David's March Update

"To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices"

-Mark 12:33

Hello, friends!

    March still has a week left in it, but I anticipate it to be a busy one. I'll update you on the month now and include next week in April's update.

Outreach

    Each week, we set up a table with a thought-provoking question, like "What does it mean to worship something?", and the intention to point students to Jesus. Many students join us in the effort, and we often send out 2 or 3 pairs of students to walk around campus to pray. It's very encouraging that students come to help in the effort, and I hear stories of students outreaching to their classmates throughout the week as well. Even Shayna comes to campus to share the gospel! Well, not really to speak the gospel. She doesn't know English. But she smiles at students and almost enjoys being held by them.

Peer Team

    Each Monday evening, the Collin Corefas get together for leadership development. This picture is some of us that came early to eat with each other. I wanted to share a story of one of the student leaders that I get 1-on-1 time with each week. For the privacy of the the student's friend, I'll call the student leader Doug. One of Doug's main areas of ministry is the gym. He's always talking to students at the on-campus gym about Jesus, and he also works out off-campus. He makes friends wherever he goes and invites them to the gym to talk while they work out.

    Doug invited one friend (who I'll call Gary) to the gym. As they worked out, Gary told Doug about Gary's mother. Gary's mother had mistreated him throughout his childhood and Gary told Doug that he'd never forgive her. Doug asked "could I tell you a story?". He told him about how Jesus had been mistreated and misunderstood, how people spit on him and called him names and killed him. Yet, Jesus forgave them even as he was dying. Doug told Gary that he also thought he would never forgive his own father, but when he thought about Jesus' forgiveness, he knew he wanted to forgive too. Gary thought about Doug's story for a few minutes and eventually changed the subject. It felt like there was no effect. But at the end of the workout, Gary told Doug "I owe you lunch. You gave me really good advice."

    This short story of Jesus' forgiveness was so powerful! I pray that, in time, Gary is able to accept Jesus' forgiveness and forgive in turn.

Spring Break and Cobus

    I don't have a picture for this one, but this month a new role for students was rolled out at Collin: the Cobu. Cobu is short for "Community Builder". There are many students that come to Collin that would make great leaders but for one reason or another can't make the steep commitments to be a Corefa ("Core Facilitator"). We believe that it is very important to develop leaders, so we created the Cobu role to encourage these students to take ownership in the ministry and serve in various ways, while not being hindered by taking on a Corefa commitment. Many of the new Cobus decided to host events over Spring Break for Collin Students, like 2-stepping, seeing Dune 2, and playing Ultimate Frisbee. Those events had a great turnout and were the highlight of many students' weeks! Great work, Cobus!

Thanks so much for reading! Love y'all. God be with you.