Austin's FOCUS Ministry Blog

 A few years ago we had a student named Saket. Saket was from India, a hindu, but because of the friendship he had experienced from Christians he was loosely involved in FOCUS, coming to Thursday Night Fellowship every once and a while and sometimes attending core. A few years later, after Saket has graduated, his brother Ram comes to visit him from India. But Saket has to work and Ram has nothing to do so Saket encourages Ram to go check out FOCUS because there would be nice people there. When Ram comes he is greeted warmly just as Saket said he would be, but then something amazing happens. Ram says, during worship, he felt God hug him. And from that night on, he began to have dreams of Jesus. This picture is perhaps too wide to see him clearly but that's Ram right there in the middle spending time with some of our students. In Ram's dreams, Jesus would appear to him and tell him that Ram was his, and that this is the place that he has him, and that this would be the place whe

  This last weekend 400 college students from all across DFW gathered together to worship Jesus, and experience Christ centered community. It was an amazing weekend. Our students heard teaching each morning and evening over the book of 1st John. We talked in detail about living in truth, turning from sin, and loving one another with the love that God had shown us. And boy did God work. Over the course of the weekend I saw so many students loving one another with the love that Jesus had for them. Featured above is just some of the guys from UT Arlington and TCC this year. All of these men were a source of fun and encouragement for those around them. I saw them including others and cheering on one another all weekend. After one of the talks from 1 John on the topic of sin one of the students asked if he and I could go for a walk together and during that time he shared with me a sin in his life that he said he had never told anyone else. Now he and I are going to start meeting together we

 I want to start by saying thank you! Thank you to everyone who regularly partners with me in college ministry. And a double thank you to everyone who chose out of their generous hearts to give even further to our annual Keep Focus Growing Campaign. Because of you, we were able to raise $100,000. Because of your generosity this ministry will continue to be able to operate on college campuses with equipped campus pastors for years to come. God's ability and continued willingness to provide for this work never ceases to amaze me. I'm humbled and thrilled to have such supportive ministry partners who see the need and continue to meet it. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You may be wondering why I wrote Mele Kalikimaka in the title above. Well, if you don't know, that means Merry Christmas in Hawaii. And Christmas in Hawaii was this years theme for our UTA Focus Christmas Party.  Pictured above is just a few of the guys in this ministry that I get to spend time with regularly.

  If you would like to make a special gift today, that would be incredible! All collective gifts up to $54,000 will be matched today so this is an incredible opportunity for your gift to have an increased impact. Feel free to read the student/alumni testimonies below to get a sense of what kind of impact your gift can have. Thankful for you all! anyfocus.org/kfg

 We just wrapped up Halloween. And the spooky season came with a few fun and interesting opportunities to bless students on campus and help others wrestle with what they believe about life after death. At our last Thursday Night Fellowship of the month of October, all our staff and students dressed up in our respective costumes and still came to worship together and learn more about God's word, while dressed silly as can be. I love that part of college ministry is getting to have fun together. An axiom in our ministry is "Be a fool for God, not cool for God."  And I think there is something really bonding about everyone collectively agreeing to be silly, even if just for one night. Our students had a great time dressing in their group costumes and building memories together. Thanks for providing a location for students to have fun and build memories with friends without having to be exposed to dangerous situations or heavy alcohol consumption like is often the case for co

 We just got back from Fall Camp 2022, and it was definitely one for the books. We had around 85 students come and join us for a weekend retreat about 30 minutes away from campus. While there was a lot of fun and games and snacks, which are incredibly important to any college ministry event there were also times of praise, worship, sermons, and spiritual reflection and prayer. I think it was the latter, rather than the former this year that had the largest impact on these students. During one of the evening sessions we had 8 stations that students could attend and spend time engaging with God. The students could read a psalm and learn how its structured, and then write out a psalm in their own words. Or students could reflect on various pieces of art that have come into being throughout church history and just reflect with God on his character. They could learn the prayer of examen practice which is to reflect on your day and ask God to reveal to you things you've missed about ways