November Ministry Update - Thankful!

 Happy Thanksgiving! A lot has been going on since October and I am excited to fill you in.

Mission Trip to Japan!

    I was blessed to get to tag along on a mission trip to Japan with Cypress Bible Church, my home church in Cypress. There are three different missionaries that CBC supports in and around the Tokyo area, so our small team went over from November 1st through November 11th to meet up with them and see how CBC could help to support their ministries. It was a completely new experience for me - I've stepped across the  border into Canada and Mexico, but that is it - and I am so grateful I got to go. God is using these missionaries (their names are Patrick, Tex, and Joe) in such powerful ways to reach the Japanese, one of the largest unreached people groups in the world. Our team was able to tag along with what the missionaries' church plants were up to for the week and to see the Gospel moving firsthand, especially in a completely new culture, is incredible. It reminded me that our God is awesome and no barrier is too strong for Him, whether barriers of geography, language, culture, or spirit. Please be praying for these missionaries and for Christians in Japan - it is no small task to learn a new culture and evangelize to a different people group, even more so when Buddhism, not Christianity, is the dominant religion there, but I believe God is doing something mighty overseas and I find it so cool that we as His children get to be a part of building His Kingdom!

    Here is a collage of pictures from the trip!  Between the different missionaries and churches we visited, I got to attend a lot of outreach events, church services, staff meetings, and Bible studies. A good number of the people in the pictures below are not Christians and are learning about Him for the first time, so please be praying for them! (We also were able to help out Patrick's church by painting the parking lot at his new church building, so that is why there is a random picture of a lot!)

Core

    Core (our weekly Bible study for dudes on Monday evenings) has been going strong. We have been going through the life of Jesus in reverse order to use the crucifixion and resurrection as a reference point and to end with the incarnation closer to Christmastime, with a small hiatus to talk about being thankful during Thanksgiving. I am so blown away by what God is doing in our group and I consider myself blessed to see the guys change little by little over the last semester. Please pray for us - specifically that we would continue to invite people in to our study, both Christians and non-Christians alike. We have had guys attend core from all different points in their faith journeys and I believe God is using our time in community and in His word together for the glory of His Kingdom!

    For Thanksgiving we combined with the girl's Bible study at Collin FOCUS that meets on Mondays and had a potluck style Thanksgiving feast! We sang some worship songs and broke up into small groups to talk about what we were thankful for and how we felt God has blessed us this year, ate together, and played some get-to-know-you games. It is such a blessing to take a break from the hustle and bustle of the end of the semester and the holiday season to give thanks to a God who truly deserves it. Here is a picture from our Thanksgiving potluck!

TNF (Thursday Night Fellowship)

    Thursday nights have been a highlight of my semester - it is when FOCUS students from across multiple Collin College campuses meet up for a mini church service at the Collin school in Plano. We have moved into a large lecture hall instead of the back of the cafeteria (since the campus is starting a construction project in the spring and having to set up the cafeteria for TNF each night is a lot of work!) and that has been working out great. We have spent this semester talking about 1 Corinthians and I think God has used that in really cool ways as our ministry thinks through what it looks like to live in Christian community. Here is an updated picture in the new lecture hall (for that specific TNF Jacy and Stan talked about dating using 1 Corinthians 7-10 as a jumping-off point).

    All in all, I am so grateful and thankful to get to serve in campus ministry this year and I count myself so blessed that each of you has been generous in making it possible. God has been so good and I know He will continue to be as the semester comes to a close and a new one begins. While not necessarily explicitly related to thankfulness, I have been thinking about Job 19:25-27, a passage I read as part of my Old Testament class:

"I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!" - Job 19:25-27

    In many ways I think this verse has given me hope this year. It is easy to get bogged down with school, work, friends, family, and a vast array of difficult circumstances, but one day all of that will fade away and we too will see God, face to face. I hope the guys in our core and that students across Collin college will yearn for that moment the same way Job does. 

    Thank you again for the prayers and support! As always, a browser version of this blog email is available at http://mick.mcafoose.anyfocus.org/. Our KFG (Keep FOCUS Growing) campaign that helps our new ministry plants is still underway and donations given on Giving Tuesday will be matched! Please reach out to me or visit anyfocus.org/kfg for more information if you are interested! Until then, happy holidays and thank you for all of your prayers and support!

Blessings,

Mick