What a great semester we've had! Lots of people are studying the bible for the first time and lots of people are maturing and changing in Christ! That's great news. Praise God!!

I have a couple other good news reports. I've gotten with and heard about a number of students dealing with anxiety and depression. This is not good news obviously. Sadly, it is super common, and students all over our campus are dealing with these issues. The good news is, I've gotten to see improvement in these students. God is working in them and through other things, to bring healing to their lives and allow them to experience life closer to what he intended for them. That's exciting! These students are now more equipped and able to share with others how God can work in their lives to bring healing as well. How cool!

Another interesting piece of good news...
Last year my heart was broken when I found out a student I invested in for years in a very deep way had been lying, and basically living a fake life. She was caught up in serious sin, and wasn't willing to admit it until it was obvious I knew, and she wasn't willing to give that up. It really was heart breaking to me. Sadly she ended up leaving our ministry. Aside from being a student I minister to, she really had become one of my very dearest friends. I loved her and still love her so much. Well, yesterday I received a long hand-written letter from her. We had gotten together a couple of times since she left but nothing too serious was discussed. To get this letter from her was so encouraging and uplifting. She apologized and said thank you. She realized now how much I loved her and how much I really cared about her relationship with God more than anything. I didn't need to be apologized to, or thanked, but it brings me much joy to know God is still working on her heart and in her life and that she hasn't given up. Please pray for her. She is so dear to me, and I am glad that God is working to restore her as well as our relationship, although I never turned my back on her, things have been estranged.

God is good, and so powerful. He is working and doing great things on our campuses. Thank you for being invested in this. It means so much to me, truly. You are making a difference in generations!

If you haven't seen this already, please take the time to watch this short video and share with others.

MUCH LOVE AND THANKS,
Bri

I am excited to update you all on how well the school year is going. We have tons of students coming to Focus, tons going to core, and tons starting to study the scripture! The exciting thing is not that we have a lot of people, although that's great. It's kinda easy to fill a room full of people. Serve free pizza and it's a done deal on a college campus. The real EXCITING thing is people are intrigued by the message and call of Jesus and are actively pursuing him! That is so cool. And that is something only God can make happen. Praise to him!!

Another exciting thing is how well our Corefas are doing and how much they are growing already. They have a pretty tall order. Attend all Focus events, a leader meeting every week, plan for core every week, lead core every week, and study the bible with around 3 people. Imagine doing that as an 18 or 19 year old! Crazy, huh? But they can do it! And they are doing it so well. My dad has often said specifically about teenagers that they will not always live up to your expectations but they will almost always live down to them. We set HIGH expectations for these kids. We realize that there will be times they won't meet them, especially at the beginning when they are trying everything for the first time, but I can tell you I have not seen a finer group of student leaders anywhere as I have in Focus. I believe that's due to the high expectations that are set. We believe in these students. Young people can do powerful things for the Kingdom of God and they should be! None of this waiting till they're older business. The time is now, and they are stepping up to the task and doing great things for God!!

Please, please pray for our Corefas and staff. Pray for health, and encouragement, and perseverance. And pray for our campus, that we may reach as many as possible this year through Jesus.

I thank God for you all and your investment in the ministry he has given us. May he bless you greatly!

Brianna

I'm baaaaaaack! Well, I've been back but not back to my blogging self until now.

For those of you who read my blog but otherwise aren't my Facebook friend, I did indeed have my baby :) My sweet, sweet Reese is a few days away from being 4 months old, and is an absolute joy!






And one more...






This was her running Target errands with me today. Is that how that's supposed to work? Don't judge me. For what it's worth, she had a great time like that. Right before this she was showing great displeasure in being in her car seat so this was the only other option...

Anyways, I'm going to have to try to discipline myself to not only post pictures of her on this. She's the best. With that said, she's been a great little ministry buddy as I've slowly gotten back into the swing of things over the last couple months.

This week was our full speed ahead week though, Welcome Week!
That's the first week of school when we scramble to meet as many students as possible, and that's what we did! Our student leaders (Corefas) did an outstanding job meeting and inviting people. The week before school started we probably had 40 students, those are mostly our returning students from the previous year who haven't transferred off yet. This last week, our Kick-off week, we had probably 120-135 students, so that will tell you how much inviting they did! Please be in lots of prayer over these new students as we strive to get them plugged in and help them take their next step spiritually, whatever that may be. For some that's coming to know Jesus, for some that's deciding to actually obey the Jesus they came to know, for some that's teaching them how to make other Jesus followers. Pray God will work powerfully through us to meet their spiritual needs.

We also just got back from our Corefa retreat where we take all of our Corefas from all of our campuses (UTD, UNT, TWU, Collin Spring Creek, Collin Preston Ridge, and Richland) out together to prepare and encourage them for the year ahead. Here's a picture from one of our sessions:




We had about 150 people there. I looked around during worship and tears came to my eyes as I remembered when our winter camp of all the campuses with all the students was smaller than that! God is surely with us and behind us, and for that I am so thankful. Please be in prayer for these leaders as they set out to accomplish big tasks this year. Most have mixed emotions of fear and excitement. Pray for boldness, pray for perseverance, pray for growth, and pray God will do a great work in and through them this year.

Thank you for all your love and support. Much love to you! God is so good!

Bri

The Start of Spring Semester

Well I have great things to update you on! We are off to a great semester!

First of all, Winter camp was incredible! Over 400 students came together to worship God and learn about the Spirit. I have seen so much fruit camp since we've gotten back. I see students actively pursuing the Spirit in their lives, trying to be more aware of Him, and trying to keep in step with Him. I have seen our students become much more spiritually mature; we've had a few open mic activities at our Thursday Night Fellowship since we've gotten back and it has been so encouraging to hear the insights coming of out of these students mouths. Another effect from camp I've seen is stronger and closer friendships among our students. This is so important and one of our biggest goals for camp. We want each student to be plugged into the community and have deep, lasting SPIRITUAL friendships, friends that encourage them, challenge them, and build them up in their faith. I have been so pleased and excited to see that happen this year, and as those progress we will continue to see more and more fruit! Please join me in praising God for showing up and blessing us with another great Winter Camp! It is not our great planning, or speaking, or musical talent that produces those things, but only God! Here is a picture of one of the sessions at Winter Camp:



Another exciting update at Collin is that we just had 3 girls baptized! They all happened to make the decision to be baptized around the same time so we just decided I make a party out of it! I actually had to miss it due to being out of town, but I got to watch a couple videos on Facebook and was so encouraged! I will try to post them on here if I can ever figure out how to do that haha. All of the girls who were baptized went trough the Focus on Jesus study this year, and decided they wanted without a doubt to be radical, fired up disciples of Jesus! What could be better?? Here is a picture of all the girls and the person who studied with them:



You might recognize Ally in the middle from some previous posts. I got to study with and baptize Ally her freshman year and this year she has stepped up tremendously. She studied with Paige (to the right) this year and baptized her. That's the vision! Fruit producing more fruit!

All three of the girls who were baptized just the other night are eager to study the bible with someone else. One has already started studying with another student at Collin! How exciting! Praise God and keep praying for and joining us in going after more workers and more fruit! God is good and so faithful!!

I hope you are encouraged by what's going on at Collin, YOU are a part of it!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Brianna