Coming Home

 Hey team,

What a month! Full of sightings of God and His Kingdom. The last month included some of my apprenticeship classes starting as well as the start of the new semester for college students, often referred to as "Welcome Week." For those who aren't as familiar with FOCUS or campus ministry in general, the beginning of the school year is a really exciting and busy time. The staff and student leaders get to be on campus at a time where new and returning students are walking back onto campus ready to meet and make new friends. During my time as a student leader with FOCUS, I was amazed at how the Spirit worked in leading the team to meeting students of all backgrounds and perspectives. On top of the typical liveliness of a new semester and school year, the students seemed even more receptive and hungry for meeting people coming out of a largely virtual year last year. It's been a few years since I've been on a college campus, but it felt like I was coming home in a lot of ways. Students at Collin College just feel like my people. I got to be on one of the Collin campuses each day last week meeting students and inviting them into community. The team at Collin facilitated activities such as outside lawn games, Uno, and a  photobooth to meet students and welcome them back to campus. I saw the Spirit move once again so powerfully. From meeting several international students to students who were looking for community on campus to students who shared they haven't been able to make any friends during their time at college, it was evident that the Spirit was at work and had been leading up to this point. 

Matthew 9:37-38 kept coming to mind and continues to encourage me:

37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

I am expectant to see how God continues to guide and lead us as we go back onto campuses!

Another big update is the significant blessing that the apprenticeship classes have been already. One of the classes we started is Old Testament Foundations. We have read through the first four books of the Bible already, and have gotten to learn and discuss some neat ideas. We looked at God's character and the ways that the Old Testament shows us part of the human narrative at large. Learning about the trueness of God's nature helped spur me on last week as I went into the "harvest field." God really is that Good, and I hope students and you guys get to learn that through our community this year. 

Some things you can be praying about are:

-students getting connected to our same gender smaller gatherings that we call Core; one of the biggest heartbeats of our community is knowing each other deeply through these Cores. 

-energy as we continue to meet students new to campus

Thank you to each one of you. There were many moments where one of y'all's faces would come to mind last week as I reflected on how I get to be on campus because of your support. Thank you for your commitment to the Kingdom and all God is doing on campus. 

With love,

Renee

This is my new friend Taya, who I met through playing Uno. Her brother was actually a part of FOCUS, and it's neat to see a new generation coming to campus who have heard about FOCUS already. 

This is my friend Vanessa who was looking to make friends. She was willing to give me my first face tattoo, which was a bonding experience. 

These are some more girls I got to meet. Munezza, KB, and Melihah were all down to get tattoos (temporary) together!

This was our first Thursday Night Fellowship, TNF, which is the large group fellowship time that FOCUS has each week. We worshipped and shared about the vision of FOCUS. 

This is my friend Maddie who doesn't even go to Collin but came to our first TNF and wants to get plugged more into community. It's a blurry pic, because we were both a bit hyper at Cane's where we all hung out after TNF.