Bring the Horizon

I have been thinking about this theme of Bring the Horizon all month. At the beginning of the month, on the first to be exact, my niece turned 1! Which is just crazy in itself but that is beside the point. Thinking about who she is going to be when she grows up, where she will end up, what kind of personality and hobbies she will have. It has got me thinking about the future of FOCUS. My long term vision is for her to have a community of people who love the Lord and love on her, and that is something that FOCUS can be a part of if she so chooses. A place that can nurture and grow on the relationship she will or will not have with Jesus. As I think about how this community has changed my life and developed me into a disciple, it makes me want to cry. I don't have children but I long for people from all different families and backgrounds to come together and experience the life-changing power of Jesus and his love. 

December 3rd is Giving Tuesday! I mentioned it in my last blog, but some really generous donors will be matching donations up to $36,000 in total! The week before Thanksgiving, our students donated $9000 far exceeding our student giving goal of $5000! Praise the Lord that he has given them a spirit of generosity. My prayer is that God lays it on your heart to give to this ministry and partner in prayer for others to be generous as well. You can go to https://www.facebook.com/anyfocusministries/ to donate on Tuesday to get your donation matched!

I am super appreciative of all your prayers and donations. I am beyond grateful that I get to be able to do the work that I do and reach out to students!

The vision is seeing students give their lives over to Jesus like this sweet student in our ministry has! We witnessed two baptisms in our community this month!

 I am continuing to learn more and more about the history of our faith in the Christian History class that some of our staff are taking. It is a lot more helpful in my personal ministry than I thought. It has been impactful thinking through where the ideas I believe come from and see how others in the faith fought for what they believe and related to God.

I got to use my connections at UTD to record a podcast with Mary Poplin! It should be going up as soon as I finish editing. Mary Poplin came to speak to our students about different worldviews and how people in the secular world think through things. I think it was helpful for our students in identifying where we are informed by the world, not by scripture or Christ.

These are some of the girls in my personal ministry! Love these ladies and getting to move towards Christ together.

 This is my small group and another Tuesday night one. We got together, shared a meal and a laugh and reflected on Thankfulness. It was such a fun evening getting to interact with more people from the community than I normally interact with.