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One Of The Best Years

 As I think back on this last year of campus ministry I am so grateful to God for this year of revival and refreshment. I've had some of the most encouraging conversations with students, in which I got to see them make serious turning point decisions for Jesus. And as a community at large, FOCUS at UTA has slowly moved from health to deeper levels of health and spiritual maturity. Please allow me to give some examples!


This is most of our men's leader team this year. From left to right, myself, Vincent, Graham, Ian, Josh, Colton, Hart, Luke, Ben, Crew, and Rhett. Not pictured is Mauricio. These are the guys that I had the genuine pleasure of spending time with every week. Even though there were weeks where we had tough conversations about improper use of humor, arrogance, immorality, or shallow relationships, over the course of the year God revealed to me just how open these guys were to hearing wisdom from His word and were willing to change how they live and act in order to live up to being a mature disciple of Jesus. All of them proved themselves to be good soil. And as a result of their faithfulness and receptivity and hard work this year, there has been an abundance of harvest in our ministry at large as our freshman also grew in maturity and wisdom and ownership by watching them! I have no doubt that from some, if not all of these guys there will be an even greater harvest in their life ahead of them, some multiplying 60 or 100 times that which was sown.


I had the pleasure of also studying the bible with these two great guys this year as well. Josh on the left is a new Christian, he's been following Jesus for about a year now, but his curiosity, humility, inquisitiveness and gentle heart encouraged me deeply every week we would get together. The student is not above the teacher, but every student, who is fully trained, will be like their teacher. I have no doubt that Josh will take and learn any good thing God wanted to use me to teach him, but even more than that, Josh has been and will continue to be a student of Jesus. I'm so excited to get to see how God uses Josh on the college campus in the years to come. He will be one of our student leaders next year and is considering the FOCUS apprenticeship after that! Jonathan on the right is unmatched in his excitement and conviction about God's word. Verses that may feel rote to me after reading them with so many college students through the years, he sees with fresh eyes. Sometimes when he's talking, I perk up, and begin to listen to God's word all over again. His passion is infectious and he's a kind and affectionate guy as well. Other men will look to him for a model of what it means to be a good friend and a passionate follower of God.

In the gray suit, we have Ben Erickson, Ben has been a corefa for three years, and he's been a great witness for Jesus the whole time, but I've never seen more change in his heart than I have in the last several months. He and I have been having a lot of conversations about what it would look like for him to be "God's guy". As a result I've seen him grow in boldness, honesty, openness, and initiative. The guy in the colorful tie is named Austen Nash. Ben studied the bible one on one with Austen this year and now Austen will be one of our student leaders in the fall as well. I'm so thankful that Ben has chosen to be God's guy. The harvest is already evident in Austen!




And I could tell you more about Jayvyn and Luke and Crew and Ian and more! But for now I'd like to just show y'all a video of our end of year TNF. We were originally going to close our last service of the year with a song called graves into gardens. But after our band had finished playing, the students in the room so didn't want to be done that they kept calling for encore. So much so, that our band not only played the end to that song 3 more times, but after that was done, they played another song called melodies from heaven. And our students loved it! They didn't want to leave. At first I was laughing at how goofy they are. But then I realized. They love being here. They love worshiping God. And they love being together. And as a campus pastor. That's what I always hoped our community would be. Imagine 90 college students who don't want their experience here to end. Who want to keep learning about Jesus, who want to be around people who encourage them in their faith. I hope you enjoy watching these videos and that you get to see how important the gift your giving is and what an impact it's making on young people's lives. The Harvest is here.

https://youtu.be/9xc-b1EStA8

https://youtu.be/jNENV67R1M8

Thank you for supporting campus missions! Don't forget the student testimony below! 



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