If I had to summarize the “vibe” of our ministry right now, it would be one of excitement and expectancy.
Let me paint the picture.
Hundreds of college students pour into Care Church in Richardson on a Thursday night, June 4th, as FOCUS is having its first summer meeting since each of the campuses ended their school years. Smiles and laughter break out across the room as students yell and rush towards their friends they haven’t seen in a month. Worship begins, and is lively, with dancing breaking out across the front section of the room. The FOCUS staff smiles and surveys the room. The students cheer loudly as one of their campus pastors comes up to preach. Journals get whipped out to take notes, and a passionate message about maturity is given. “Imagine God as your father, leaning over you every night, and his greatest desire for you is that you would become more like Jesus, his son,” the sermon rings out. The FOCUS staff thread is blowing up, as we all get a sense that this sermon is inspirational. A fundraiser for one of the incoming staff is held after the service ends, and the fundraiser runs out of food halfway because so many students want to support. Conversations linger in the church for hours to come.
I think all of us, from the students to the staff, are excited and expectant for all God is doing currently.
I was praying in the car morning as I went to get a haircut, reflecting about the coming year planting FOCUS at Dallas College. One of my largest difficulties this past year in ministry was flexibility and battling discouragement when expectations were not met. Since community colleges are notoriously difficult places to build Christian community for various reasons, I have been trying to gear up for the year by becoming comfortable with this reality. As I am the one leading the team, I want to be stable and not be swayed by ministry not looking the way I want or being successful by worldly metrics.
But, I think this has made me somewhat pessimistic. I realized as I prayed that we have a big God. I know he is the one doing the work and he wants to transform people’s lives, so why wouldn’t he want to do it at Dallas College? Why couldn’t God surprise us with many students who want to know him and be a part of the family of God? Why couldn’t it go really well? So I began to pray with this perspective shift in mind. God is eager to help and do all these things. He isn’t reluctant about building his kingdom. He really wants to! This makes me love God more as I see who he is.
It made me more excited and expectant for what God is going to do.
I encourage you to look at situations or areas in your own life where this is true too.
Where are you excited and expectant about what God is doing currently? Where are you possibly pessimistic about the future and need some excitement and expectancy? Where are you forgetting how much God cares about you and what you are going through, and that he does want to do something?
What happened this month?
Part of the fresh excitement is due to SICM. From May 13th-May 23rd, we took our students to an annual leadership conference called the Student Institute of Campus Ministry (SICM) up in Bellingham, Washington, very close to the Canadian border. This conference is about many things, from learning how Jesus did ministry to worshipping God to practicing evangelism to making new, deep friendships. It is such a life-changing trip. We take a new group of students each May to give them a fresh vision of Jesus and what he wants to do on campus. I went as a student back in 2017 (gasp), and I had an amazing time, but now on the staff side I got to see SICM differently.
SICM just lights people up for God.
When our students got back, I got to hear all about their experiences, and they all had a fresh new passion for God and what he wanted to do on their campus this coming year. They felt empowered to be a leader and gained tools to minister to others.
It filled me with awe and worship for God by seeing His Spirit work that way. I felt so lucky to be a part of this. I am biased of course, but we have the best students! The fact that 170 students love God and love each other is so humbling. We all have such a small part in this, and it is clear that the Spirit is the one accomplishing all of this beauty.
I got to go for just three days this year, which itself was a gift, as I went for the full ten days last year and will of course be transitioning to Dallas College. I had an amazing time those three days, as I got to know the potential leaders for next year. And I got to see some of that excitement and joy in the students building already in the time I was there.
Half of the Denton guys going to SICM
Going on a gorgeous hike at SICM
The view at the top
The crew at the top
We got to go to a Mariners game too
Silly dinner shenanigans. Who said college ministry wasn’t fun?
Guys are they were arriving into the hotel lobby where we stayed!
End of Year and Graduations
Another part of the month was continued end of year parties and graduations for some of our students!
Our Denton staff. The theme of our FOCUS staff end of year party was the renaissance fair. See how ridiculous and bad our felt hats are.
Uche and I at the end of year student leader party
Azael (my roommate and soon to be co-worker!) and I at his graduation
Alex (my Denton buddy coming to plant at Dallas college with me) and I at his graduation!
Alex and I hugging after an emotional time of getting “sent out” from Denton
UNT’s graduations are so big!
Support-Raising
The last major piece of May was support-raising. As many of you know, I have been reaching out to see what you are thinking regarding staying on to support my ministry for the future and hoping to catch up on life! It has been great to see many of y’all again after a hectic year, and fill you in on more exciting stories and moments. I hope it had been encouraging for you, and it has been very encouraging for me too! For those who I have not been able to connect with, I would love to soon.
I made a little info graphic card (see below), outlining some basic info about next year and what I still need to raise.
If anyone is reading this and perhaps feels led to give, then just let me know and I would love to talk with you.
Meeting with a supporter of mine, Darreyl! He used to be in small group with me in college :)
Other Photos
Mother’s Day-My parents are my biggest fans which reminds me of God
Soccer Saturdays continues to go strong
What has God been doing in the lives of guys this month?
Brady is a guy who is going to take my place in our house in Denton, and I couldn’t be more excited for him. He got baptized in April at our baptism service, and he has been on fire. He went to SICM, and has come back with a passion to lead and serve. He has given up a lot this past year in terms of lifestyle changes as he has gotten to know Jesus, and I have seen him change a lot. The Spirit has simply changed the desires of his heart. He even did the dishes at our house one night because he wanted to!
I continue to meet with Nicholas each week for our Focus on Jesus study, and the Spirit had continued the momentum in his mind. Last week we spent our time talking about money, ambition, power, and how Jesus approached all of those. Every week he comes with more thoughts and questions, which is certainly a work of the Spirit to create good soil in him. It is so refreshing and encouraging for me.
The music school at UNT is a big deal, and we have been getting a lot of students in the music program in our ministry the past couple years. We had a whole pocket of music guys and girls go to SICM last month, and they are so great. They came back really excited to influence the music school for Jesus, which will be powerful since that really is an influential department in the school.
And here is another testimony from the ministry at large!
Prayer Requests
Please pray for all the specific people mentioned above.
In addition if you could please pray for:
Summer Focus! We have 7 more for the summer, and I am so excited for our sermon series about maturity. The summer can be such a hard time for our students, from using the time wisely to keep growing with Jesus to being isolated; so please pray for that too!
That God would continue to motivate people to be generous with our ministry as all of our pastors are support-raising. And that we could be encouragers to others as we share all God is doing.
Planning and groundwork for Dallas college. That God would made people’s hearts ready and hungry for him when we hit campus hard in August, and we would be expectant and stay consistently encouraged. We have our first team day on Monday.
30 Year Anniversary Celebration
We can’t wait to celebrate with everyone in October for Focus’ 30 year Celebration. Our big celebration will take place at CityBridge Community Church in Plano. All of you are invited! And please help us spread the word by inviting any of your friends who are alumni of Focus or with anyone who might like to join.
Also, if you’re an alum, please take a moment to complete our contact update form to ensure you don’t miss any updates.
Thank You
I have been so blessed recently by getting to talk with so many of you recently, and I am so grateful for each one of you. I am happy I get to share all that God is doing through you in the lives of college students.
Signal Group
If you would like to get more realtime updates like videos, photos from our events as well as more frequent prayer requests, then please feel free to join my Signal group. 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