All Things are Merry and Bright!

For some reason this year I have been extra stoked about Christmas. In October I was already saying, "It's almost Christmas," and even let myself go down the Christmas Hobby Lobby aisle when it hadn't even been Halloween yet. I typically make myself wait till Thanksgiving but I gave in, and it.was.awesome. So needless to say, I am thrilled that it actually is beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and I hope your Christmas season is bright, and full of joy and thanksgiving!

My brother, Brandon, whose blog you may also read, asked me yesterday if I had told my blog-readers/supporters that I was pregnant, and I realized I hadn't. So there's the big news! I am currently 18, almost 19 weeks pregnant, and we find out if there's a little boy or little girl in there tomorrow! May 1st is my due date, which is pretty perfect when considering my ministry. Things start to taper down as the students prepare for exams, and the summer is a little less intense and more administrative than the rest of the year. My hope is that I can be back at least mostly in August, while doing what I can until then. Some of you moms may be laughing at me right now, and that's why I said "hoping" and "mostly" :). I honestly have no idea what to expect and I know a lot depends on how your baby actually is so I'm also hoping between Tyler and I's overly laid back personalities that we'll have a very laid back baby! But we shall see. Anyway, one thing is for sure, I will continue in ministry. Whatever it takes to make that happen. I believe that's what I've been called to do and I also believe that there's no better way to disciple and raise people up in the faith than to bring them along with you while you do that for others. So little baby will be my ministry partner :). I recall my parents doing that with me, taking me along to bible studies and baptisms, me watching them read the bible themselves, and minister to people on the phone or in our house. No amount of words could replace that experience for me, and that's the vision I have for my little one.

Tyler and I could not be more excited and more thankful for this blessing, and ask that you would keep us in your prayers. Pray for health, but also that God would mold us into Godly parents, that our child would be raised as God would wish, and be an awesome disciple of Jesus.

Enough about me though. Ministry has been rockin and rollin. I told our Corefas last night just how proud I was of them and that this has been one of the most successful if not the most successful first semesters I've seen at Collin College. God is working, and our Corefas have really offered themselves as a sacrifice to him to be used however he wishes. That's so neat to see. I recalled my Collin leader meetings as a student, which we actually held right down the street from my current home, and was just filled with so much joy to see that the Kingdom is advancing on that campus. Our leader team is bigger now, and much more mature and equipped than I was in my leader years. Our ministry is much bigger than then, and we have more people outside of our leader team stepping up to reach people and impact the campus than we did then. That was about 5 years ago when I was sitting there. The Kingdom is gaining ground! What's better news than that? Hundreds of Collin students have been impacted since then, and the number is only growing. Give praise to God for that! We spent the last portion of our leader meeting last night just sharing praises and thanksgiving to God for what he's done on our campus this semester. It is overwhelming!

With that said, I want to say a big thanks to you guys. Gosh, it's just so neat that we have people who want to advance the Kingdom with us. I tear up as I write this because it means so much to me. We're on a mission, and we have been given a vision from God that our hearts beat for, but we can absolutely not do it on our own. We have to have partners in the faith, partners in the mission, who take the vision on as their own. I am so thankful that you have done that. I get to look at these college students all the time. I get to see the ones that are in the absolute pit, and who are raised up out of it into living fulfilled, joyous lives in Christ. I get to look into their future and know what a difference God has made in their life through this ministry: marriages that will be successful, lifelong friendships, a stop to additional baggage, generations who will know Jesus. Their whole future is transformed. I know you guys don't get to see all that, but you join in anyway, and you do the brunt work for us. Thank you for doing that. It will not go unrewarded.

This Thursday is our last official Focus of the semester, and then we will have our Christmas party to wrap up. Pray for a safe break for our students, and a break that is purposeful and brings them closer to God!

God is so good, I hope you will be filled with awe for him this month as we celebrate him coming into our world!

Much love,
Bri

God is Good!

To be honest I had been putting off my blog. I have to confess, I have felt pretty discouraged in ministry the last couple of weeks. There are great things going on, don't get me wrong, but ministry is certainly not always easy. People will break your heart if you love them like you're called to, people will frustrate you when you see so much potential and see them living so short of it, and you will continually come face to face your own short comings and failures. I sound peppy, don't I? Haha

This is what I have been dealing with the last couple of weeks, grappling with the struggles of doing God's work. But God is good, and God is faithful and is lifting me up.

We've been reading a book called, So You Want to Be Like Christ? by Charles Swindoll with our Corefas. It talks about really knowing Christ and what that takes. One of the chapter is called Silence and Solitude. Since reading it, I've been trying to practice that and just spend time with God without having to say something to him, and on my way home tonight I felt enlightened. He reminded me of the good news once again. He reminded me that the world as it currently is, will not always be; that he will at some point in time make it perfect and good. That is such good news. Our world can be pretty depressing, certainly it is beautiful and a good creation, but evil has had it's way with it for a long time and there is serious brokenness and deep scars. One day it will be like new again, perfect and pure as God created it to be. I can't wait! That brings me so much joy.

I was also reminded of this verse:
"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." (Galatians 6:9 NIV)
I take double courage in that verse. Certainly I think it means God has good things in store for us who live for him, but it also gives me great hope that my efforts in the lives of the people I'm trying to disciple and minister to will bear fruit if I don't give up. Don't become weary in doing what's right for people or good for them, if you don't give up there will be progress. That's my hope and prayer. I'm sure all of you have someone in your life you've tried to help or that you believe in more than they even do. I encourage you to not give up. Or maybe you're discouraged with life in general, don't grow weary in doing good. God is working and he has a great harvest in store!

With all of that said, those things are more in my personal ministry. Our ministry as a whole is thriving and is in a great place! I am so thankful for what God has done and is doing, and I can already see him laying an awesome foundation for ministry next year. We are going to have some great new student leaders, I see them developing right before my eyes! So cool. And you are a part of that! I want to thank you so deeply for your financial support, your prayers, your belief in me and in what we're trying to accomplish for God,and with God ,on campus! We couldn't do it without your partnership. I am praying for you and feel so blessed by you!

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

We're in this together, let's keep at it!

Much love and thanks to you all,
Brianna

Here are some photos from Park Day this last month. This was a chance for us to get a big chunk of one together, build relationships and community, and have fun! Mission accomplished. As you can see we played lots of goofy games, just hung out, and ended the day with some worship.

September

This month has been just as successful as August. August is about getting people to come to Focus and September, in a lot of ways, is about keeping people there. That takes some work, especially from our corefas which have done an incredible job. Mostly, in order to really keep people around, they have to feel a part, they know people and are known, and make friends. We're not a ministry that is content with people walking in the doors, sitting in the back by themselves or with one friend and then leaving right after. If that happens, we failed. We work to meet every person that comes in our doors and get them included in some way, actually as many ways as we can :). That includes inviting them to dinner afterwards, getting their number, inviting them to core, or setting up another time to hang out. As I said, our corefas have done an incredible job. And don't think for a second this is an insincere process. It's the most sincere! They love and care about these people enough to put aside what's comfortable to them, to put aside the friendships they already have at the moment, and extend friendship and love to this someone they don't even know. So cool! And so much like Jesus!

With that said our cores are pretty huge. They are filled with girls that have been befriended and want to grow with their new friends in their faith. The only reports I get are about how excited they are and how much they love core and how well it's going! This has produced a problem, an awesome problem, we are scrambling to find people to study with all these kids! As I'm sure I've mentioned before we also try to study the bible through a study we call Focus on Jesus with everyone that comes to our ministry. Our student leaders are the main ones who do this and they're schedules are already full with people to study with, and there's still more need! We brought in a girl that already graduated from college and was a part of a Focus to study with a couple girls, we're taking corefas from other cores to study with people across cores, we're doing some studies 1-on-2 and 1-on-3 studies rather than our usually 1-on-1s. Like I said, a good problem to have! We have about 35 FOJ studies going on already and more are popping up every week!

I focus on that topic this week because it encompasses where were at stage-wise in the year, and also because it is such the heartbeat of our ministry. Pulling people in, giving them a community that loves then, and they can trust, and then offering them an opportunity to look at the bible probably closer than ever before. Our desire, as stated in the study, is that they would be brought face to face with Jesus and become as we are - radical, fired-up, crazy-in-love-with-Jesus disciples.

Pray that happens! Pray for these 35 students studying the bible, some for the very first time. Pray also for the students leading them.

God is good!

Much love,
Bri



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Crazy August!

Whew, we can finally take a few deep breaths because August is over! August is our craziest time of the year. There is so much to plan, so many events to execute, so many leaders to train, and so many people to meet! Not that all of that is done yet, but with the beginning of school there is a lot that needs to be done FAST. Not only is August the busiest time of the year but it is perhaps one of the most crucial. In a lot of ways it determines are sphere of impact for the rest of the year. The more people we meet and get in contact with in the first couple weeks of school, the more people we will be able to impact as the year goes on.

With all that said, I'd say it was a great success! We met TONS of people. I really think it would be safe to say that this has been our most successful start to a school year since I remember at Collin. Our Corefas did an amazing job getting out there, sacrificing their time and comfort zones, and meeting as many people as possible. We've had great turn outs at Thursday Night Fellowship, as well as our cores which have started this week.

Now the real work begins! The work of seeing where people are at in relation to God and trying to move them onto His agenda. Please be praying fervently for that process! We have started a series at TNF that goes through the story of God and his people (Creation, The Fall, Sin Full Grown, God's Invitation, Our Response, Chains Broken, and Living Free), Cores have just started up, Discipleship class starts next week, and one on one bible studies will be popping up in no time. We need your prayers that God would make all of these successful and do His heart changing work that only He can do!

I'm excited to see the fruit He produces!

Much love and thanks!
Brianna

School's Starting!

We are within a week of school starting again! I'm so pumped to get back on campus and start God work on Collin College once again!

Summer was wonderful and a much needed change of pace; while still doing ministry with the people we had in town, we also spent all summer planning and preparing for NOW! Well it's here and I'm happy to say we are prepared :).

Two weekends ago we had our staff retreat, and last weekend we had our Corefa Prep Day (Corefas are our student leaders in case you forgot). For the retreat we spent two days uniting as a staff; looking back and remembering what God has done in our ministry and now ministries; and then looking ahead at what God can and wants to do in our ministries! At the Prep Day, we spent 12 hours with our Corefas, again uniting as a team and trying to build closer relationships; preparing them for their role in meeting as many people possible the first two weeks of school (the more people you meet those two weeks, the more ministry opportunity you have the rest of the year); and getting them pumped and ready for the crazy year ahead of them. I can tell you we have another great team at Collin this year!

Our theme for the year is Break Every Chain. At the Staff Retreat we sang a worship song together actually called Break Every Chain. It starts off singing over and over that "There is Power in the name of Jesus." Then is follows it up and says "to break every chain." I believe that is absolutely true. There is no chain that Jesus can't break in our lives.

Another verse says "There's an army rising up" over and over, and then ends with "to break every chain."

As 21 of us sang that song together in a small room tears came to my eyes. We are that army rising up, our Corefas are that army rising up, those in our ministry, those who will come to our ministry this year, you guys who support what we're doing and back us with prayer and money... All of us together are an army rising up, to be chain-breakers for a world who is locked down with chain after chain after chain.

Another part of the song (in the mp3 version) the main singer starts singing loudly, "I hear the chains falling!"

Well, I hear the chains falling, guys. I hope you can too. And I hope we all join together this year to make that happen.

There is power in the name of Jesus!

Here's the link to the song if you want to listen to it. I just recorded
myself singing it so you would get an idea of it. Juuust kidding, I wish.

Check out this video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pD2zIuiC2g

Also say hello to the 2013-2014 FOCUS Staff:

Much love!
Brianna

June Update

Summer has been going great. It's always a little more low key in some ways which is nice but makes it harder to update you. We do more planning and administrative type stuff over the summer and less relational ministry work so to speak. Somehow I doubt you'll find brochure writing, class planning, and various other things I've been working on very thrilling :). Necessary, allows us to do the relational stuff we do so much of throughout the year, but yeah, not so thrilling.
One thing that is thrilling though is that, Summer, the girl I've been studying Focus on Jesus with, wants to be baptized! We finished our study a few weeks ago and have just been talking about the decision to follow Jesus since and working through her road blocks, but she has finally made the decision. When I asked her why she came to that decision she said something to the effect of, "I just know I'm never going to not follow God. I'm never going to decide not to do that. I've lived the other way for 20 years and I see where that got me and now after only just trying to get to know God over the last 3 months I see what He's done in my life." She said more but that was the part that stuck out in my mind. When I came into her life 3 months ago, she had just tried to end it. She was depressed and hopeless; Satan had been having his way with her for 20 long years.
God called me into her life right after her suicide attempt. I felt prompted to text her during our Thursday Night Fellowship and ask her if she would let me study the bible with her. She said she would, and her journey with Jesus began. God has transformed her life. He has brought her joy and hope.
I feel so blessed to get to be an agent of God in this world. I didn't change her, God did. I don't have special words or wisdom (aside from what God gives me). I've done that same study with tons of other girls who turned around and chose another route. God broke into her life and fixed the brokenness that Satan had done, He set her on a different course, one that brings hope to her life and her future family, and they're family and so on. Generations are now changed because of her making the decision Joshua made long ago, "But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." Amen to that.
I am so blessed that God allowed me to be a part of that process. So so cool. There's nothing greater on earth. If you don't feel like you've ever been an "agent of God" in someone's life, ask God that He would point you to someone who you can be that for. Also, if you feel like you have or if someone has for you, I'd love to hear your story in the comments section.
PS- I'll post a picture of her baptism once we do it. I think it'll be this Thursday!
Much love and thanks!
Brianna
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May Update

May was full of wrapping up our school year and SICM!

Our last Thursday Night Fellowship at Collin for the school year was on May 9. It was such a neat night. I wish all of you could have been there! We had an open mic night and had any students who wanted to share about what God has taught them this year. One girl shared about how she had stopped coming to FOCUS at one point in the year, and then felt like she was missing her family, so returned. She had learned about true friendship and the family of Christ. One guy shared about how he learned to really care about people sincerely and reach out. Another had just recently come to know and believe in God, previously rejecting and hating God. He shared that he learned God was good and real. God is good, and He is real; He showed that very clearly to me again that night. Student after student got up and shared about what God had taught them. Some were similar lessons, some were completely different from all the others. It is so amazing to me that God is so personal with us, that He loves us and relates to us individually as well as collectively. He is involved in our lives, He makes a difference, an impact. He is real, and He is good.

Another highlight of May was that May16-25 we took over 50 students to SICM (Student Institute of Campus Ministry) in Bellingham, Washington! Every year we pick students out of our ministry who exhibit the FAITH accronym: F-Faithful, A-Available, I-Initiative, T-Teachable, H-Heart for God and People, to go to this conference. These are the students we plan to be leading in our ministry the next year, in addition to all the students we've taken to SICM before, and some people that step up to the plate after SICM invites are given. The SICM training is invaluable to our ministry, and proved itself once again this year. I remember going as a sophomore in college. It played a significant role in my passion for campus ministry, and my empowerment to go do it! I left with a vision of what could be done on a college campus for God. And now 50+ more students are coming back with that same experience ready and willing to do something big for God on the Texas campuses. Woo hoo! If that's not exciting I don't know what is! Here are some pics:

Collin Girls

Sight Seeing

Collin Girls in Seattle

Collin Staff- Go Collin Cougars!

In summary, May was wonderful! This school year was wonderful! Now it's summer time, and I expect it to be wonderful as well :). Pray for a fruitful summer. All the campuses will be meeting together every Thursday night for our weekly fellowship. We will also be having Summer School of Ministry where we have differenent classes students can take to grow their knowledge of God and the bible. Pray all of those will be a success.

Much love and thanks!

Brianna

April Update

This month has been full of good news!

One of our student leaders moved in with a friend from high school last year. She's been trying to get her to come to Focus from the beginning but has had a hard time with that. She would come for a few weeks and then stop, and went back and forth from wanting to seek God to not wanting to. A couple of girls had asked her to study the bible with them, but nothing ever came of it. Well a few weeks ago I asked her if she'd let me study with her and she said yes! We have already done three studies and things are going great! She really wants to seek and know God. Pray for her journey!!

I have been visiting all of the girl's cores and co-leading a lesson with another one of our peer team leaders. Those were so neat! God has been working in all of these cores! I saw girls that really want to learn and grow in their faith, I saw girls who love core and love being in fellowship with one another, I saw girls who have built deep and personal friendships with each other, I saw girls full of love and grace! Praise God for his work in those this year!

I met with a girl recently who I haven't talked to very much but contacted me because she was struggling with something and wanted to talk through it with someone and get some help. She's been on the fringes in our ministry for a couple years now, coming and going, and I can tell just has a hard time trusting people. We met up for an hour or so, mainly just talking about life, and God, and a little about the particular issue. Well I just got a text from her saying she really wants to be more involved in Focus now and build more friendships. She said she was able to talk without being afraid and without pretending.

Isn't God so neat? He turns hopeless things into things full of hope, He bears fruit, He produces good and lovely things, and with Him and in His Kingdom we don't have to be afraid, and we don't have to pretend. God accepts us where we are, and we are changed by Him.

Wow, if you haven't told God how absolutely incredible He is lately, ponder on that now, and tell Him :).

Here's some pictures of our girls involved in core:

Much love and thanks!

Brianna

March Update

March was a great month for ministry. We actually just wrapped up one of the busiest weeks of the semester. Twenty-one students from Western Washington University flew in last weekend and spent the week evangelizing with us on all 4 of our campuses. At Collin we used our theme for the year, Everything New, and tried to present that idea to our campus over the week. Each day we had a question written for people to see as they walked through the atrium of the school and had white boards up for them to write out their answers. We also had pairs of our students walking around trying to engage people in spiritual conversation asking others what they believe and getting them to think and converse on spiritual things for a change :). The first day we posted the quote from Revelations 21 where Jesus says he is making everything new, and we asked the question, "What would a new and perfect world look like?" We got some great responses and were able to have some good conversations throughout the week. We also had a number of the students we met during the week visit our big group meeting on Thursday night. So be in prayer about that, that fruit would be bore out of it, and that we can be faithful stewards of what God
has done this last week and the people that he has brought us into contact with. Here's a few pictures of the first day:



Another thing I wanted to update you guys on is how Janell is doing (she's the one Ally and I studied with last semester). I am so proud of her and excited about God at work in her life! She is already about halfway through Focus on Jesus with a girl she knew from high school, and is about to start another one! She also asked if she could take a stack of studies with her when she moves to A&M. That is so our vision for people! Make them into disciples who make other disciples! I'm so proud of her and encouraged by the heart she has to go out and do God's work. So praise be to Him for that work in her life!
Please continue to pray for our ministry, pray that we can finish out the last couple of months strong and faithful to the mission, and that God will continue to work and move in people's hearts! As Stephen Lutz puts it in his book on college ministry, " You simply can't find a great movement of God that doesn't involve prayer." Also please let me know if I can be in prayer for YOU about anything! Much love and thanks to you all!!
Bri

February Update

Things are moving right along in the campus ministry world, and going well. This semester we started a new sermon series called "Living in the Word." We decided that we would pick a few books of the bible this semester to go through as a community and preach from. The first one we did was Mark, which we just finished last week. Now we are starting Romans. Each week we've had the students read a chunk of the scripture on their own time and then at our Thursday Night Fellowship we have a sermon over that section of scripture with the purpose of teaching a logical way to process what it is saying: considering the author/audience, time period, culture, context, etc, and then relating it all back to us and how we should take it as disciples. I have gotten great feedback from this; our students are in the Word more, and understanding for themselves how to look at and study scripture. Be praying for that!

I just started reading a book called College Ministry in a Post-Christian Culture. It has been very enlightening thus far and I am praying that God will give me direction in how these truths can play a role in making our own ministry better and more glorifying to God. He stresses that campus ministries are mostly reaching Christian students or those already inclined to Christianity, but that the other 90% of our college students are remaining untouched by the gospel. Yikes! He says mission and outreach has become something that we "do" not something that we "are." Mission is who we are, it's our very identity in Christ!

"As God's gospel-transformed and sent people, we orient everything we do to God's mission, which is to reconcile and restore God's fallen creation to himself through his son Jesus Christ. This is what we mean by "missional."'

That's exciting to me! I think "outreach" and being "missional" has become this negative and scary thing in our minds. I think that's from Satan. Working alongside God on his mission is one of the most exciting and rewarding things we get to do. We get to help reconcile and restore! All things! Wow, what an honor! Please join me in praying that our ministry be that way and provide that for our campus; also join me in striving to be that personally.

God is good!
Bri

We're Back!

Well we're back in full force now! The winter break was wonderful, and very refreshing, but I'm glad to be back with our students, and working on campus!

We had our annual Winter Camp two weekends ago, and I have to say, I think it was our best one yet! You would have loved to have seen how many students were there worshiping God together from different campuses, with all different kinds of backgrounds. Beautiful!

We took over 350 students this year! That's around 100 more people from last year. God is doing some great things on these campuses!

The theme of the weekend was talking about the New Kingdom. Geoff, a leader in a very successful campus ministry in Washington, willingly flew down to give an outstanding series of sermons on the topic that were so encouraging and insightful. Our students responded super well, and many made big commitments and re-commitments to God. It's so exciting to think of the New Kingdom God is going to establish with us: one without any pain, any evil, any hurting or sadness. I can't wait to share in that with all of you one day! Overall, it was a very impactful weekend, and I believe, will be a turning point in a lot of people's school year, and lives. I wish you guys could have been there!

I have more good news to share! Janell, the girl Ally and I have been studying the bible with this year, just started up TWO studies of her own! We finished our study over the break and right away she was off finding someone to share what she's learned with. How exciting! That's the vision, to enable and empower people to do God's work, and Janell has caught it :). Praise God!

Thanks for all your love and prayers, and I ask that you would continue to pray for our ministry as a whole, and especially for the rise of more leaders in our community as we are already beginning to plan on that for the coming year!

You guys are the best!

God is so good! Much love,
Brianna