Austin's FOCUS Ministry Blog

Dear Friends, Thank you so much for taking the time to read this blog post. I pray that you find the events of this last month to be as encouraging to you as they have been to me. In this last month we have been given the opportunity to witness four of our male college students make a decision to be baptized! Through doing so each one has made a commitment to follow Jesus as one of his disciples for the rest of their lives. On the left is Ricky Hudson, one of the young men who was recently baptized. It's exciting for me to report this news to you because scripture tells us that when someone is baptized in the name of Jesus that person is made new, given a new life, a new identity. When someone in faith makes the decision to be baptized, they are literally born again. John 3:3  says this  "Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who...

Dear Friends, I want to thank you again for taking the time to read this blog post. I have been incredibly encouraged as I have gotten to witness in the last month God's Spirit produce fruit in the lives of the students that I get to interact with on a daily basis. I want to share with you some of those stories so that though hearing them God's Spirit will encourage you as well. I want to thank you for your generosity in supporting college ministry. God is using your gift to produce His kingdom on college campuses and I am so grateful to you because of that.  This was our turnout at the most recent winter camp retreat! Over 600 students came together to worship God, play games together, and hear teaching on what it means to be a sent disciple of Jesus. Since the camp I have had so many follow up conversations with students who attended and just over and over again I have gotten to hear how God's Spirit has inspired those students to rethink their faith in a way that i...

Hello everyone! I pray that your holidays have really been special this year. I pry that time with your family has been restful, and that the Lord has used this time of remembering His birth to strengthen your spirit. I pray that this letter and update will also serve to encourage you. I am always certainly encouraged whenever I think of you and your partnership in this ministry. This is a fun, albeit blurry picture from our end of semester Christmas party. This years theme was Disney Christmas. These are a few of the guys that have been a part of my core group for this last semester. Troi on the left dressed as Maui, Josh in the middle as Kylo Ren, and Yafet as Mickey Mouse. Myself as Jolly ol' saint nick. This evening was filled with fun and laughter. There were definitely some great skits involved. But we also got to have a really sweet time of reading from the Gospel of Luke the story of Jesus' birth and then we all joined together in praise and worship to God as a resp...

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas everyone, This past month of November I have been given a lot to be thankful for. Two of those reasons just happen to be events that you personally helped to make happen! 72 Hours of Prayer. And Pizza Theology. Both of these event are reasons why November ranks among my favorite months in college ministry. Because in both of these events students are given opportunities to encounter God and Scripture in ways that go beyond the common practices and routines of every day life. The first event that I want to share with all of you is 72 Hours of Prayer. This event is a joint ministry partnership of all the college ministries on campus at UT Arlington. The goal is to create a space for students who are in need of prayer to come and make those requests known. And then, facilitated during every hour for the entirety of 3 days and nights there are students inside the tent praying over those requests. For many students, these three days are a time...

 Dear Friends, Thank you for taking the time to read this blog. I pray that the stories inside will serve as an encouragement to your spirit and you will be reminded of the goodness of our Lord. Things at UTA have really been encouraging to me recently. It seems each week we have at least one new person coming to check out the community that God has blessed us with and as a result, most often those students are sticking around, joining a core group, and desiring to study scripture 1 on 1. Which can cause problems as we are reaching a point where we don't have enough student leaders to study the bible with all of the new incoming students! But I consider that a great problem to have. I'm reminded of a passage from Matthew Chapter 9 " 35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.  36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were har...

 Hello everybody! I just wanted to write and wish all of you a very happy fall season. I for one am grateful for the cooler weather. I wanted to take this time and just share with all of you some of the really neat and encouraging things that are happening here at UT Arlington and how I see God using those things to bring about his Glory. Let's start with Thursday Night Fellowship. Every Thursday we invite the entirety of our larger community to come together for worship, and singing, and praise, and a sermon, and fellowship. And I am always so grateful to look around the room and see all of the ears of the young men and women who want to hear more about God and his plan for the world. This semester we have been focusing on the theme of "Send Me" based out of a number of different passages of scripture in the bible, but perhaps most notably in the book of Isaiah Chapter 6 starting in verse 8. " Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I se...

Hello everyone! The first two weeks of classes, otherwise known as the Maverick Stampede, are behind us here at UT Arlington. It is odd to think that just two weeks ago the students who are now a part of our community and involved in our small groups, we had yet to meet. But we spent those first two weeks meeting as many students as possible. We were on campus every day attending every event at the university that we could and greeting countless students to UT Arlington for the first time. For many we had an opportunity to be their first group of friends in college. For some we were the first Christians they had ever interacted with. For nearly all we got to be a source of joy, and a welcoming face to an environment that can otherwise be pretty intimidating. On Monday I hosted my first bible study with a group of guys, all new to UTA, and we discussed what it means to love others the way that Jesus has loved us.  John 13 34  “A new command  I give you: Love one ...