November blog!

Hi friends and family! Happy Thanksgiving week! I feel so very thankful for the support of each and everyone of you! 

                                                                          Sabbath hang!

Our apprentice team from last year still gets together monthly to reconnect with one another! This is one of my favorite times because it is so restful to be with this sweet group of friends. A few are missing, and three of them are no longer on our staff team, so it's really great getting to hear what God is doing in their lives since we don't see each other for our weekly classes like we did last year. It's sweet having people in your same stage of life thinking through similar things, and able to lean on one another as we navigate new seasons!

Birthday party after event!

Every week after our weekly large group gatherings we have after events which are an opportunity for our students to fellowship outside of the ministry settings! This after event was to celebrate the birthdays of two of our staff members, Becca and Cathryn, and a student named Eddie who all had birthdays around the same time. It was so sweet to have one of the students host us in one of the ministry homes, and make it so special to celebrate them. The student who hosted even created a game of "who knows this person best?" which was so thoughtful!

Breakfast with Kayla!

Kayla is one of our student leaders this year. Recently, she shared with me how she used to really struggle with being open and vulnerable with people, but that God has begun to really change her heart to allow others into her life more. This is one of my favorite parts of ministry is getting to hear and experience for myself how students are being transformed as they get to know Jesus in deeper ways. It has been so cool to see her grow out of her comfort zone, and move from a more shy and reserved person who I sort of knew last year to someone willing to ask bold, and intentional questions this year. She's so open and willing to share more vulnerable parts of her life with me and others which I cherish so much. During brunch, Kayla asked me personal questions about my life that made me feel so seen and loved! Kayla was adamant about buying the food, and making it for us. I think its times like this where I am so thankful to work in ministry, where a lot of the times the students pour into me just as much as the other way around.

Madai & Gordon got engaged!

Madai was in my core small group several years ago, and we've continued being good friends since. Gordon is apart of UTD focus, but has come to many Denton focus events over the years that they've dated, and I just wanted to highlight what stood out to me at their engagement party. There were probably thirty students from both ministries who showed up, and they opened a time of sharing about how we've been impacted by their relationship, and how we've seen God moving in the both of them. It was so neat to hear from so many students who had been so moved by how Madai and Gordon have been so intentional in having their relationship reflect God. Madai's roommates shared how great the both of them were in including their roommates into the hangouts that Madai and Gordon had. I think this is a huge deal because outside of community its really common for people to prioritize their relationship over friendships, and just stick to each other. However, something that we try to encourage in focus and hopefully in most other communities of believers is to be others-focused, and really seeking out ways to love on others with your relationship and not having those be separate things. 

Combined core friendsgiving!

This is one of my favorite events that we do every year because it allows the people in our own small group to start getting to know other people from other cores. At the beginning of the year, we prioritize connecting with mostly the people in our own small group and getting to know them deeper, so this event allows them to really know others usually from a core of the opposite gender (you can see our full group in the middle pic). We encouraged them to sit with someone new, and we played several group games as an opportunity for them to bond with one another. I love getting to hear how God is moving in other small groups because I don't get to ask about that in other settings typically. I also love that this event gives our students a chance to practice serving one another through taking the time to make or buy a dish to share. This year, Kaitlin (the one in the brown top, taking the pic in the first photo) hosted all nearly 40 of us in her families home nearby Denton. She not only hosted, but also set up the photo backdrop, set up tables that were decorated so nicely, made a whole ham, side dish, and bought smores for her fire pit where a lot of people talked around late into the night! This kind of serving was so meaningful and such a testament to her kind heart. I'm blown away by our students willingness to serve and love on one another. 

Murphie & Jeremy's engagement party!

Murphie (in the middle) is the one I lead small group with this year, and got engaged a few weeks ago, and her roommate Madi, and Kaitlin from our small group who I mentioned earlier hosted an engagement party for the two of them, and it was super sweet! Sadly a lot of our small group girls couldn't go since many of them had already left for break, but Kenady on the left, is in our small group and could come! I do FOJ (one on one bible study) with Kenady, and it has been a highlight of my semester! She is so eager to know God more deeply, and is one of the only people I've ever done the study with who gets super excited when learning new things from scripture. Every week meeting with her is a joy and encourages me to grow a heart that is always excited to learn new things from scripture, and not get caught up in the mundane of things. 

Keep FOCUS Growing (KFG) Fundraiser!

At the end of November each year, we have our annual fundraiser for Keep Focus Growing in order to fund the things God is doing in our Focus ministry, and this is the biggest way that we can keep our ministry running! Each year, we encourage our own students to raise funds, and our staff team has already pledged to give matching funds up to $10,000! It would be a huge blessing if you would please consider giving a personal gift, or letting family members that you'll be seeing for thanksgiving know of this amazing opportunity. If you are interested or want to send this to family or friends here is the website: anyfocus.org/KFG.  Here is our facebook link if you want to hear more student sharings and have even more information: https://www.facebook.com/anyfocusministries

Because we tend to share stories of how we see God moving when talking about the KFG fundraiser, I wanted to share one of my own favorite ministry stories this year: 

Last year, a girl named Treasure that went to NCTC (the community college in denton) got connected to my small group because of outreach that some of our staff had done over there. Treasure had recently moved from Nigeria, and was on the younger side of college students because of how they do schooling so when she first started coming to core she was super shy and got very overwhelmed. She had had a negative experience in public school in the U.S. the year before because she was poorly treated due to her stronger accent, and being harder to understand. We started studying foj together, and it quickly became one of my favorites parts of the week that I looked forward to because her insight from her cultural perspective and how she viewed christ was so neat to me, and allowed me to appreciate the diversity of the body of believers so much. We became good friends, and some times when I would pick her up, her sister Esther who was in her senior year of high school would need a ride from school so I would go pick her up, and so I started to get to know her as well.  At some point in the semester, her mom was having a work event and getting promoted and I was invited to go and got to meet Treasure's parents. I could tell it was meaningful to her parents that I came. Fast forward to the year ending, Treasure kinda out of nowhere decided to go to the military reserves and I was so sad to have her leave for several months after we had just started becoming good friends. However, God had allowed me to start also becoming friends with her two sisters, and it worked out that her sister Esther who was going to UNT in the fall was able to immediately be plugged into our ministry, and now goes to my core and tnf (our large group gatherings) every week even though her sister has been gone. After being gone for 5 months, Treasure (in the flannel in the very front of the pic above) came back and was able to come to our Friendsgiving event this week, with Esther (in the pink shirt in the back row) who’s been in our core this semester, and her younger sister marvellous (to the left of treausre in the photo) who’s only a high school freshman got to come. Recently I got to talk with their mom when I dropped Esther off one time, and she just sincerely thanked me for loving on her daughters and getting them plugged into community. Because of Treasures experience she was pretty jaded and probably would have stuck to her family during her time in college, instead of meeting other people, but now because people have welcomed her in, she goes out of her way to meet new people at our focus events which is so sweet to me! it's clear in this story and so many others in our ministry that God is doing something under the surface. Maybe their youngest sister Marvellous who’s only a freshman in high school will also get the chance to be in focus once she gets to college because she’s seen her sisters also get to be apart of what God is doing on campus. If this story moves you in anyway, I encourage you to share this and what God is doing with your loved ones, and encourage them to give this year towards our ministry so we can Keep Focus Growing, and be able to help transform more lives on even more college campuses in the future! 

Student Testimony!

Thank you all so much for your constant support, it is so very meaningful to me! Have a wonderful time with your family for Thanksgiving this week!

Blessings and peace,

Keanna