First Month of Campus Ministry

Oh my WOW!! What a month!

Thank you!!

Thank you all so much for your prayers, they really helped me through these last few weeks. God has been shaping and reshaping and growing and stretching me each day and through so many people. I am so appreciative for your support in praying for God to give me strength, peace, and deep love!

Finally On Campus!

Last week was the first week of classes at Brookhaven, and the first bit of evangelism and outreach that we did at Brookhaven! It has been a bit slow going due to the shift from Brookhaven College to Dallas College: Brookhaven Campus. Brookhaven has been joining the Dallas County Community College District (DCCCD), and is currently in the final stages of changing over all of their policies and structures. This has made becoming a registered organization at Brookhaven a bit confusing, both for us and for the college staff! However, God is in control and went before us to make sure that there was an amazing Christian leader involved in the Office of Student Life (OSL), named Okneca(Oh-nee-kah), at Brookhaven who has helped us so much in getting involved even though we aren't officially a registered organization yet (there has been a lot of confusion and a lot of discontinuity between staff members).

So with the help of Okneca, Sirak, Sandra, and I set up a table in the entry of the main building of campus and began to meet students! It was such a blast to finally get to start meeting students and introducing them to this wonderful thing called FOCUS. In the first week we got quite a few student contacts and I have been keeping up with a lot of them since!

FOCUS Meetings!

During Welcome Week we had a few events planned to engage with students. Our first event was on a Tuesday night, and it was deemed Field Night! Joey and I worked together to get this event planned, and everyone helped set up in a field at Richland College for soccer and volleyball. We had lots of fun and formed stronger friendships with each other and the students.

Our second event was at Braum's where we brought board games and FOCUS paid for any student who came to have a free ice cream cone! This was another wonderful time of fellowship where new friendships were built and relationships were deepened.

Also last week, we had our first large group Thursday meeting (called Thursday Night Thunder aka TNT)! It was such a great blessing and encouragement to see so many students there eager to meet each other, sing praise to our Lord, and learn about Jesus!!

After worship, we did an activity called Speed Friending where we sat face to face with one person and had 3 minutes to learn and share their name and our name, their major and our major, and to each answer a question specific to the chair we were sitting in. Then after 3 min each person would move one chair to their right and start the process over with their new person and their new question.

Then after getting to know each other a little, Sirak gave a five minute banger of a sermon introducing our theme for this year: "Living life to the fullest (John 10:10)". In his sermon, Sirak mentioned how we can easily look at where we are in life (specifically for these students at a community college and not a university or work), and be discontent, as if the grass is always greener on the other side of what we're currently doing. He brought up that when Jesus says, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full", He's not saying "you will have life to the full in heaven" but the language He uses implies that we can experience life to the full right here right now.

I had the amazing privilege of playing the djembe (jem-bay) at worship during TNT! I am learning this new instrument and having such a great time with it!
Here's what the djembe looks like --------------------------->
                         
Playing this instrument is so fun! I've wanted to learn to play drums ever since I was little, so now my dream has come true in an even more meaningful sense as I get to play for the Lord and His children

After TNT, a majority of the students and leaders went to Cane's to hang out and eat together. It was here that I really got to spend a lot of time getting to know other students well and got to engage in deeper conversation. I am grateful to be able to meet and befriend these students! It's such a blessing to hear from them and get to know them and just goof around with them.

After all of that fun, this past Sunday, we invited all of the students we met to come to church with us and the church paid for pizza to give them free lunch and a place to meet the church body! This was such an amazing opportunity for the students to see the bigger picture of God's plan for church. What we have in FOCUS is such a significant and unique thing, but to get to also bring these students into the adult church body and interact with a church outside of FOCUS really helps complete the circle of what FOCUS is really here for: to make and mature disciples for the glory of God!

Prayer Requests

  • For students at Brookhaven to be willing to engage in the events that we've planned and be caught by the love of God in us.
  • For Brookhaven to finalize their policies from this shift to Dallas College so that the logistics of being an "official club" don't stand in the way of doing fun things on campus.
  • That the Spirit would continue to fill me with motivation, courage, boldness, and deep love for the students at Brookhaven. Without Him, I can do nothing.

Comments

  1. Glad to hear you had a week packed with fun events for the students! This Is such a worthwhile cause, I'm praying for you brother. I love you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good to see you fulfilling Gods purpose for your life there at Brookhaven. Praying for you daily. The djembe looks like a really fun instrument to play.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you!! It is fun, but also much more complicated than it looks!

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