June 2025

It seems every year in early summer, me and Steph go through some sort of crisis. Two years ago, the pipes underneath our house needed to all be replaced. As the house was made in the ‘70’s, the pipes were made of cast iron (iykyk). Last year, Steph was involved in a car accident and her car was totaled and needed to be replaced. This year, we discovered that the house was flooding due to some issues with the gutters and drainage and patio in the backyard and so our flooring needed to be replaced.

Because the floors need to be replaced, we have tried to move everything into the back rooms so that the living room and kitchen can be redone. This is my journey from my kitchen to the back room, getting rice for the rice cooker with all of the obstacles in the way.

I visited one of Northeast Garland’s sister churches, East Plano Fellowship, to watch my good friend Jacob preach! It was fun getting to see friends that I don’t normally see on a normal basis and to hear him preach. What a blessing it is to have a great family of churches in our community!

Here is me and Mandy at our end-of-year staff dinner. (The theme was A Taste of Italy and we had pasta, hence the backdrop decorations!) I have gotten the opportunity to work more closely with Mandy on some of our events and it has always been so much fun!

I got to spend some time with Ruth (fourth from the left) and some of her friends and watched How To Train Your Dragon (the live action version). Ruth was a summer intern with FOCUS the same year that my little sister interned. It was great getting to catch up with her a little and the movie exceeded my expectations! 10/10 would recommend.

Are you on the Labubu train yet? Labubus are a plushie keychain that are blowing up right now. My older sister ordered all of the siblings one to have and now I’m getting so many reels about these little guys. It kinda reminds me of Beanie Babies (if you’re old enough to get that).

Summer FOCUS is well underway! We’re about halfway through. Have you come to check it out yet? Summer FOCUS is at CARE Church in Richardson every Thursday starting at 7:30 PM through the end of July. If you haven’t come to see what you are partnering with in a while, I highly encourage you to let me know and make an appearance. You can listen to our sermons this year—and from years previous—on Spotify by clicking here, starting with “I will be with you” preached by Lindsey.

We recently had JaM (Jesus and Me, our kids’ ministry at church) Camp! From a Friday to Monday, we host a number of 1st through 5th grade kids in our family of churches at a camp out in Oklahoma. It’s always super hot and tiring, but it’s always rewarding and a great investment. If you haven’t had a chance to work in kids’ ministry before, it’s a huge privilege to be able to help shape their thoughts and minds on church and Jesus and set them up to enjoy learning more about Him. I have been working in our kids’ ministry for the better part of a decade and I have seen kids grow through through JaM, through teen ministry, and are now getting to be involved with FOCUS!