August in Pictures

 

The semester is officially in full swing! This is our entire Collin staff team with our 22 students that have committed to leading their peers this upcoming year!

On the Saturday before school began, all of our student leaders came together for team building, vision casting, and small group training. I am blown away by how servant-hearted each one of our leaders is and their willingness to give up not only a Saturday but time out of every week despite their busy schedules.

This was the first day of school on campus! Every year since lockdown, the campus has gradually become more and more lively. It was exciting to see so many students actually want to hang out on campus and make friends. Several of our students spent all of their free time during the first week welcoming new students and inviting them to FOCUS. The weather was hotter than it has been all summer so we worked really hard to stay hydrated and inside as much as possible.

On the last night of the week, we hosted a volleyball and game night. Despite the heat, we were blown away by the turnout! It's evident people are looking for friends and things to do. So far, FOCUS is only one of two registered student organizations on the Collin campuses this year, so I'm glad we are present and able to offer real, authentic relationships to people.

We haven't been able to meet on campus for a year, but this year we are back! We packed out the room for our first Thursday Night Fellowship of the semester and ran out of chairs. Our goal is never about numbers - in fact 30 minutes before the start time, we said, "there's no way we'll need more chairs than what we've set out" but were we wrong about that! As I mentioned before, it's clear to me people are longing for a place to belong and have community with others and because of our students' hard, faithful work last week, they are clearly making that happen for lots of new students.

We had time for discussion groups at the end of the night! I loved seeing new friendships begin to bud.

Before school began, all of our FOCUS pastors from across the metroplex went on our annual retreat to rest, plan for the year, and connect with God and each other. We had such a sweet time together and I'm thankful for our directors valuing rest and team building as much as they do.

We took on 10 pastoral apprentices this year - 9 women and 1 man! Five of these women are on our Collin staff team and it has been a blast and certainly a blessing to have them on our team. They are quick to take initiative, their love for campus ministry is apparent and genuine, and they have just made our team adjustment to so many new people seamless. I'm very thankful for them and excited to see how God grows them this year.

Prayer Requests:

• Students seem to be busier than ever. I think they were tired of spending so much of their high school lives at home in quarantine, so now they pack their schedules and always feel the need to be doing something. Pray that they would really use this season of their lives to pursue and build friendships. Life will only get busier for them from here!
• Pray for Alex and I in our final stretch of pregnancy. It is ridiculously hot outside so I'm pretty limited in how active I can be. All of the upcoming change has been hitting us recently - some days we feel content with the unknowns of stepping into parenthood and some days we feel overwhelmed by it all. But it's certainly been a season of many blessings and we are incredibly thankful for how smooth this entire pregnancy has been.

I look forward to keeping you up to date this school year! I am very grateful to each one of you.

Blessings,

Jacy