I Got Married! (Among other things)

So the biggest news of the past month is that I married Sarah on June 30, 2018. It was a wonderful day with so many of our friends and family in attendance. We spent the next few days in San Diego and Anaheim, CA, enjoying the much cooler weather. We've spent the last couple of days working hard at getting our new home put together. I'm looking forward to settling into some sort of routine.

Neil, my best friend growing up, came with his sweet family.

We spent a day at Disneyland and had a blast

Luke, one of the students I mentored this year, is from San Diego. He and his family hosted us for a wonderful dinner one night. It was one of our favorite parts of the trip!

Plans for July

This month, I'll be hard at work getting things prepared for the year. We're finishing up building our largest student leader team ever at UTD, which will be led by our largest staff team ever at UTD. We are planning to try out some creative things this fall--starting a second weekly service on Tuesday nights and having some cores meet at a variety of non-traditional times and places. Be praying for these experiments, that we'll learn a lot and that they'll help us connect with an even more diverse group of students. I'll have more to say about all of this in the next couple months.

Student Testimony

Harrison Wijaya, Collin College - Spring Creek, Finance Major, Freshman

"When I came to the United States from Indonesia, I was pretty concerned about what life would be like. I immediately assumed I’d have a pretty lonely time at Collin. I heard about FOCUS but wasn’t really interested since I didn’t have a connection point. Interacting with strangers had never been my strong suit. Little did I know that God was listening and was ready to meet my needs. My first day on campus I met Graham, who told me about his involvement with FOCUS and introduced me to his friends. He followed up with me, and that was a huge way God started giving me a vision for what my life could look like.

"Through one-on-ones and pastoral messages, this community has taught me the impact of
reflecting Christ in every word I speak and action I take. Through my friendships, I’ve been shown how we can best love one another by putting all our efforts into blessing strangers like me. I've also had the opportunity to honor God at home by getting to live with five other guys from our community. Being in FOCUS, I’ve learned that God wants to open my eyes and heart to truly be shaped into someone who loves Him and those around me in all areas of my life."

I want to thank you once again for sharing this vision and strengthening it with your prayers and your financial generosity!