3 things for you to do

SICM was last week, and I think the experience was summed up in a question one of the UTD freshmen asked me the last evening of the trip: "Is SICM always this amazing?" My answer: "Yep. That's why we keep coming back every year." SICM isn't just a great experience--it produces great fruit. Consistently. Thank you for praying for these students and to so many of you for financial support that makes these experiences possible. I'd love to tell you more about the conference in person or on the phone. Just ask!

These are just the UTD people we took to SICM. I love training this many new leaders for our campus!

In addition, when we sent the students back home, some of the staff guys and I drove on up to Vancouver, BC, to take a summer course at Regent College. I'm halfway through a class called "Interpreting Matthew," and it has been a great experience so far. I'm not quite ready to condense down what I'm learning because I have so many things going on in my head. But I'm recognizing again how much our faith and our scriptures are ultimately about God's character--being a Christian is about getting to know God and becoming like Him. Intimacy with God is both the goal and the means to that goal, both the end and the means.

I have 3 quick things you can do to help our ministry:

1. Pray for some key job searches at UTD

Some key positions have opened up at UTD that have the potential to deeply affect the ability of Christian missionaries to work effectively on campus. Our president, Dr. Daniel, is taking a higher job at the UT System level (read about it here) and a committee will be formed soon to conduct a nationwide search for a new president. In addition, the Dean of Students position and Assistant Dean of Students position are both open right now as well. Please pray for the women and men involved in filling these three important positions. Those decisions have the potential to radically shape campus ministry at UTD in the decade to come.

2. Amazon Smiles

If you shop on Amazon, you can start your shopping at Amazon Smiles (each time) and a portion of every purchase will go to support FOCUS. You can click on the link below to connect your account and then change any bookmarks to Amazon Smiles instead of Amazon. Everything costs the same and works the same, with the exception that on your phone it doesn't work through the app, only through the browser. I've been using this for a few weeks now and it works exactly the same as before! You can also click here if the image above doesn't show up.

3. Change out your internship prayer sheet ... because we added Albert!

I have some great news--we have accepted one more intern for the 2015-2016 school year. We knew that Albert Rodriguez was interested, but a number of things had to fall in place with his education to make it work this year, so we waited until May to have him apply and interview. He's an amazing young man, and I've been praying for him to try out ministry for the last couple years. I know many of you have started praying regularly for our incoming interns and their support raising. If that is you, please switch out this new prayer sheet for your old one.

If you'd like a larger version of this image, I can share it with you.

Your prayers are important. I'm convinced God works powerfully when his image bearers ask Him to in Jesus' name. My prayer for you is that you would have a blessed summer, and that your intimacy with God would grow in this season.