New Year, New Events, Same God

I took a mild hike with some of the FOCUS staff team on our retreat 

To kick off the year, our entire DFW FOCUS  staff team spent a few days together at a cabin in south Texas to connect with God and each other. Our time together was restful and really helped me ease into this next semester. One of our ministry partners from Washington, Brady Bobbink, and his wife Shirley came to lead Q&A sessions about all sorts of ministry topics. They lead a campus ministry in Washington that has taught FOCUS and trained many of our leaders over the last 20 years. Our partnership is very special and I’m so thankful for them being willing to come spend a few days with us to help develop our team.

Our staff retreat let me catch up with old friends from Denton (Reagann on the left) and new friends from other campuses (Tana on the right)

Here's an attempt to capture one of our Q&A sessions with Bobby

After our hike, someone in our car led us to a scenic overlook to catch this beautiful sunset before dinner

FOCUS was planted out of a church called Northeast Church in Garland, TX, which has since grown into a family of five churches across the metroplex. The Sunday following our retreat, all of the churches came together for a large service to hear from Brady. It was so cool to see all of the different churches along with students from various campuses come together.

This picture can't capture everyone in the auditorium, but that's Brady up there

Right before the school semester started, we loaded up some buses and headed to Winter Camp with about 140 Collin students. Students from all of our campuses attended so about 600 people were there for the weekend. Winter Camp gives people a chance to get to know students from other campuses and learn about God together. Our theme this year was Psalms to help students relate to God with different emotions. Four girls from our core went and it was really sweet to see them build relationships with one another and others.

This is our large group photo from camp - 600 people in one frame!

We have an alum with excellent film and photography skills who came to capture moments like this one 

This was my view from my cabin on the last morning of camp

Once we came back we hit the ground running with one on ones, core, Thursday Night Fellowship, classes, etc. It was a running start but we’re settling into it now.

My core at winter camp
L to R back: Sophie, Grace, Caricia, me, Kortny
L to R front: Alexis, Angelina

On February 29th we have our annual Spring Showcase! Spring Showcase is a benefit concert and art show to raise money for students FOCUS invites to SICM - the Student Institute of Campus Ministry - in Bellingham, WA. The conference is held by the ministry Brady and Shirley are part of. SICM is a weeklong conference right after school ends to train and equip students to be ministry leaders. I went to SICM after my freshman year and not only learned a TON of valuable lessons, but I made friends, and was able to spend time in the beautiful state of Washington.

If you’d like to buy tickets you can go to anyfocus.org/showcase or contact me!

Prayer Requests

• Pray for our entire upcoming semester, the students we meet who both do and don't join the ministry that we would give them the love of Jesus in our interactions.
• Pray for showcase - all of the behind the scenes work to run smoothly. This is earlier than we typically have it so some adjustments had to be made. Pray for the turnout to be helpful and beneficial for students hoping to travel.
• Pray for our students who are learning what it means to live in the light.
• Pray for me and my fellow apprentices as we adjust to a new work load. We've started a few new classes, including our New Testament class.

As always, thank you for your support and being on my team! Thank you for your patience with this late update. Love you all! Let me know how I can be praying for you.

With love,

Jacy Garcia