Help Protect Our Mission in 8 Minutes or Less!

The US Department of Education has recently announced plans to remove existing protections for religious student organizations at colleges and universities across the nation. Their reasoning is that these rights are already protected under the Constitution, so students can take their colleges to court if these rights are infringed upon.

However, most 18-year-olds are pretty unaware of their rights and have neither the desire nor the resources to sue their own college. And we've seen that before the existing language was put in a place a few years ago, universities were inconsistent in how they protected or did not acknowledge these rights.

Would you be willing to take 5-8 minutes to write a personal comment on this proposed change before March 24 (the deadline for comments)?

We've put together a website that will show you exactly how to do it and give you some ideas of things you might say. It does not need to be long, but ideally it would be personal and highlight one of more reasons why the DOE should give colleges guidance in protecting the 1st Amendment rights of students.

We want to generate hundreds of comments from our network alone!

Here's the website that explains everything: anyfocus.org/campusaccess

(one quick note: when it asks you "What is your comment about?", that's just a weird way of asking what category you are in. You will most likely put student, parent, or individual.)

Thank you!

Encouraging Posts

 A couple weeks back, one of our student leaders shared these screenshots from a Facebook group for UTD Parents that her mom is a member of. These are in response to parents worrying about their kids being lonely and not finding good friends. I found them so encouraging!

And then this was posted on Instagram by a new student in Denton. This is the vision guys! Thanks for being a part of it!

Funny Videos

I meant to share these last month. Our staff always makes a funny video for the opening of our big Winter Retreat. This year the joke was all around inflation and our pastors trying to make some extra money. (It's in 2 parts, but only a few minutes total.)

Checking up on Focus on Jesus studies

In February each year we pause to take stock of the FOJ studies we've started that year. At UTD we have completed 17 studies (completing is always a miracle haha), have 95 studies that are currently happening, and another 12 studies that began and have stopped for some reason. That's 124 students that have been receiving weekly one-on-one instruction and discussion about how the gospel intersects with their lives, usually in addition to discussions in Core and biblical teaching on Friday nights. It also means so many of our students are the ones teaching those studies! They are getting real experience ministering to their peers and sharing the good news of Jesus!

Officiating a Wedding

I don't do as many weddings as I used to because I work on such an amazing team of pastors, but it's always special to officiate for people who are special to me! This past weekend, I got to officiate Cullen Capili's wedding. Cullen was in my Core back in 2009-2010 as a freshman, and I got to study FOJ with him that year. We've stayed friends the many years since he graduated and went on to become a physical therapist. Congrats, Dr. Capili!

Why are those lights so shiny!?

Student Testimony

Thank you for your support, encouragement, and prayers! You make this ministry possible and share in its fruit!