This Gift of Love and Righteousness Scorned by the Ones He Came to Save

Hey everyone! I feel like it's been a while since I've posted a public blog and updated you on what's going on in my life beyond just the thoughts in my head. 

This summer was full of planning and prepping for the new school year. We had Summer FOCUS going on, I had seminary to do, and a whole slew of changes for the ministry. This coming year we've got big changes in the way do our two services, the way we split our cores, and we have a new one-on-one Bible study! Focus on Jesus has been updated! Obviously, we think these changes are for the best, but each one requires a lot of planning on how it's going to change the way we do things and have ripple effects on everything else. We're excited, but there are a lot of balls in the air that need to be juggled. 

And now we're heading into the new school year! Just last night we had our first event welcoming the new freshmen who are moving in. Because school hasn't started there are very few things to do for these students until next week. And yet the first few days of the college experience are crucial in the mental and emotional lives of these kids. Their parents just left, they're in a new place, and they know very few people if any. We want to provide a loving community to them, and even if they don't choose to join our FOCUS community, to at least have had a great first experience in college. We can downplay the importance of just a small interaction when we don't see the immediate fruit. But I trust that God can work through even fun events like a board game night to reveal himself to people. That people might remember this time when they felt loved and special and that it was Christians who cared about them. 

In the coming weeks, we'll have a whole lot more events to do and hundreds of new people to meet! To the right is one of our Personal Invite cards that students keep handy to give to people they meet. It has our official events (which constitute only half of the total events we do!) that we're allowed to advertise. Please, please, please pray for each and every one of them. And for each of our 60 student leaders and dozens of returning students who are sold out for Christ and getting out of their comfort zones to meet new students. I know that your prayers will work wonders in these next few weeks.

In other news, my father came to Texas to visit me and my brother! It was such a great time to show him around Dallas and invite him into the life that we've built here. If any of y'all ever want to come visit, I would be very excited to host you! 

Thank you all so much for your continued support! It means so much to me that you would invest in God's kingdom here in Dallas. Thank you to all my old donors for sticking by me all this time and to the new ones coming on this year!