May 2024: The End of Another Full Year

MAY

Hey Folks! Just like that we have come up on the end of another school year! It amazes me how quickly these weeks fly by. But you know they weren’t lying when they said “time flies when you’re having fun” 😊

Highlights from the month of May include FOCUS inaugurating our ministry at TCU, the last Friday Night Fellowship of the year (my personal favorite one), and SICM! 

Pioneering at TCU: 

As you may or may not know, it is our mission in FOCUS to plant vibrant, intellectual, Jesus-loving communities on every college campus in the DFW, so we, as a ministry are over the moon about finally completing all of the requirements needed in order for FOCUS to start at TCU! Our pastors Lindsey Royal and Rhett Hayes have taken up the charge to complete respective seminary degrees (in addition to their daily campus minister workload), maintain a consistent presence on TCU’s campus over the past several years, as well as follow the protocols required by the university in order to become a registered campus org and as of (approximately) May 1 they became an official campus org at TCU! Which is Lindsey’s Alma mater 😆. We are so excited and expectant of all that God will grow and change down in good ol Fort Worth! Enjoy some photos of the night they made the announcement 

Last FNF:

Every year at our very last Friday Night Fellowship we use the entire service to give an opportunity for open sharing about how our students have seen God working in themselves and in each other this year in our community. We do open sharing because we know that Gods activity is not limited to just our pastoral staff or the main pillars/events of our ministry (core, FOJ, FNF, camps,etc) but that the kingdom breaks in in the small, unseen day to day things that happen between the students in our ministries. Anything from someone consistently sending a “hey you coming to core tonight?” text message to a pretty inconsistent core member, all the way to someone inviting a fellow student over for the holidays: the last FNF is where we get to hear about those things. 

Here’s a snippet of one our beloved students named Kenny!

SICM

SICM stands for the Student Institute of Campus Ministry and it is a leadership conference that we take our students to each year to cast vision for what it can look like to be leaders for Jesus on our campuses. This year we took our largest group of students to SICM numbering at 150! And what’s even better news is that we took THE MOST BLACK STUDENTS TO SICM EVER IN HISTORY!!!!! 🤯🤯🤯 AND WHATS EVEN MORE SWEET IS THAT 5 OF THOSE GIRLS ARE FROM MY CORE!!!!! 😩😩 (well one of them is an Indian girl named Renae, but we agreed on our core that she is an honorary black person because she is one of the only 2 non black people in our core lol). 

We prayed for revival over the summer and it has been and is happening on our campuses! The kingdom of God is breaking into so many hearts and minds and SICM is a prime time where we can concentratedly see that happening! While I didn’t get to stay at SICM the entire time, I got to hear so many stories of people who made big decisions to make leading small groups on campus their goal and mission for the next school year. Small choice big implications! These are the students that partner with us as we partner with God to bring the kingdom to our campuses and without them a large portion of our ministry’s function is nonexistent. So we are so thankful for the students that say yes to being leaders. 

Like I said I didn’t get to stay for the whole week but here are some pictures of the fun stuff we got to do before the seminars began! 

Snoqualmie Falls which was EVEN more beautiful in person. 

Mt. Rainer with my carpool group! We had a 2 hour drive to the mountain, so you already know we each shared our testimonies 😊. Bonds were made and tears were shed 😌. 

WHAT ARE THE ODDS THAT I THOUGHT ID BE ABLE TO SEE THE NORTHERN LIGHTS ANYWHERE ELSE OTHER THAN NORWAY?! THIS WAS FOR SURE A HIGHLIGHT! It was breathtaking! 

One of our students praying over a stranger at breakfast at the hotel 🥹.

Here are my seeet core girls! From left to right we have Jasmine, Morolake (aka Ro), Inny, and Temi. 

Quick story about Temi: She is a baby genius because she came to college at 16 and just turned 17 back in October; she is usually quiet and not the most talkative…until she is! lol. And any time that i brought up the idea of her leading core next year, she would immediately shut me out and run as far away from that idea as she could. But on Monday, the very first day of the seminars at SICM, she sent me a text around 1 PM saying that she wants to lead Core next year and that she was just texting me that so that if she tried to bail once the school year started that she would not be able to! 

That's the kind of energy that happens at SICM!! Stories like hers happen in the dozens in Washington! 

There’s Renae, who is the Indian girl in my core that we decided is “honorary black” lol. We love Renae. 

Group shenanigans 😊

As you can see the school year has wrapped up beautifully once again, and God has shown himself fully capable and fully interested in bringing the kingdom to our campuses this year. When I get chances to look back and reflect each month on what God has been up to, I can’t help but remember all of the mini people who give to this mission. None of these experience would I have been able to have were it not for your support. Thank you a million times for your generosity and belief in college students! God is good!