The Church Is Not a Building

-






Approximately 600 people from across the 11 FOCUS campuses attended Winter Camp 2019. Despite being my fifth year, God used Winter Camp to again show me the value of community and serving people. 



As before Fall Camp in September, one of the leaders at Preston Ridge again generously offered to host a guys night at his house. We again played games, ate a LOT of pizza, and had some good time of fellowship.


Thanks again to Sterling and the DeWitt family for feeding us and opening their home to our two guys cores!


2018-2019 Collin FOCUS at Winter Camp!
These people are one of the biggest reasons why I love my job and serving the Lord.
(Go Cougs!)



Some of the guys from Collin and I's core who went to Winter Camp!
It's neat to reflect on how these guys have grown and changed throughout the year through their friendships and relationship with Christ. 




Reading for our New Testament class while keeping an eye on the printer.
We've been learning about the Greco-Roman world and culture in the time leading to the New Testament to help us better understand the culture and setting at the time!


Our staff folding and labeling the tax receipts many of you received recently.
Work and admin times like these are surprisingly fun and a productive staff bonding exercise!

Thank you for your investment in FOCUS this past year. I pray that the Lord allows you to continue to give and invest generously in causes like this, and much more!




Along with the New Testament class I mentioned, the apprentices started other classes such as Strategic Leadership with Brandon.


Here Brandon and the apprentices discuss some of the top core values of our ministry and why we are value them. The Top 3 we discussed were:
Jesus Is Lord, Real Friendships and Raising up Leaders.
We believe that these three are incredibly important and valuable to campus ministry.



Ronnie, one of the pastors at Northeast Church in Garland, 
discussing some different personality types in his Ministry Essentials class.




Andrew is one of the guys in my core that I've gotten to befriend this year through a one on one Bible study. The Lord has really blessed Andrew with a heart for people, as he consistently reaches out to the people in his everyday life to tell them about Christ. 



Our first Thursday Night Fellowship of 2019!
Our students lined up to share takeaways from their four days at camp.
I'm so proud of these guys for their willingness and boldness in sharing.
I was reminded that God provides communities to be places of healing and encouragement. Two things the college campus is very much in need of.



Collin FOCUS showing off the "Cougar hand sign". 

As our camp guest speaker John Stackhouse said, 
"Church isn't just about my connection with God, but also worshipping God with other people."
These people are the church. A church who loves God, and loves each other.

The opportunity to do this apprenticeship with these people is truly a gift and blessing. Praise God for how He moves in the lives of people in and outside of this community.

Please be praying for the FOCUS staff (such as me) and students as we think through where we're headed in the summer and next academic year.

Thank you for your support!
Alex Garcia


This month's student testimony, featuring a former coworker and peer from Denton FOCUS and my time working at the daycare!







Comments

  1. KellyFebruary 5, 2019 at 1:11 PM

    Hey Alex! Thanks for sharing all the pics. I'd love to hear more about what you've been learning in those classes. You get to spend a lot of time with some really wise people!
    Keep up the good work!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Relational Ministry

-
Image
Campus ministry is a heavily relational vocation and lifestyle. For this month's update, I primarily wanted to highlight some people I spend a lot of time with during this apprenticeship. Their friendships and willingness to pour into me in different ways has shaped me so much over the past few months! A picture from our yearly leadership conference, featuring the FOCUS ministries and our parent churches from Garland, Wylie, Denton, and Arlington! This year we discussed using scripture and the stories in it to minister to people.  So many people at this conference impacted others who poured into me, and thus indirectly influenced who I am. It was amazing to look around and think about how God has used all of these relationships to impact so many lives both in and outside of that room.  Cody, my pastoral supervisor. He's also become one of my best friends this year. I love meeting with him every Friday morning and talking about our lives, one on one ministry,
Read more

Thank You for this Opportunity!

-
Image
Hello there! The end of May marked the end of my ten month apprenticeship with FOCUS. It also marked the beginning of some new directions in my life! We finished our apprentice classes with a class on the book Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis, taught by Brad Davis.  We explored topics such as Christian integrity, ethics, and false spiritual leadership. We wrapped up by having dinner and sharing projects that communicated the Gospel message in different formats. We also had breakfast with Ronnie, as we thanked him for being a mentor and source of wisdom in ministry.  The apprenticeship provided so many sources of wisdom and guidance to me. I'm so thankful for the time and effort invested by the class teachers and staff this year. I'm also super thankful for the opportunity to have gotten to spend time with and study scripture with guys like Andrew, who consistently taught me about Jesus in a different light than I was used to. Getti
Read more

70% Through the Apprenticeship!

-
Image
This scripture has been on my mind a lot recently: Philippians 4:4-9 (NIV) "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you." This scripture has been written on a whiteboard in my room for almost four years (it won't come off anymore). God has used this constantly throughout my time as a Christian to give me peace
Read more