It has been a whirl wind of activity since getting back from Christmas vacation. We've had so many exciting things happen in January like our Staff Retreat, Winter Camp, Corefa Class, and obviously our schools starting up again. I feel as if I've just now got back into the groove of things and fine tuned my schedule for this semester. I wish I could talk about all these exciting things, but for your sakes, I'll just pick a couple. That way you aren't reading a 20 page essay!
To start off I want to talk about our Keep FOCUS Growing Initiative. Our goal was to reach $45,000. There are lots of small and big things I never even realized an organization needs in order for it to keep running, and without this money, 2016 would have been a little rough to get through. Luckily enough, we reached our goal!!!!!! Thank you so much for helping us to reach our goal. We are so incredibly blessed to have so many people who believe and support in the work that we do. In order to say thank you to our students, we did this thing called a Polar Plunge. If you don't know what that is (like me), then basically it's where you jump into a freezing pool in the middle of winter. Here's some footage of the event:
Needless to say, our students loved it!
Winter Camp:
I'm just not even sure if I could begin to share about how cool or impactful our Winter Camp was. First off we had so many TWU students go this year. Really we had a lot of students go this year. I think our numbers of people who attended were close to 600! We even had a school from Wichita Falls join us this year. They had heard about us because of one of our alumna's brothers.
Our guest speaker this year was Rikk Watts. He is a seminary professor at Regent College in Vancouver, Canada. He did a really great series over Who Jesus really was. Not only was what he had to say extremely impactful and challenging, but his energy and excitement to talk about Jesus was infectious. He would tell a lot of stories while he was preaching, and it was so impactful to hear some biblical parables or stories told in a way that we would understand. At one point that weekend, he said that "our God isn't a God of good and evil, but a God of life." I just found that statement so impactful. I think I can often think of God only caring about making me good or getting rid of my sin. When I mess up, then I can see myself as worthless or not good enough. But God doesn't just want to make us perfect, and he has already made us good (Genesis 1). Instead he is teaching us what it means to truly live and live to fullest. We don't need to feel bad when we stumble around as we're learning and maturing. We wouldn't get mad if our children didn't act like adults! If you weren't able to go to Winter Camp, I would highly suggest you listening to the audios. You can find them on our website www.anyfocus.org/media and search Winter Camp 2016.
First TWU for the semester after event
I just can't really describe to you how much God is working on this campus or in these people. These people came into our ministry for lots of different reasons, but there hearts were open to the spirit. They wanted to know God deeper and more intimately, and I get to watch as He begins to transform their minds and their lives. Right now in our ministry, we're talking through the Sermon on the Mount and asking ourselves how God is wanting us to change how we treat people. It has been cool to see those girls (and guys) not only dwelling on God's word and asking him how he wants them to change, but also for them to then try to change! I wish I could go through and tell you each of their stories, but I definitely don't have time to in every blog. In my next one, I will share one story pretty explicitly, so be on the look out for that!
Thanks for all your love and support:)
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