SMU, Here We Come

First off, we had a great Winter Camp a couple weeks back. So many good things are coming out of it, with many students making important decisions and seeking God more than ever before. One of our UTA students made a video highlighting the experience and I wanted to share it with you so you could get a picture of what it was like:



Student Testimony

Josh is a student that I had the pleasure of mentoring during his first year as a student leader. He's a great guy who has invested in our younger students the past three years, and he asked for the opportunity to share his story!

Josh Carpp (Senior, University of Texas at Dallas, Mechanical Engineering)

"Before coming to college, I was in a desperate search for friendships. I had been the unfortunate recipient of a drug-induced fight. One night, people who I thought were my friends got high on cocaine while we were hanging out. All it took was a dispute over petty differences to send one of them over the edge, and it ended with me getting choked until I passed out. Thankfully, God brought me through that alive. However, this incident led to bitterness, rumors, and the loss of mutual friends. So, I ended high school not having many people that I considered friends. After all that, I was ready for college.

"Going into my Freshman year at UTD, I made it a priority to seek out friendships and Christian community. I found out about an event that FOCUS was having during welcome week and went to check it out. There I met Sagar Gandhi who, after just one conversation, invited me over to his house to play FIFA (a soccer video game). I was taken aback by this generous invitation and willingness to invite me into his life when he knew very little about me. I decided to go to Sagar’s Core and get more involved in FOCUS, where I developed strong friendships. Praise God for Sagar Gandhi’s invitation, the friendships I have made, and for how much leaders in FOCUS have taken time out of their busy schedules to pour into a broken and unimpressive sinner, like me, ever since!"

Starting SMU

We've been given an amazing opportunity to start a ministry at SMU in partnership with Canterbury House (a ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas). We've been praying for years about starting a ministry on that campus, but because private schools are so different and have a number of barriers to entry, we knew it would have to happen in God's timing and in His way. The second half of 2016, He rolled out the red carpet for us! Canterbury has a building next to campus and a heart to reach people with the gospel. However, they don't have any students or campus pastors. So they've invited us to combine resources and run that ministry. Laurence Glenesk will stay on our UTD team but will be spearheading our work at SMU as we get started.

Tonight we had our first event down there to pray about what God is calling us to. We already have personal connections with a number of interested students from this event and from other connections, and Laurence will be following up one-on-one with each of them. Please pray that God will show us exactly what He's calling us to, will continue to open doors and provide connections, and will get us ready to launch something awesome in August!

Our First Full-Time Administrator!

Isabelle is great!

As of January 1, our general admin Isabelle has moved from part-time to full-time! She has been working with us most of 2016 while she finished her degree at UNT, and we are so excited to have her focusing all her energy with us moving forward. She's sweet, competent, spiritual, and fun to work with. She supports our on-campus pastors, and she will be doing some pastoral ministry with us along the way as well. During her time as a student, she led core, led the entire worship team in Denton, and helped us start our ministry at NCTC. The need to have someone full-time is a testament to how much our shared mission has grown these last few years!

To those of you who pray for this ministry and to those of you who invest financially, thank you for your support and for helping make all this happen!

Winter Camp is this Weekend!

We're gearing up for our biggest event of the year. We have around 550 people registered already and they're still signing up. Please be praying that the Spirit would move powerfully this weekend. We have a lot of students coming who are still investigating Jesus and a lot more who are Christians but are on the fringes of discipleship and Christian community. Winter Camp can be catalytic for spiritual growth and decision making. We're looking forward to seeing what God does--He always shows up in a big way!

And if you'd like to come out to visit our camp this weekend in Van, TX, just let me know and I'll get you the details.

Student Testimony
I love our student testimony this month. Not only is Chiazo one of our amazing student leaders, she's a senior who has served our community on two campuses. When I think about how the Church in America is losing over 75% of our young people as they move through college, I rejoice at every story like this where a young person's faith flourishes and becomes about impacting others in the crucial college years and beyond. And we have so many stories like this that we could tell!

Chiazo Akagha (Senior, University of North Texas, Choral Music Education)

"Before college, I spent a vast majority of my time at church, from volunteering to mission trips. After graduating, I was nervous about what Christian community would look like now that I had to find it for myself. I prayed for a group of friends who cared about me. I was at the gym six weeks into my freshman year and while I was working out on the treadmill, something made me turn around (while running 80% speed) and I saw a banner for FOCUS. I visited that Friday night and stayed because people sought out His Word, ways to practice His teachings and made Christ-likeness a lifestyle- specifically, Autumn Priestley, a senior at the time I joined FOCUS. I constantly asked myself 'why would someone who’s about to leave college want to spend time with me?' She spent time with me because of the lessons she learned through FOCUS. As I make my transition into the 'real world' and becoming a teacher, I will remember to seek to understand and then be understood when working with students, parents, and other teachers. I will look at my students and love them. I will consider their needs and provide for them, whether that means that I attend their sporting events or support them through tough times. I will show them who Jesus is through my teaching, patience, and discipline on and off the podium. It’s because of my involvement in FOCUS that I am able to know what it looks like to be a disciple in the 'real world.'"

Thanks for partnering with me and the other FOCUS pastors so we can invest in students like Chiazo. That investment will pay off in so many ways, on and off campus, in the years to come.

Update on the Keep FOCUS Growing Fund: We've reached about $46,000 of our $55,000 goal! Amazing! We still have some donations coming in and you are still welcome to invest in our #next20 years if you'd like.

Keep FOCUS Growing!

We only have a few days left for our Keep FOCUS Growing Annual Fund. We're trying to wrap up raising $55,000 by December 31. Our monthly giving basically allows us to break even (hopefully!) each year. It's this money given at the end of each year that allows us to expand and do new things.

As we grow to at least 10 total campuses in 2017 (SMU, here we come!), we have bigger administrative needs. An image that's in my mind is that of a train and its tracks. If our campus pastors are the train bringing good news to students, then our admin team are the ones laying the tracks so they can get there. We are planning to bring on our first full-time administrator in January (to work with a couple of other adjunct people) to help support our growing staff of nearly 30 pastors.

We also will need extra resources to reach out on our newer campuses. We don't do nearly as much free food and such as most other ministries I'm aware of, but some of these campuses have very little in the way of campus life, and putting on events can be a great way for us to meet new students who need to know Jesus. And as we expand, having a little extra in the bank allows us to bring on incredible new staff and not worry about whether they are able to be fully fundraised by August 1. We want them on campus full-time as soon as the students arrive, not spending those precious first weeks of the school year meeting with potential ministry supporters.

I know many of you have given to this fund in past years and I am so thankful to you. Without this fund, we would be having a much smaller impact. I ask each of you to pray about possibly giving an extra gift this week, whether it be $3 or $300 or $3000.  Everything you need is at anyfocus.org/next20. I also ask you to pray that God will provide everything we need. He always has and I'm confident He will.

I wanted to wrap up with something one of our students, Stephanie, shared with the UTD ministry about why she gave to keep FOCUS growing:

Stephanie, one of our UTD student leaders

"Like countless others, I see this community as my family. What it stands for, I stand for: inviting people to find a home for their souls with God and his people. Families are reciprocal: each member contributes what they can for the good of the whole. Somebody cooks, somebody washes the dishes, somebody takes out the trash. Not everybody does equal work, but that’s ok and you do your best. Everyone is cared for. This is one way to think about giving: providing for your spiritual family for the good of the not only individuals but the whole. I see the “keep FOCUS growing” initiative as providing the extra for the strangers who are not yet part of our family. It’s adding extra seats to the table and making extra food for those family dinners."

I love that image--adding extra seats to the table and making extra food for the family dinner. I pray that we all have that effect on God's final banquet.

You've Gotta Read This Student's Story

I loved reading Sammy's testimony this month. This is why we do what we do!

Sammy (Freshman, Collin College - Spring Creek Campus, Nursing)

"My name is Sammy and I am a freshman at Collin College. During this past summer I went through a dark stage of my life. After a rough break up I was left feeling depressed and alone. On July 27th the depression had become so bad that I attempted suicide, and I didn’t tell anyone about it. A month later I heard about FOCUS through Matt at a Welcome Week event on campus, and after having a conversation he invited me to FOCUS. My core group and FOCUS helped me see I wasn’t alone; they showed me the love of Jesus and it drove me to become a Christian. I’ve learned how much Jesus loves people and how he cares for everyone. I’m closer to God than I have ever been before, and I feel loved in a safe community. God has changed my life through Focus!"

The Annual Fund

The past two years have seen us pioneer ministries on 3 new campuses and reach out to hundreds of new students with the good news of Jesus. One of the main things making all that possible has been our annual year-end fundraiser. It allows us to invest in student outreach, put pastors on campus who would otherwise have to spend time support raising, and generally seize opportunities that the Lord puts in our path. 

The Keep FOCUS Growing Fund will play a huge role in what 2017 looks like as we pray and consider what to do at SMU, how and whether to expand our Collin outreach, how to grow our presence at UTA, and how many of our amazing young apprentices to bring on to our long-term ministry staff. These are important decisions that will have major repercussions over the next 20 years!

So I'd like to ask you to do 2 things:

1. Pray for God to provide richly for the mission to these campuses. He has always given us what we need, and we are confident He will continue to do so if we continue asking in faith.

2. Maybe the Lord would want you to be a part of the answer to that prayer--would you consider giving a special gift? You can go to anyfocus.org/next20 for everything you need to know.

We'll have our last Friday meeting this week--our Christmas devotional outdoors in the middle of campus. We are looking forward to sharing the powerful meaning of Christmas with each other and with students who walk up and join.

Pray also for our students as they go home for the Christmas break. Many come from difficult family situations, and all of them will have the opportunity to reflect the light of Christ to their family and friends. It can be an amazing time of growth or a step backward--let's pray God moves powerfully in and through these young people.

Thank you for your prayers and gifts and friendship toward me and the students and ministers in this community. You play a crucial role in this mission to the campus.

Busy October

These last couple months have been especially busy, but we are starting to wrap things up for the holidays. Next week the UTD students have the entire week off for Thanksgiving and a fall break. Then we're back for less than 3 weeks before Christmas break. We only have 2 more Friday night meetings, a Christmas Party, and a special Christmas devotional. The cores are finishing up their last 2-3 times together as well. I'd ask you to pray that we can make the most of these pivotal weeks and not get distracted from the opportunities the Lord has given us by exams and the impending holidays.

With the 20 Year Celebration last month, I've been thinking about how thankful I am for that original FOCUS group that I came into as a freshman. It was certainly different in a number of ways, but Dave Drayton and the leaders he raised up had a HUGE impact on my life and on the lives of so many others. I got my vision for campus ministry there, made so many friends, and laid the foundation for my adult relationship with God. Those were blessed years, and they are still bearing good fruit!

Only a fraction of the old crew could make it that night, but it was wonderful to see each and every one of them!

So Many October and November Events!

I wish you could hear all the students talking about them!

The Friday night before Halloween, we had our FNF service before a costume party. Students brought friends and the service included a meditation on the faith and art of Vincent Van Gogh.

We had a special guest lecture in place of one of our Friday night meetings at UTD. Daniel Rangel came from Ravi Zacharias Ministries to talk about sexuality. His talk was aimed at pre-Christian students

Peter and Sarah taught a class on campus about Jesus and Politics in the lead up to the election.

David Knebel from CCF in Washington State flew in to teach our Pizza Theology on Hearing God's Voice. About 450 students showed up for 4 hours of teaching!

We had our annual Leadership Conference. A couple hundred current and potential student leaders came to learn about growing their inner life with God.

Student Testimony

Sierrah Martinez (Junior, Texas Women’s University, Nursing)

"Last fall, I started to seek out a deeper relationship with Christ. I never thought that by seeking out that relationship, amazing things would happen. In the spring, I was a transfer student and very new to the Denton community, but as soon as I got in touch with FOCUS I felt at home. From the very beginning, I was amazed by the warmth of the community and amazed by the sermons about God’s work. It was easy to show up to core and Friday Night Fellowship at UNT and just sit and listen. The more I listened the more I realized that God had a bigger plan, and FOCUS showed me that.

"When doing my FOJ study and participating in outreach, I learned that I was created to be a disciple as a testimony of God’s love for me. He pulled me out of the darkness and into the light so that I could be an example of Him, and I am thankful everyday for that. Through FOCUS, I have learned and experienced for the first time what community is like and how important it is. I have made friends who have invested in me from the moment I met them and my friendships are continuously growing. Through FOCUS, I have been able to set goals for myself that reflect God’s will and from that I find peace because I am saved."

Thank you for your financial gifts, you friendship, and your prayers. For you parents and grandparents, thank you for sharing your young person with us. God is doing cool things through our partnership on campus.

20 Years and Another Great Fall Camp

First off, if you haven't decided yet, I wanted to make sure you got one last invitation to our 20 Year Celebration this Saturday. It's going to be a great event!

Fall Camp

Last week we had our Fall Camp for UTD, Richland, and TWU Dallas. We had about 180 people come out! Our theme for the year is "Be Brave," and we spent those 24 hours diving deep into it. I wish you could have heard 7 brave students stand up and share about different areas in which God has taught them to trust instead of giving in to fear. Students shared about the impact of eating disorders, parental neglect, expressiveness in worship, the hard work of forgiving, confessing sin and living in the light, among others. The students were so impacted by having their peers open up to the community out of love. It sparked a lot of vulnerability within our cores that weekend.

Karlo sharing.

Remember the parachute from middle school PE?

Students bonding and playing games.

Student Testimony

Gordon, seen here sharing at camp, wrote our student testimony this month.

"Last year, God really blessed me through FOCUS. I experienced a lot of growth and was presented with multiple awesome opportunities. So this year, I was really excited to be a corefa and have the opportunity to give back. Before the year even started, I saw God working on our campus. Welcome Week was a blast; I saw people in our community reaching out to others, loving them, including them, and welcoming them to UTD. Being shy and inexperienced with outreach and talking to strangers, Welcome Week was something I had dreaded. But the Spirit really inspired me and gave me an excitement for meeting others and getting to know them. The Spirit pushed me to get over myself and focus on others. Since then, I’ve been thrilled to see those freshmen and new students continue to be involved in FOCUS and to see them being invested in the same way I experienced last year. In my own core, I’ve seen real friendships being formed--friendships that are already vulnerable and open to talking about serious issues and struggles. In October, we’re celebrating the 20th anniversary of FOCUS; I’m celebrating a community that is selfless in its pursuit of loving others."

Thank you for being selfless in your pursuit of loving others through prayer, through parenting well, and through investing financially in campus missions. You're impacting the future of college students! Whether, you get to make it to the 20 Year Celebration this weekend or not, know that I'll be celebrating your part in all this!

We Survived Welcome Week!

And it went great! You prayed for our students to be bold, Spirit-filled missionaries, and God answered in a huge way!

Weather caused us to cancel or reschedule basically every single event we had planned to reach out to freshmen at UTD, but it also led to one of our best Welcome Weeks ever! So many more students were out and about in the cooler weather (highs in the mid-80s in August!?), and they were ready to make friends and hang out. And this group of student leaders and returning students were amazing! They drew in tons of new people for our impromptu events like Zombie Tag and Games on the Mall.

Here students are listening to the rules for Zombie Tag. There was no way to capture the whole crowd in one picture. Freshmen LOVE this game and keep asking when we're going to play it again.

Just a sampling of different groups playing games on the mall--games like Spikeball, Four Square, and Giant Jenga. This wouldn't have worked in normal August weather!

All of this led up to our FNF Kickoff last Friday night. I didn't count, but around 250 students showed up! 130 signed up for our brown bag hangout, and the Corefas have hundreds of students who have signed up for cores to contact and invite from the last couple weeks. If we didn't have 50 strong student leaders, that many new students would scare me, but I know we have the workers to provide authentic love and care to each of them. 

Back in Davidson Auditorium for our first FNF with Abbie Malone giving our "Invest in the Vision" talk. (She's quite a preacher!) Again, there was no where to stand and get the entire room in the shot, but we came close to filling the back section as well.

I want to say thank you to each of you that has invested in this ministry financially and to each of you who has prayed for it. Your participation is essential! And I want to say a special thanks to those of you who have started giving or increased your giving over the past couple of months. God really answered my prayers through you!

As a final encouragement, read this testimony from one of our recent graduates who has moved into the mission field. She's awesome:

Michelle Nelson (University of Texas at Dallas, Graduated 2014)

"I came to college knowing about God but not knowing God. I didn’t grow up as a Christian but went to youth group with friends in high school. As an overachieving perfectionist I saw church as a place to prove myself. Religion was a set of rules explaining how to be “good”. As is all too common, I had completely missed the point of Jesus.

FOCUS quickly turned my attitude about God upside down. Seeing so many people who were willing to say “these are my flaws. I’m not good, but God is” was life changing for me. These people clearly knew God and had a relationship with Him. Yet they weren’t perfect and weren’t pretending to be. It’s still difficult for me to remember that I can simply accept God’s grace; He wants me to have it. I constantly have to remind myself that I’m not responsible for earning grace on my own. God has a sense of humor. Shortly after leaving UTD, God called me to Thailand. I now live in a country that is 95% Buddhist. I am immersed in a culture that is obsessed with earning merit. I see the Thai people worship idols and give offerings, and it breaks my heart. Then I look at my own life and see that, in my own way, I am trying just as hard to earn merit. God is so strategic. He puts you exactly where you need to be. He knew I needed to be in FOCUS. And now he’s brought me to Thailand to minister to people who share the same heart struggle as me. FOCUS changes students’ lives and then sends them out to minister to others. And because of that, I truly believe FOCUS will reach the world."