David's January Update

I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering 
you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the 
spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know
him better.
-Ephesians 1:16-17

Hello, friends!

    Hello there, people blessed by God! Thank you so much for joining me in ministry for another semester. Let's recap January.

Winter Retreat



Top: Shayna enjoys breakfast time! For the most part, students held her and passed her around meal times. It's so sweet that we got to bring Shayna to Winter Retreat and that students got to love on all the babies. Speaking of...
Middle: By my count, there were 5 babies brought to Winter Retreat under 6 months old by FOCUS staff parents. We set up a corner in the main sanctuary area for the babies to "play together". In this picture, Luna is curious about Shayna, while Shayna completely ignores her, preferring to play with a toy Temoc instead. We're still teaching her that friends pay attention to one another.
Bottom: A group of Collin students (and Kevin) meet up for lunch on the drive back home. Despite the snow, the roads were in great condition! I haven't heard about any accidents to or from Winter Retreat.

    About 500 students from various schools in the DFW area spent a weekend together to listen to sermons, worship God, play games, stay up far too late, and have their lives changed. About 90 of those students were from Collin College, and of those, about 20 were from the Frisco campus, and of THOSE, 6 were from my core. I've already seen the change in multiple of our core guys who went. Many of them returned from camp, ready to be vulnerable in Core, ready to listen like God listens, ready to make commitments to serve God and people. Retreats like this are little tastes of heaven, and they help people see what's possible if they go all-in with God.

D-Class

    I don't have a picture from our first class, but this semester I get to help teach Discipleship Class with Eileen and Arianna (two of the other staff members at Collin), over Genesis! D-Class is one of my favorite parts of my ministry because I love to honestly engage with Scripture with students, in a different way than in other contexts. The question we ask is "what is the mind of the author?" and "what did this mean to the original audience?" and "this is really weird, what's going on?", rather than seeking immediate personal utility, some moral teaching, or comfortable clarity. We leave with more questions than we came with, and have lots of fun as we grow closer to God and seek to know him better.

Outreach


Top: Adriana (taking the picture), Tyler and I chat with students as we make origami together. During this outreach, there were two guys that (seperately) said they were looking for a Christian group, and that they had been raised Christian but were now figuring out for themselves what they believed, and had some doubts. I'm super excited to see these two guys get to know Jesus better in our community! Please pray for them.

Bottom: Many of our student leaders come to outreach and strike up conversation with passers-by. I was able to bring Shayna to outreach for this occasion. I'm blessed to be able to bring my daughter to work.

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