Thankful for leaves, green tea and people!

Hello Everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and you all got some rest! I am excited to share some updates with you from this past month. BUT FIRST, I wanted to share a really cool opportunity we have coming up this Tuesday!

Some of you might have already seen our Facebook posts about our Keep Focus Growing Campaign. The money raised from this fundraiser goes towards maintaining our organization and allowing us to plant new campuses across the DFW!

Some of our generous donors have banded together and agreed to match up to $36,000 in total donations during this campaign. So if we receive $36,000 in total contributions, they will kick in a SECOND $36,000! Your first chance to give will be on December 3rd! I would definitely encourage you guys to pray about giving and see if it is something God might be calling you to do!

TWU Small Group

Getting ready for our SMU Thursday Night Worship

TWU Pies and Good Vibes Outreach Event

SMU Friendsgiving!

Next up, I have some exciting updates from ministry this month! I think something that I have been reflecting on is the idea of thankfulness. We have been reading through Philippians in our small group and I have noticed that throughout Paul’s writing, he calls us to give thanks, to God and for people.

As I have reflected on our community this month, I have found myself continually giving thanks. In our last small group, we wrote cards to people that we were thankful for and we had multiple students write cards to each other, sharing how that person had impacted their life. How cool is it that we have students that are invested in each other’s lives and that they are truly thankful for one another!

I am also thankful for our TWU students. If you all remember, I mentioned a student in my last blog who was so close to accepting Jesus as the Lord of her life. Well, she accepted Jesus this month and committed her life to Christ! God is so good right!? I am thankful that God has worked in her life to bring her to this point, but also that we have students who invest their time in studying the Bible with her to help her make that decision!

Another thing I have to be really grateful for is how our community handled a recent hardship. Recently, we had a student that had been struggling with a variety of things all semester and for reasons that I will keep private, he is unable to continue in school, at least for quite a while. This student is deeply cared for by our community and the reasons for leaving hurt many students. But when we told a few of our students that knew him closely, I watched as our community became a safe place to mourn and comfort one another. One of our student leaders took it upon himself to meet up with every person involved that same week to make sure they were doing ok. Even though the situation was hard, I found myself being so grateful to have a community that is able to endure tough things together and still love and care for one another.

Throughout this month, I’ve been reminded of Philippians 4:12 that says, “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether in plenty or in want.” Right before this verse, Paul talks about giving thanks to God, and I think there is a connection there. I think that gratitude produces a spirit of contentment, and often more than that, a spirit of joy for the many blessings we have in our lives. And we are reminded that God is the good giver of all those things.

Maybe some of you are great at being thankful all the time, but I know I often struggle with getting negative and have my heart set on the things that are bad or that I don't have. But through thanksgiving, I am reminded that I already have so much and the things I don't have just seem so small. And that God really is such a good giver! I want to encourage you to practice thankfulness with me! I can testify to how powerfully it has produced joy in my own life, even in the midst of hardship!

So grateful for this crazy group of people! These are students at our Monday Dinners!

Thank you all again for your generous giving and investment in campus ministry. You all support me in more ways than you know!