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