I hope your Thanksgiving break was restful! I can't believe the semester is almost done. Our students are about to begin their finals, and the tension on campus is palpable. Please be in prayer for all our students!
Anywho there are a few things I'd like to share with you about November.
1. Pizza Theology: if you don't know what this is, we have one of these each semester. We take a topic that needs more time to think through, then we devote 4 hours on a Sunday to listen to a lecture, hear testimonies, and delve deeper into scripture. We have a pizza break in the middle for about an hour which is much needed after two hours of lecture. This year we had a professor of Greek and New Testament from Criswell College come to speak over the Sermon on the Mount. It was so enlightening, and I'm still really thinking through a lot of what he brought up. I think God laid on my heart through this Pizza Theology that I can do more and still have a long walk ahead of me. I still need to constantly be giving up my desires, my time, my money, my whole self to God. The life He calls us to is just incredibly difficult and complacency can be the biggest trap of the American Christian. This isn't exactly what Bill Watson talked about, but none the less, that is what I felt like God wanted me to hear.If you'd like to listen, click here.
2. Keep Focus Growing (KFG): This is an annual fundraiser we have. We use this money to do a multitude of things. In past years this money helped us plant ministries at UTA and SMU and hire a full-time administrative person. This year some of our goals for this is to have more money for outreach for the 11 campuses our ministry is on, have a larger benevolence and counseling fund for our students, better worship equipment, etc. Our KFG goal this year is $50,000, and our current total is $33879.18 which is just incredible! If you've donated, I want to thank you! I am just blown away by how quickly we've gotten to our goal. We still have a ways to go, though, so please keep praying for this. If you haven't given, I would really encourage you to pray about whether you'd like to and how much God is calling you to give.If you'd like to see more of our wishlist items, you can click here.
If you'd like to donate, you can click here.
Thanks so much for reading and supporting our ministry. I seriously don't think I'll ever be able to express fully how grateful I am! To wrap this months blog up, I'd like to share our student testimony. I hope it encourages you!
Student Testimony
"I always dreamed of being a missionary. My plan was to go to college to please my parents, graduate as quickly as possible, and then leave the country. As I got more involved in FOCUS, I began to see how purposefully the people around me shared their lives and faith. The Lord began to show me that ‘missions’ is not what happens in other countries but in our everyday lives. Through the example of dear friends, I learned how to love like Jesus even when it is not fun or easy. After graduation, the Lord opened doors for me to move to Bolivia as a missionary. Looking back on my time in college, I believe that the Lord prepared me through the friendships, community, and study in FOCUS far more than through my degree program. I am so thankful that the Lord, in His mercy, did not let me rush through college to please my parents, but used the ministry of FOCUS to lay a foundation for years to come."
Danyelle Graves de Morón
University of North Texas, Social Work, Graduated 2013
