Austin's FOCUS Ministry Blog

I can hardly begin to count the ways that God has showed himself present on this campus and in my life over these past several weeks. Seeing as how I consider you all partners in this valuable mission of making disciples of Jesus on college campuses, I want to share and celebrate with you in all of these things so that we can find joy together in what God is accomplishing through your support and prayers. God is very good and his ability to change lives goes beyond our comprehension. " Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,  to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. " - Ephesians 3:20 The month of February was one of Growth, Change, Challenge, and Celebration! Sorry I couldn't think of a word that starts with C that is a synonym to Growth. Alliteration will have to take back seat on this blog for now. Our student body this ...

The month of January has just passed us and that means we are over six month through the internship with only 4 months left to go! I will do my best to fill you in with all of the exciting things that went on this past month, and then try to communicate to all of you what sort of impact God has made on this campus because of your contribution! The month of January started off with a staff retreat in a small town close to Austin, Texas. The purpose of the retreat was multi-faceted, and God used it to accomplish so many things in my heart. We had meals together every day and through sitting around the table and breaking bread together there was a closeness that was further developed among the staff, which is something that is difficult to maintain when all of the staff members are spread out among different cities across DFW. I know that as I personally looked around the room I was blown away by the fact that God has blessed me enough to work with a group of people like this. There i...

Hello Everyone! This December moved by quickly! Between Finals and students going home for the holiday's we had much less student interaction than usual, but despite all of that, it was still an incredible month full of personal growth and the excitement of being able to see God continue to do great things on this campus! From top left to bottom right: Interns- Danni Howard, Krysten Williams, JD Pearson, Nicki Escutia, Albert Rodriguez, Katelyn Hoffman, April Ashton and Victoria Milian preaching their sermons. The Interns Give Their Sermons Over "This Is My Gospel" This month the Interns were given an assignment for one of our classes, Topics in Pastoring. The assignment was called "This Is My Gospel" and for it we were instructed to prepare a 20-30 minute sermon outlaying the way that the message of the Gospel has specifically impacted our lives and affected the way that we live today. Students told stories of overcoming obstacles that vary in a wide ra...

Hello all you wonderful people! November has been a really incredible month and I can't wait to share it with all of you. I want to start off by thanking all of you. When I think about all of the opportunities that I've been blessed with just this month to share the gospel with students through real spiritual friendships I can hardly believe how good God is, and how thankful I am for all of you for supporting me in that mission! One of the main ways that I get to do that every week is through our Sunday night Core group! Core's are a small group men's study where we read and discuss scripture together. Hearing these young men, myself included, discuss the desire that God has for each one of us and the implication that that should have on our lives fills me with Joy. On top of all of that, through Core, many of these students have formed real lasting friendships. We have students from America, India, and China in our core, 3 entirely different worldviews and cultures...

Before I start talking about all of the wonderful things that God has been doing on this campus and in my own personal life over the course of this past month I want to thank all of you for your prayers for our UTA Fall Retreat! Fall Camp was such an incredible success, not just in the amount of fun that was had, although there was certainly a lot of fun that was had, but also in achieving the goal for the reason that we have Fall Camp every year. To give our students an opportunity to really catch the vision of what it is that we are attempting to do here and to inspire them to take ownership of this ministry and make it their own. I wish I could describe to you everything that happened during Fall Camp but it would probably be far too long of a read for most, but I did want to share with all of you, one specifically special moment. At one point during the retreat after a long day of fun games and good food, the students gathered around in the cabin and began to open up about how ...

The month of September has been one of growth, and an indicator of the ways that God will be using this ministry, and specifically me, in the months to come. Earlier this month, we as a ministry finally got to start our cores! For those of you who don't know what a core is, cores are gender specific, small group, missional communities in which students are invited to engage in conversations about scripture, faith, and life, and how all of these things work in relationship to one another. I have been blessed enough to lead one of these cores on Sunday evenings with one of our UTA campus pastors, Travis Jones. Together, Travis and I have tried to create an environment where students can come to our core and feel safe enough to ask questions about life and religion and expect an honest but loving answer from either ourselves or one of our other students who are participating in core. So far Core has been a great experience! Due to the people that God placed in my life during the fir...

The month of August has been nothing short of incredible, and a true sign that God is moving powerfully here at the college campus of UT Arlington. At the beginning of the month, weeks before school began, the staff and student leaders of UTA FOCUS were able to go one a retreat in the hopes of forming bonds and sharing the vision of what we all are hoping to accomplish through Christ here on campus! It was a really sweet and wonderful experience where we as a group of individuals shared in the worship of God and conversations about his purpose for our lives as well just a bunch of played games! By the end of the week we had become a family, and it was apparent to me how God had orchestrated each one of our lives and had hand placed each one of us into a position as a minister on the UTA campus to reach students from every different walk of life. I was, and have been, so encouraged by these individuals as to how great of a job each one of them is doing at laying down their life to ser...