Spring Outreach Week!

For the week leading up to Easter, we hosted 9 young missionaries from Western Washington University to help us tell the good news about Jesus on campus at UTD.

Each day from Monday to Thursday they were out on campus with our students and pastorsa engaging with people one on one. On Monday, they relived the story of Jesus washing his disciples feet by getting on their knees in front of strangers with shoe cleaning kits and cleaning their shoes for them. As they cleaned, they asked whether the person had ever heard the story of Jesus washing feet (many hadn't!), told the story, and started conversations about whether that was compatible with the person's views of God.

On Tuesday they engaged people to talk about what burdens them and burdens the world. They had them write those things on small wooden tokens that we took up and glued to a cross. Then, on Thursday, students were asked to share what they thought were the characteristics of a perfect world on colored tokens and glue those on top of the burdens. These kinds of conversations where we combine asking questions with acting something out physically create deeper interactions and memories that stick.

Wednesday was an extra special day, our annual Rez Fair (Rez for Resurrection as we celebrate Easter coming up) with all the other campus ministries and a bunch of area churches. Hundreds of students came through the fair for live music, giveaways, games, food, and spiritual conversations. At booth after booth they had the gospel shared with them in many ways as they experienced Christians of many kinds--Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant included--joining together in unity to celebrate the most important day in history!

Andrea from my team MADE this beautiful sign!

Our table that day was a classic--"Ask a Spiritual Question; Get a Cookie." This always leads to so many interesting discussions with people who don't yet know Jesus! We also ran all of the games and music, as well as all of the setup and tear down for the event. Many of our alumni and church members cooked and hosted so that we could make all these special things happen this week. Thank you for supporting us so that Jesus can be boldly proclaimed on campus. Salt and light! Pray that these seeds now planted and watered will grow.

Student Testimony

Darreyl is such a kind, godly man. I remember my first real conversation with him in Bellingham, WA, during SICM a few years back. He had a heart then to love and serve his peers in college, and he lived it out over the next few years! Now he is taking that same heart and the things he learned into a new context.

February Went Fast!

Our biggest event this past month was our Pizza Theology on the Bible. First Baptist Church Plano was SO GRACIOUS and generous in hosting us for this event when we couldn't get a large enough space on campus. Five FOCUS pastors did the teaching, helping students understand what the Bible is, how it came together, some of the challenges and choices of translating the Bible into our language, and what it means that the Bible is inspired. They did an amazing job! It should be uploaded soon to our Pizza Theology channel on Spotify for those who are interested in listening. 

One moment that was particularly encouraging was when the young adults pastor from FBC-Plano stood up to pray for the meal and told the students how this teaching was just as good as any seminary teaching and that he was blown away they were getting that (plus a pizza dinner!) for only $10. 

At the end of the evening, one of our pastors overheard a girl on her way out saying to her friends, "I wish everyday could be like this." Thanks for investing in us and praying for us and believing in our mission to train and equip young people rather than babysit them to keep them out of trouble. They can do remarkable things with our support!

Over 430 showed up to take notes and learn during 4 hours of teaching!

My beautiful wife was one of the teachers. She talked about the formation of the biblical canon.

Students lined up to get pizza!

Incredibly, it was over 80 degrees outside for a beautiful evening in February. We are not used to being able to eat outside at this event!

Student Testimony

Bonus Pic!

I love this picture. One of our alumni is a kindergarten teacher. They had a college day, and we were able to work out with student life to give every kid a UTD t-shirt left over from recent events. This is her class trying to do the UTD "Whoosh"

Best Winter Retreat Yet!

Over 570 people came out to our annual Winter Retreat a few weeks ago. You would have been so touched to hear student after student reading Mark 14:24-25 in their own native languages, languages from all over Europe and Asia and Africa, not to mention American sign language and Choctaw. I cried through the whole thing and so did basically ever other pastor I've talked to. The Lord has sent the nations to us here, and his kingdom is breaking in and doing a new thing in an age of division. I just kept praying Psalm 2:8 over our mission: "Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession." Join me in praying that the nations will know him because of the way we love one another here in DFW!

Students came to Retreat to hear Dr. Daniel Lee from Fuller Theological Seminary speak about Disruptive Grace. His talks were indeed disruptive for a lot of us--disrupting our subtle legalism and the lies we believe about God. As I've been sharing the audios with alumni and friends who weren't there, I'm continuing to hear how especially the first couple messages are ministering to people at a very deep level. I'm excited to share them with you here and I hope you'll take time to listen.

I always laugh at the students wanting to look nice for this picture. I'm like, "Your head will be smaller than the head of a pin when people see it." Feel free to play "Where's Waldo" looking for me. 

Bonus picture of Peter and me with Dr. Lee who spoke at Retreat. His class on grace was one of the major highlights of seminary for both of us, and we were so excited to share it with our whole community!