Austin's FOCUS Ministry Blog

Hello Friends and Family, I pray that your Thanksgiving was special and that you were reminded of all that God has done and is doing for those that he loves.  Today I have some really exciting news. Tomorrow is Giving Tuesday and Focus is holding their annual Keep Focus Growing Fundraiser. All donations given tomorrow up to a total of $36,000 will be matched. So while you have already been so generous to give to and support college ministry, f you would be willing to give a special gift tomorrow, then that gift could be doubled and the impact of your gift could be doubled as well. I just wanted to share some pictures from this last month of some of our students spending time together. I know each one of them by name, and it has been so neat to see God working in their lives. I can't thank you enough for your investment in them up to this point! If you would like to continue to see these students and those that will come after them have a place on the college campus to know Jesu

Hey friends! Thank you for taking the time to read this blog. I pray that reading some of the stories will encourage your hearts and minds as you see how Jesus is at work on the college campus. Featured here is just a few of the guys involved in the ministry in our most recent halloween party. Some dressed up in costume, others didn't, but everyone had a great time, and it was encouraging to see so many young men and women together celebrating life together after one of our Thursday Night Fellowships. A lot of these pictures are pictures of guys who are all in the same core together. Cores are our gender specific small groups where college students go to each week to read scripture, make friendships, and grow in their relationship with God. Over the last month I've gone to go visit all of the men's core groups and I have been so encouraged! Not only are men responding to the good news of the gospel, they are growing and maturing as disciples as they respond

This last month has been really special and encouraging in so many ways. In my last post I wrote about how school was starting and we were meeting a ton of students, but back then we had no idea who of those students would be sticking around. We definitely didn't know which of those students would be interested in learning more about Jesus. But this month is always an opportunity for us to begin to see the fruit of all the effort that was put in during maverick stampede. Because in this month we have had students not only join our small groups called core, but also we have seen around 100 students say yes to reading and studying scripture one on one with one of our student leader. And even beyond that, we have a great number of students offering to serve in our community at our Thursday Night Fellowships. And recently at fall camp, we had 90 students attend and we have been hearing so many testimonies from students that have been sharing how grateful they are that God used someone

Hey friends! What a whirlwind of a month it has been. UT Arlington is full of life again as college students have returned to campus for the fall semester. The first two weeks of students coming onto campus at UT Arlington is called Maverick Stampede. The University hosts a bunch of events for students to come and make friends, and Focus hosts a few of our own. But our leader team is there at every single event ready to make some new friends, and be Jesus to their peers. I'm so excited about what God is going to do as a result of all of the time and effort that our staff and student leaders put in during these first couple of weeks. I'll tell you about some of the events and then share with you what I'm excited about moving forward. Thank you for your investment in college ministry. I pray that you find this update to be encouraging! This was our board game night, we probably had over 100 students there just playing games and getting to know each other. We always host

It's hard to believe, but in two weeks 40,000 students will begin classes at UT Arlington for the Fall 2019 school semester. That is 40,000 college students that need to know the good news of Jesus, or even if they know it, need to be reminded of God's word, and daily invitation to live their lives entirely for Him who is worthy. I can hardly wait to meet so many new faces, invite people to capture the flag, ultimate frisbee, and into a life transforming Christ centered community possibly for the first time in their adult life. I believe God has been reminding me this last month, how it is Him that will do the work to bring those students in, but that he wants to use me, a branch, deeply connected to the vine. He has been reminding me to prepare for this season of the college students return by praying more often, and tuning into his voice, so that when the opportunity arises to share Christ with one of those young men and women, I won't miss it. That's why I was so gra

Hello friends and family, I just wanted to update y'all on some exciting things going on over the summer as well as give you an update on my current support raising goals. Thank you as always for your generous partnership in college ministry. I hope you're as excited about some of this news as I am. The summer is definitely a tonal shift, our small groups don't meet, and a lot of students go home. But for those that are still in town, and invested in community, God is working in some really neat ways. Even though summer is a time when some things go on pause it is also a time when new things get to start. One of those new things happening over the summer are our new summer small groups called PACCS. Paccs differ from our usual core groups that meet over the school year. In a core there is usually around 7-12 people in the core and there is a discussion over a particular topic addressed in scripture. The questions are brought by our corefas and the other students hav

Hello friends and ministry partners! Thank you so much for taking the time to read this post. I pray that you find it as encouraging as I have. God is faithfully bringing his kingdom to DFW through the discipleship that these students are experiencing in college ministry. Above are just a few pictures of our end of year celebration from just earlier this month. We celebrated all that God has done over the school year and we said goodbye to some of our students that will be graduating and going into the work force. So many of these students are using their gifts to bring God's kingdom with them wherever they go. Several will be going into business or nursing or engineering and they are leaving our community with a love for Jesus and a heart for others that will not fade after college as they seek to be a light in dark places. Some of these students are international students who will, having encountered Jesus and Christian community while here in America, will hopefully o

Hello friends and ministry partners, This month has been the last month of the school year. And because of this I wanted to write and share with you just how I have seen God respond to your prayers and reward your generosity towards the college students on this campus. I was reading 1 Thessalonians Ch. 2 this morning and at the end of the chapter in verses 19-20 Paul writes " For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy." Paul writes this to the church in Thessaloniki as he is reflecting on his relationship to them and he says that they will be the hope, joy, and crown that he will receive on the day of Christ's return. Even though I, and the rest of the staff here are the ones who get to meet with the students face to face, I really believe that you as a ministry partner and supporter will share in the hope, joy, and crown that the students at UT Arl

Hey friends, I am really excited about what God has been doing on our campus in this last month. I can hardly wait to share with you some of the stories!  This last month we had a group of students from Western Washington University who are a part of a college ministry called CCF (Campus Christian Fellowship) come and visit us at UTA. The trip took place during their spring break and their purpose in coming to UT Arlington was as a mission trip, to share Jesus with college students in Texas.  The Washington students sharing in a devotional in the morning. Sharing lunch on campus in a break between outreach. We partnered with them all week to join them in their outreach and evangelism. Every day from 8AM-6PM these college students were on our campus, meeting people, and having conversations about Jesus. Not only did God show them the immediate fruit of their faithfulness through a lot of really neat conversations where people realized their need for God, but also the

Hello friends and ministry partners! I pray that this blog update finds you well today. Please let me know if there is any way that I can be praying for you. I'm so grateful for all of the prayers that you have prayed on the behalf of myself and the ministry here at UT Arlington. I wanted to share a few really exciting things from this month, as well as one that I forgot to mention last month, in hopes that you will be encouraged when you see how God is moving on college campuses in DFW. Our UT Arlington students at this years winter camp! Winter Camp is one of the most exciting times of the year, right before the winter semester starts every year over 600 college students from different FOCUS campuses get together to worship God, listen to sermons and lessons from qualified speakers, this year our speaker was Dr. John Stackhouse. His content really was so valuable and it was such a blessing for our students to be able to learn from him all weekend. If you want a sense of what

Hello Friends, I pray that this blog post finds you well today. I'm so thankful for your prayers and for you support of college ministry. As I write this I'm reminded of how Jesus describes the Kingdom of Heaven in Matthew 13:31-32. "He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.” That is largely how I see God working here at UT Arlington, sometimes the action we take in bringing Jesus to our peers can seem small, but in time God uses the seeds we plant to bring about his kingdom in powerful ways. I'm so grateful for that. I hope that the stories below encourage your spirit and affirm for you again today how God is truly at work.  A Chalk Advertisement, one of several around campus. I personally met several students this