Jacob's Ministry Blog

     I think it's easy for us to forget things. I forget what I ate for lunch the previous day. I forget why I walked into the kitchen when, seconds earlier, I had a craving for some tea. I even forget that God answered prayers that I prayed days, weeks, months, even years ago. This time of year, I like to look back and remember what God has done in my life. While I know I'm forgetting things here and there, it's still undeniable how powerfully he's worked in such a short amount of time.     If you told me three years ago that I would be a pastor-in-training working on a college campus in Dallas, I would've told you you were crazy. I loved science. I wanted to find the universal vaccine for the flu. I wanted to develop new drugs to help fight infections. God was the last thing on my mind. Although, I think even during that time in college when I felt I had everything together, he was still working. As I started research in a lab at UTA, I found re...

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 o...

  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...

Happy New Year!  The apprenticeship is about halfway over, but I can see God ready to work as the spring semester starts up soon!   Classes The class that we spent most of our time exploring pneumatology (just a fancy word for studying the Holy Spirit).  The bulk of that class was reading through Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God  by Gordon Fee and discussing it as an apprentice group with Peter , my supervisor and one of the senior staff members.  While a lot of the book was over my head, it was good to begin to take a serious, hard look at the Holy Spirit and seeing how Paul understood Him.  It was really cool to see how the Holy Spirit is so integral in uniting the Church as a whole and how He is the mark for salvation, which will lead into our last class of the apprenticeship, Eschatology (which I'm really excited about).  Overall, all the classes we've taken so far (Old Testament Foundations, Financial Stewardship, Evangelism, Pneumatol...

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 ...

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...