As I continue to settle into this new school year and my new role as the team lead for our ministry, I continue to feel stretched, out of my league, and overwhelmed many days. Everything I do is practically new, and I am constantly being humbled to remember to ask God for help. It is so simple, yet very hard to get to that place in the heart.
Mark 1:40-42
A man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed. “If you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean,” he said.
Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!”
This encounter has stuck out to me because of how Jesus’ heart is overflowing with compassion and a desire to help. Some translation say “indignation” instead of compassion, which I think communicates Jesus’ anger at the sad state of the world which had led this man to the place in life he had gotten to.
Jesus can’t wait to help, and he is moved to help when we pray. I have taken great comfort in that fact about God as I reach my limits some days and all I can do is muster up a prayer for help. Prayer is more about letting God change us than it is about us changing God. Even as I write this I am stirred to pray this once again. I hope this simple reminder stirs you to pray too!
This was our first core at Eastfield
And this is what is was last week! We desperately need to find a room now. :) New people show up each week. It is so cool to see how people are so excited that they just invite their friends to come too. God is doing this right in front of our eyes!
Our first core at Mountain View
This is what it was last week! This one also keeps growing as new people are finding out about it and wanting to come. I am realizing that friends inviting friends is the best evangelism.
We had a group of students over to watch a movie at our house. It is so cool to be able to start using our house to show hospitality to our students. This is only going to increase!
This is snapshot of WNF. We do worship, hear a sermon, and then break into groups to discuss. It has been super cool, and a definite highlight of the week! We have been spending weeks in a series about the Gospel to help our students understand the story of Scripture and what God has saved us from. There is so much depth to the Biblical story that we are trying to help them get!
The next few photos are from our special WNF (Wednesday Night Fellowship) which we had. One of our other women on staff heard about our sermons series on the Gospel and offered to cook us a giant homecooked meal for all our students to show them God’s love as we have been telling them about it! We broke out into tables, and discussed how the Gospel could change our lives if we believed it.
Pt. 2
Pt. 3
Pt. 4
We have started maintaining a consistent presence on campus, which allows us to be with our current students and meet new ones organically as we spend time in the common areas.
We got to take a group of Mountain View Students to our ministry in UT Arlington one week to show them what a larger, more established ministry looks like. They had a blast and got to meet a lot of other college students.
This is Bryson. He is an amazing guy at Mountain View who is on fire for God, evangelistic, and just so full of life. I love to be around him!
Lastly, we got to celebrate one of our students, Jesus’, birthday this past week. Jesus is a sweetheart and he is so kind. I am glad we got to show up to love on him.
Testimonies!!
A story from literally today! I got to talk with Yoni (one of our student Nahom’s older brother who was a part of Dallas college focus years ago) and he was telling me how much he has already seen his younger brother changing as a person in the last month. Yoni has been so encouraged, and he is so excited to see how Nahom is going to change over this year. I’m so thankful for the Holy Spirit changing Nahom’s heart already.
I was talking with two of our guys this past week, CJ and Locorrion, and they both were talking about how they weren’t sure why they ended up coming to our events the first week. They both had some interest in learning about God, but weren’t exactly looking for him. Now they are both so consistent to both 1-on-1 Bible studies and core. I got to talk to them about how the Holy Spirit guides us and guided them to us on that first week!
Jhustin is one guy I get to study the Bible 1-on-1 with. We had a powerful moment yesterday while reading the Scripture where the Spirit led us to pause and ask God for healing in big ways in our lives. I see Jhustin learning each day, and he is constantly confessing how God helps him get through every week as he has been facing a lot.
Lailah (one of the women on our team) and I met with the president of Mountain View this month. Imagine the best it could've gone and double it. He wants to do anything to help us, such as scholarshipping students to retreats. We left with goodie bags with free cups and coasters. He told us about a dream he had where Jesus’ blood dripped on him and he realized Jesus’ sacrifice for him; he never doubted his faith since then. I'm in awe of God!
Dallas College’s very own Moses!!!
Prayer Requests
My largest prayer is for wisdom as we continue to shepherd our ministry. God has provided the people, which is mind-blowing, and so now I am praying that we shepherd them well with that they need. Every week is a new week with its own situations and twists. We really do have to pulse check each week to pivot and change what we do based on what God is showing us that our students need.
Other requests
Students would continue to be excited to bring their friends to things we do!
For energy and peace for our team.
Our RSO status would be approved ASAP! I heard that the campuses are approving clubs every day now.
Thank You
You guys are amazing! Thank you for allowing God to change lives at these campuses. None of this at Eastfield and Mountain View would be possible without you!! I hope you are getting to thank God as I am, and know that we are all one big team.
30 Year Anniversary Celebration
I’d love to invite you to join us for our 30 Year Celebration! We have an entire weekend of celebration planned, and we want you to be a part of it. Whether you were a student in our ministry, you're a longtime supporter, or you joined us somewhere along the way, you are part of our story.
With the 30 year celebration we are selling some limited edition merch. Every item sold goes a little bit towards supporting our mission on campus.
ou can RSVP or order 30 Year Merch here: https://anyfocus.org/30year/
Also, if you’re an alum, please take a moment to complete our contact update form to ensure you don’t miss any updates.
Signal Group
I have been leaning into my Signal group more as it is easier to give smaller updates more frequently than one large blog each month, so I would love if people joined! You will get more realtime updates like videos, photos from our events as well as more frequent prayer requests. Here are some instructions on how to do this!
Download the Signal app on your computer (Windows link: https://signal.org/download/windows/ and Mac link:https://signal.org/download/) or phone(find on App Store), and then join my group using this link: https://signal.group/#CjQKIIujklEZvNmG_EOmTctAzpNzojYf52Hv05-Cgv2Gd7VmEhCyxnKnaP0J84IBhccEcGXO
With love,
Casey