All I want for Christmas is YOU!!

Monday, January 13, 2020

The end of the Semester came fast and furious. It's crazy to me that we are halfway done with the school year, I feel like I just got here. The month of December was quick but jammed packed.

The semester ended pretty quickly in December. Most of our students live far away or out of state so after the finished their finals, many of them went home. Before Finals week we had our big Outreach Christmas party. It was seriously so much fun that I forgot to take pictures. FOCUS teamed up with the Newman Catholic Ministry to put on this outreach event. It was so sweet to get to partner with another Christian group on campus and make Jesus known. We got funds for the school and got a good chunk of our food donated! We had such a huge turnout. We had Christmas karaoke, which was a huge hit and if you know me, you know I was in the front row singing along to every song. It was the perfect way to end our semester with our students.

Erin and I met some international girls from Taiwan as we were leaving and invited them to go to In and Out with us and a some other people. They thanked Erin and I profusely and shared that they were about to go back home and it was their dream to make American friends. It's so easy to forget that a simple invite or just stopping and talking to someone could be life-changing. It makes me so sad that they could have gone a whole semester before an American reached out to just say hi to them. I felt very challenged to go into this next semester being more aware of just talking to people while walking around on campus. It's easy to just have ministry moments chalked up to specific tasks and miss some sweet spirit lead moments.

During our student's final exam week, we had the apprentice sermons. Each apprentice gave a 20-minute sermon and received around 30 minutes of feedback time. It was such an incredible experience. Our topic was "This is my Gospel" we got to share how the gospel has changed our view on ourselves, God, and ministry. I talked about how the gospel gives me freedom, God is incredibly loving, and how the gospel charges us to advocate for others. I'm so thankful for the experience of giving my first sermon among a bunch of ministers who only want to see me succeed. I was so incredibly blessed to not only gove a sermon but to listen to my fellow apprentices share how the gospel has radically transformed their lives. And if that isn't good news, what is?

We got some time off for the Christmas break and it was so refreshing. I got o spend my birthday with some of my favorite people, hang out with friends I haven't seen in a while, and celebrate Christmas with my family. I'm ready to be back and to see our students! I miss them so much!

Winter camp is right aorund the corner, this is a winter retreat that we take our studnets to. This retreat is life changing and was actually the first FOCUS event I attended. Someone invited me and my life was forever changed.

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