college campuses hold welcome week events for the first two weeks or so of the new school year.  Typically, most welcome week events are in-person and are a great way for students, especially freshmen and transfers, to get involved on campus and make friends.  This year, of course, has been very  different; every event has been moved online.  It's presented some pretty unique challenges for FOCUS: how do we reach out to students online?  What could we do online?  So, we did daily streams on Twitch  (I've linked to UTD FOCUS' Twitch page so you can take a look at what we offered if you like) to give new students an idea of what our ministry is about and almost daily activities online, like Scribblio, an online drawing game like Pictionary, and Among Us, an online version of the card game Mafia (although wit...

 Hey friends and family!  Thanks for taking the time to read my first ever ministry blog post!  This year is going to be WAY different from previous years of ministry, but God is just as faithful today as He was yesterday.  Let's jump in!     This first week, starting August 1, has been FULL of learning and reading as we began our Old Testament class.  So far, we've read from Genesis to Joshua, in addition to reading a textbook, listening to lectures from Regent College, and attending a class led by our own Brandon Worsham, who directs the ministry as a whole and leads the men's side of the UTD ministry, and Victoria Milian Seiler.  I can't even begin to write here how much I've learned through this study of the Old Testament; we'd truly be here all day.  But, some of the highlights to me have been how important each and every human is to God.  I often glossed over Genesis 1:27 thinking, "Dang, that's pretty cool that we're created in Go...