Happy New Year!

Hi friends!

Happy 2017! I hope that you were able to spend time this holiday season with friends and family, and that you got to reflect on God’s love and kindness to us through it all. I am praying that God will bless you in this new year, and that you will get to experience His love more deeply and grow in your relationship with Him.

The apprentices did a gift exchange for each other at our Christmas party!

We are more than halfway done with our 10 month apprenticeship! It blows my mind how fast the time has flown, and it’s bittersweet because I feel like the end of May will be here before we know it. However, I am so thankful I have gotten to spend so much time with this group of people getting to know them more personally. I love getting to see how God is growing each of them and hearing about their reflections on what we’re all learning. It is very encouraging and I really cannot express how grateful I am to you guys for supporting me so that I could have the opportunity to devote a large amount of time to learning and growing myself. Thank you!

The TWU-Dallas girls who dressed up as ladies in our 80's from the 80's!

 The FOCUS communities at the Dallas campuses wrapped up the end of 2016 with a fun "Very 80's Christmas" party. We spend the night hanging out with one another and then we get to enjoy a show of core skits put together by each core. The two TWU Dallas cores decided to dress up "as ladies in their 80's from the 80's" or maybe just the Golden Girls. We wrote a rap song and got to perform it up front. It was so much fun getting to work with them beforehand and share our work with everyone! I loved wrapping up the end of the semester with this party full of laughter and smiles, and I know all of the students really enjoyed themselves (especially the ones who go all out). I think I might even start wearing curlers more often too.

This upcoming weekend, we have our annual FOCUS Winter Camp at Sky Ranch in Van, TX. All of our campuses from across DFW come together to spend 4 days away from the "normal" to devote time to extensive learning, worshipping God, resting and preparing for the year, and growing deeper friendships. It is probably one of my favorite times of the year and is always so rewarding in the memories I leave camp with. I want to ask y'all to pray expectantly this weekend for every student that takes the time to come to encounter God and to make and grow new friendships. It really is such a refreshing weekend, and I am praying that God uses it to get our students on fire for what He is going to do in the coming year. I know for me, Winter Camp was a defining moment in my desire to invest in campus ministry and grow more intimately in my relationship with God.

My core the first time I went to Winter Camp!

Thank you guys so much for your continuous love, prayers, and support. Please let me know if there is any way I can be praying for you and how I can bless you this year.  I love you all so much!

P.S. Check out this student testimony. Not only is it very encouraging, it is a testimony to how God uses people in our lives. Autumn Priestly introduced her to FOCUS, and she also later on studied the Bible with me and invested a lot of time into my spiritual growth. God is so cool.