Hi everyone! I hope you are staying cool and continuing to enjoy the summer. Here is a little bit of what we have been up to at Collin FOCUS.
Activate
This month our staff hosted a weekend of worship, study, and leadership training for returning students in our ministry who will be serving during the coming school year. It was our first year putting something like this together and God really showed up. We had over 60 students in attendance and each workshop and session were well received! The Collin students that went shared that they learned a lot, made some deep friendships, and were able to connect with God in really meaningful ways.
Please pray that the concepts and lessons from this weekend would continue to impact students as the school year approaches. Many of the people who went to Activate will be serving as student leaders at Collin this coming year outreaching to students, leading cores, and driving the ministry, so please pray they would continue to be equipped and sharpened by the Spirit as the summer wraps and the fall begins! Here are some pictures from the weekend:
Summer FOCUS and Licensing Ceremony
As many of you know, a big uniting force for FOCUS this summer has been our weekly Thursday night services. It has been such a special time worshipping with members from across campuses and building connections with students I don't normally get to interact with. God has been good to us and there are a lot of people to thank for making it possible - a church called CARE church let us use their building free of charge, our band each week was made up of volunteer students and staff, and so many people from the community made the trip across the metroplex to be a part of the service.
We held our last worship night on the 31st and it served as a licensing ceremony for us staff. As campus missionaries, we committed to serve God and our campuses this coming school year in front of students who have been a part of FOCUS. The ceremony has been a highlight of my summer for two years now and is a unique time to recenter on why I love to do what God is calling me to do. It is a reminder that there are a lot of students out there who need Jesus and we get to share with them about a good, loving, perfect, powerful, graceful Father who wants to know them! Here are a couple of pictures from Summer TNF this month and from the licensing ceremony - one of us staff who are made commitments and one of our apprentice class last year (now full-fledged staff members)!
A Sermon and a baptism! A sweet benefit of slowing down this summer has been getting to be more involved with my church. This last weekend I was asked to give a sermon over King Saul in a series we called "Less Than, No More" where we spent time looking at Old Testament figures. The heart of the series was asking what these figures from the Bible thought about God or struggled with themselves that led to the crisis of identity they experienced, and how does that apply to us now? It was a blessing to put the sermon together and share with the church - both about King Saul and struggles with identity in my own life. Here are some pictures from Sunday:
We also had a student in our ministry, Given, get baptized! Given first became a part of FOCUS this year and will be one of our student leaders this coming fall. He is a special guy and it has been a blessing getting to know him. Please pray for him as he steps into leadership in ministry for the first time - that God would continue to grow him and shape him as a disciple for His kingdom. Here are some pictures from his baptism:
Thank you!
As always, thank you so much for your support in ministry and for partnering with me in reaching college students at Collin! God has been so good and the way you all have poured into me, prayed for me, and given so generously is a constant, powerful reminder of the kind of Lord that we serve! In writing my sermon Psalm 46 came to mind and it's ending has stuck with me:
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
- Psalm 46:10-11
It is a powerful reminder to me that God is in control - our job is to be still and know that He is God. He will be exalted on college campuses and across the world, and we get to be a part of that!
Please be praying for our staff as we continue to finalize plans for the coming school year - that God will give us discernment and peace in all the craziness of August. Please also be praying for students that will be returning to campus or coming to college for the first time. It is our hope that each and every one of them will come face to face with the Living God and see His hands and feet through ministries on campus!
Thank you so much again for partnering with me! If this is your first time recieving this email, a browser version of this blog and the rest of the blog posts I have made this year are available at http://mick.mcafoose.anyfocus.org/. Attached below is Christina's testimony, a student from our SMU ministry!
Blessings,
Mick
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