October 2024

Hi friends!

We’re coming to the end of the calendar year and I’m so excited for Christmas season (is it too early?)! I didn’t have very many pictures, other than some of the things that I ate this month. So enjoy this not curated list of food photos and some thoughts along with them and always remember, food eats first.

This month in ministry:

• The remainder of our campuses held their fall camps this month. Though it’s not about numbers, it helps to get a gauge of the state of our ministry and how well engaged we are at our campuses. Overall, we saw over a 30% increase in the amount of students that attended camp this year compared to last year—from around 500 students to almost 700! What a blessing! I’m excited to see how He uses these students on these campuses now and moving forwards!

• If you have a few minutes, click here to listen to a powerful testimony by one of our students at UTD!

• It’s been a month of prepping! Prepping for Pizza Theology, KFG, Winter Retreat, the new calendar year, and so many other things! You’d think that it gets easier each year, but alas… please be praying for me as I try to keep everything in front of me!

Keep FOCUS Growing is coming soon! KFG is an annual fundraiser that seeks to raise the funds necessary to run an organization, from administrative staff and support, to insurance and benevolence, outreach events and activities, and so much more! You’ll be seeing more information regarding this fundraiser soon, but in the meantime, feel free to get more information or give early at anyfocus.org/kfg.

Extra, extra, read all about it! You can buy FOCUS merch (shirts) online until Nov 1 at anyfocus.org/shirts! If you don’t live in the Dallas area, you can buy one and I can ship it to you!

Pizza Theology is in about a week! If you want to hear from Rikk Watts or learn more about 1 & 2 Samuel, you are welcome to join!

Shin Ramyun instant ramen with pork belly, rice cakes, and egg. One of the simplest dishes to make, literally just boil some water and throw everything in a pot. Well, except the pork belly, which I had made previously.

Chicken pho. This was before the stock was skimmed and then would’ve looked a little nicer, oops. I also maybe filled the pot too full. It was good and quite simple, but I think I prefer regular pho or bún bò Huế. But it’s all about learning new things and cooking with new ingredients.

(Pho) Chicken fried rice à la Din Tai Fung. When making the chicken pho, you use more chicken than is needed when consuming the pho to flavor the broth while simmering. So I used the extra cooked chicken in some fried rice.

Cap’n Crunch’s Crunch Berries cereal with Lactaid milk. Yum. I don’t think I need to explain how this is made.

Jif Extra Crunchy Peanut Butter on white bread. A meal for a king!

Breaded chicken patty with pepper jack cheese and mayonnaise on toasted white bread. I was trying to buy chicken nuggets at Costco and was moving too fast and accidentally bought LARGE chicken nuggets (chicken patties). Not the end of the world, but imagine my surprise when I opened the bag for the first time.

Cherry pie. I have a friend who makes award-winning pies and she offered to teach me how to make some! When making the lattice on top, I don’t think she realized how particular I would be. The vision was small latticework on the right and fat latticework on the left, separated by a braid and some flowers on top. Steph says it is yummy.

Pecan pie. Pecan pie is one of the only pies I actually like (I don’t like fruit pies). This was one of the best pies I’ve tasted in my life. Even still, I don’t think I’m much of a baker! I’ll probably stick to cooking.