May update!

 

Hi friends and family! It's the last month of the apprenticeship! I can't believe how quickly it has come and gone. I can't thank each of you enough for your support throughout this ministry season. It has been the most impactful season of my whole life! For those that don't know, I have committed to one more year with FOCUS. I'm so excited for all that God will do in the students around me and in myself this next year when I will officially transition to being a staff member with the FOCUS ministry!

SICM 2024!

I will spend most of this blog discussing this trip since we just got back from 10 days in Washington State! We call this trip SICM (Student Institute Of Campus Ministry). We took 150 students from each of our DFW college campuses to learn more about what it means to be a deeper disciple of Christ as well as learn leadership skills. Often when our staff decides who they will invite to this trip it is dependent on who we will choose to be on our leader team for small groups the next Fall. This was the biggest group our ministry has ever taken in the nearly 20 years that we have put it on. This just shows you that even after all these years, God is only moving more and more in the lives of college students! We go to Washington because there's a ministry up there called CCF (Campus Christian Fellowship) where we have modeled a lot of our FOCUS ministry after what they do. It was a huge blessing for me personally to go because I was invited back in 2020 when COVID hit so we had the first and only Texas SICM. It was so special to go to the Washington one because of all the stories I have heard for many years about how impactful it has been for students. This is the first time that these students are hearing more in depth what it looks like to be a disciple of Christ and be more invested in the community of believers. It is also where for the first time they realize they can be a leader and not just a follower in their faith. So many students share that this trip was life-changing, and it was so neat to see the impact happening to them first-hand.

End-of-Year Party!

This is Jenna (pictured in the back middle left in the grey tank) and I's small group (some girls are missing). Before the end of the school year, instead of meeting for our regular fellowship night, we always have an end-of-year party. We usually do it at a local park in Denton, however, this year we wanted to do something extra special for our students. We rented a pavilion at a park that was near a lake for them to swim in. It also had a much more open and nature-feel where they were able to do many sports activities with one another as a way of fellowshipping before the students went home for the summer. We had a time of worship, and also something new this year was we made yearbooks with photos full of all the small groups we have so that the students could write notes to one another. It was the sweetest end to an awesome year! 

Peer Team 2024!

In last month's blog, I wrote about our end-of-year party for our leader team, but didn't get this picture until later. Here is our small peer team with our peer team leader Shayla (to the direct right of me) who has been on staff for several years. She is a fierce lover of the students in our ministry and is gifted in challenging people further into their faith in a way they often never had before. She is so special to each of us! She meets with each of these girls in their small group leader pairs every week, and checks in on how we're doing, but most importantly pushes us toward Christ!

GasWorks Park in Seattle!

We spent the first two to three days of the SICM trip getting to do sightseeing in Seattle, Washinton! It is such a beautiful city, I loved every minute of exploring it! It was so neat getting to meet so many different students from the various campuses, and depending on the activities we wanted to do, we got to spend time with several different groups of people which was so fun! This was taken at a park called GasWorks that overlooks the Seattle skyline (with the space needle to the right!) overlooking water with lots of boats and kayakers passing by! We came back after getting dinner near the area to watch the sunset, and it was so beautiful!

Touring UW! (University Of Washington)

This was taken at University Of Washington also in Seattle on one of the sight-seeing days. I encourage you to look up photos of this university because it is one of the most beautiful campuses I've ever seen! They have a library that reminds me of Harry Potter, it's so neat! 

This was one of the 6 campuses that students re-visited later in the week because something they do every year on this trip is split up our students into groups to go do outreach on campuses. Some of these campuses included two colleges in Canada for those who had passports! Lots of the students were pretty nervous about going and evangelizing because it was most of their first time doing so. However, after they returned, we heard lots of stories of students feeling so encouraged, and excited for the school year to start back up to get to do even more evangelizing. Prior to our day of outreach, we had a lecture-style session led by one our pastors over how to effectively do evangelism, and engage people in conversations, so that they felt confident to go about them! I'm so proud of the willingness and boldness these students took! A challenge to this year's outreach that previous years didn't experience was that due to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict going on, there are a lot of protests and encampments set up on the campuses in Washington. Several students I talked with shared that outreach in Washington seemed a bit harder than it is in Texas due to the strong political atmosphere on those campuses. Also, there isn't as much friendliness to engage with strangers as is more common in Texas, likely due to the bible belt region. I just found this really interesting, and I wanted to ask for prayer over Washington and other college campuses around the U.S. that are experiencing a lot of adversity to the different world events. Also, prayers for peace and unity to reign on these campuses. Lastly, that the Washington students would be open-minded and in a place to receive conversations about faith!

Boardwalk in Seattle!

Riding the train to Downtown Seattle!

Mt. Rainier!

This is Cathryn, the other apprentice with me in Denton after we made it to the base camp of the popular mountain in Washington called Mount Rainier. It's about a two-hour drive from Seattle, but can be viewed from almost anywhere around the city! We took a group of students to view the mountain up close, and we got to stop at each of the viewpoints on the way up, waterfalls, and other beautiful sights!

This was taken at one of the viewpoints on our way up a bit higher on the mountain! Absolutely stunning!

Apprentices at FNF in Bellingham, Washington!

After the sight-seeing days in Seattle, we traveled a few hours to Bellingham, Washington for the rest of the week where we would be having the conference which is the main focus of this trip! We're missing four of our other apprentices who were unable to come on this trip, but this group was the ones originally invited in 2020 and went to the only Texas SICM that was put on due to COVID so it was a huge joy to get to experience this trip for the first time together! I love these girls and their hearts to love on and serve our students!

This was taken at the campus of Western Washington University in Bellingham! Their ministry is called CCF (Campus Christian Fellowship) this photo is at their large group meeting (Friday Night Fellowship, or FNF). As I mentioned earlier, this is the same acronym we use back home since a lot of our ministry style is adapted in the same ways that CCF does! It was so neat to experience the different staff and students and see how God is moving in similar ways of ministry, but all the way in the Pacific Northwest! 

Host Family!

A special part of the SICM trip is getting to be paired with various families that will host all of our students for the week! The church that is affiliated with the CCF ministry often has many church family members who will host, or connections to other members from other churches that will also be willing. This was the case for the couple that graciously hosted us, named Barabara and Ed. They have had previous years of experience in hosting, due to their willingness to open their home to international students for our 25 years! This just shows you the hospitality and servant-heartedness of the two of them. I will never forget the memories we made of getting to come to their home after a long day of sessions with heavy ministry content to the warmth, safety of their home, and the comfort and kindness of Barbara and Ed. They provided a breakfast spread each morning, and several dinner meals for us where they would ask sweet intentional questions about what we learned from the day, sharing our testimonies, and how God is working in our lives. We got to learn about their children and grandchildren, church life, and their love story! It was so impactful to hear about their devotion to God and how God has been at work in their lives due to their obedience and love for Christ. Barbara and Ed if you're reading this, please know how special you guys are to each of us! I'll miss our game nights and sweet conversations, but will always think of them fondly!

Students at our host family home!

This is the full group of 9 girls that stayed with Barbara and Ed! Later on in the night for a few of the nights, we would play games, and also have debriefs to talk even further about things maybe we were struggling with, or that God was teaching us at a deeper level. There were 6 of us from our Denton ministry, and 3 of them were from our ministry at SMU. Many of us didn't know each other very well at the beginning, but by the end of the week, it was really hard to say goodbye because we had gotten to bond with one another which was so sweet! Thankfully we don't have to say bye forever because in June, we will get to see each other weekly again because we have summer FOCUS! This is where all of our DFW campuses will come together to meet at a church in Richardson that allows us to meet and fellowship with one another for worship, a sermon, and events afterward to get to know other people and continue forming deeper friendships in Christ!

Monthly student testimony!

This student testimony is timely and special because Lilly was one of the students in the above photo who was in the host home and from UNT with me. She was one of the students I was looking forward to getting to know better because I didn't get to know her as much throughout our time in Denton this past year. She was a joy to be around, and really carried the light of Christ with her! The eagerness to know God deeper was evident in her reflections that she shared with our group! I'm excited for all the Lord will do in her this next year as she grows even more deeply in her relationship with God!

Fundraising update!

Here is where I'm at for ministry support for the Fall! Thank you so much to many of you for getting me to this point already for next year! Please join me in prayer to meet my goal so I can continue to share Jesus with college students! If you know anyone in your life such as church family or friends who may be interested in hearing more, please let me know and I would love to share more with them!

Thank you all again for your continued support towards all that I was able to do this year through your willingness to partner with God to join me in what God is doing powerfully in the lives of college students in Denton, DFW, all the way in Washington, and beyond!

Blessings, and Peace,

Keanna