February 2025

February is when we begin to start thinking through SICM more seriously (which occurs in May). We invite select students to consider joining us on our annual trip to Bellingham and take a week out of their summer to learn more about how to minister on their campus. If you’ve been on my team a while, you’ve definitely heard about this before! But it bears repeating because of how important this training is to our ministry—we are disciples who make disciples who make disciples. Please begin praying for this trip this year as we have already begun booking our accommodations and our students have already started registering! You will definitely hear more about this in the coming months and see some pictures in the summer. :-)

In March, we invite a group of students from CCF (the organization that hosts SICM) to come to Texas to put into practice a week of outreach on our campuses during their Spring Break, aka Spring Outreach Week (SOW). This year, they will be hosted by our Denton campuses, please be praying for them as they are here during the last full week of March!

Kylie, one of our pastors at UTD, celebrated her birthday in February! We put on a Wicked-themed party to surprise her. Kylie has been a dear friend for the better part of a decade now and her and her husband, Johnny (who now works on the admin team for FOCUS), have been a sweet staple in my life. They are both so talented musically and care deeply for the students in our ministry.

We had our Pizza Theology this winter about finances: what the Bible thinks about money and more. I had the opportunity to do a little part of it with Stian, who teaches a financial stewardship class for our apprentices with me. While most of the night covered different parts of the Bible that references money, our section focused on the why and how of a budget. This was my first time speaking in front of so many people and as someone who is not a big fan of speaking in general (I like listening a lot more), wow, let me tell you it was a growing experience. You can listen to the talks from this Pizza Theology, and from series in the past by searching for our podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. You can find a link to either of these at the bottom of the page at anyfocus.org/pizza.

My dad sent me a 3d wooden puzzle for my birthday in December and I finally got around to finishing it! It’s a cello that plays a part of a sonata (you can see the music box peeking out the back), and the bow moves as the music plays. He sent it to me because I have made a number of them over the years, but this one is the one I’ve put the most care into building! (They all have moving parts: manually cranking, twisting a rubber band, winding a music box, etc., and this one is the only one that works without any hitches.)

We celebrated my friend Stephen’s birthday in February as well! He recently got a new Ooni pizza oven (#notsponsored) that we fired up and tried our hand at using. And.. it’s tricky. Especially having not read how to actually use it. We tried our best, and the pizzas turned out great. But maybe they could’ve been better? If you have any wisdom from experience you want to impart on me from using a pizza oven, please let me know. Stephen has helped FOCUS out at Winter Retreat (see my last post) for the past few years, borrowing equipment from the production company he works for, taking time off work, and running the sound board the entire weekend. I’m so thankful to have friends like Stephen and Kylie!