Fruit That Will Last

Happy spring to you all!! This semester was a blur...but the good kind. It went by so fast, but it was productive, sweet, and fruitful. I apologize for not getting these updates out too frequently this semester. I really did get caught up in the swing of things. But I've got quite a few pictures and fun things to share from the semester. The picture above is all of our women ministers at Collin and our 6 girl student leaders. Every Monday night we would all meet together for dinner and talk about life, ministry, and Jesus.

We kicked off the semester with our annual Winter Camp. This one was extra special though - it was our first in two years because of COVID. Every campus in the DFW with FOCUS invites students to this weekend of building relationships with God and community. The turnout was awesome - around 400 people total - and we got to see so many friendships form and deepen. Above is a picture of all of our Collin students who attended which is incredible considering only about 20 of the people in the picture were around at the start of the school year!

Once a semester we have Pizza Theology to encourage our students to think deeply and more intellectually about topics. This semester, we talked about the theology of the body. Many of our students struggle to see value and anything good about their bodies, but God created our bodies as part of his incredible design. I was encouraged to see so many students to show up to discuss such a vulnerable topic!

This is our Collin staff team from this year. From left to right we have Pedro, Garrett, Renee, Austin, Orion, Adriana, Alex, David, me, other Austin. Five of them were apprentices this last year and the other five of us have been here for a couple years now. One of the highlights of my week is meeting with this group every Wednesday bright and early to plan for our students together. Our director has worked to cultivate a family style on our team though. We don't just meet to work - we meet to share how we are really doing, to laugh together, cry together, and experience the highs and lows of ministry together. I love this team!

There are stories upon stories I could share from this year. With things being pretty close to back to normal post COVID, ministry was certainly happening at Collin college. We have a saying around here: "if they can't break your heart, you're doing something wrong." And I think everyone on our team had their fair share of people coming and going this year and the heartbreak that comes along with that. But those are growing pains and we've got solid students that have chosen to stick around and who are leading their friends so well. Above is all of our student leaders with our staff team who dedicated a few hours every week to faithfully serving other students. Most of them work several hours a week and are full time students!

To finish our year with our student leaders, we had a staff versus students kickball game which was so much fun! Having such a small leader team gave us space to build close relationships with most of our students. We wanted to close out the year by simply playing with them and laughing with them. I was assigned that position for a reason and stood out there taking pictures for most of the night.

As a peer team leader, I not only got to see our girl leaders every Monday night, but I got to meet with 5 of them every week one on one. This is my second year getting to do that and it is absolutely one of my favorite parts of my job. We're 2 for 2 with this being a favorite for me! These girls have become very dear friends to me and I have loved walking alongside them as they've grown individually this year. 

Here are some fun pictures of a few of them at a picnic park hangout we had when the weather was finally perfect.

 

There are never proper words to express how grateful I am to each and every one of you. Your loyalty to your partnership with me blows me away and has made it possible for me to do this job full time for 3 years now!

Prayer Requests

• I'm currently entering my fundraising season as we head into the summer. If you could please be praying for me along with our entire team as we do this, we would greatly appreciate it. I am $1000/month away from my monthly goal.
• About half of our team is heading to Washington with 100 students from all of our campuses to a student ministry leadership conference TODAY through next Saturday. Please be praying for everyone traveling and for their entire experience.

With love,

Jacy Garcia