October Update!!!!

Hello friends and supporters!

The month of September has been a great one which means I have a lot to tell you about! I'll break each thing going on up into small sections so that you don't get lost in the vast amounts of updating I'm about to do :)

Core
Our core groups, small communities of same-gender students who are pursuing God with their relationships and lifestyles, are going great! Our core facilitators are doing a great job of getting students involved and making friendships so as to be examples of Christ at Collin. They're also learning the incredibly valuable skill of leading discussions, teaching people Scripture, and learning to manage busy schedules. On top of all this, we are reading a book together called "So You Want To Be Like Christ" by Chuck Swindoll, a book about the spiritual disciplines (prayer, silence, intimacy, etc.). This book has been shaping their personal lives and as they grow closer to God I can really see him healing, developing, and transforming them. God is so good!

Thursday Night Focus
Our big group meetings have been going great! We're doing a sermon series called "Words of Life" that is meant to reteach students some basic concepts of what life in Christ really looks like. These sermons have given our students a lot to talk about during the week. On top of this, our times of worship have been really encouraging. We have had over 6 different worship leaders lead us in different songs and methods of worship and it's been so cool to see them developing in their concepts of worship.

Bible Studies and Discipleship Class 
Our 10 week one-on-one Bible study, Focus on Jesus, has been started by numerous students. Our core facilitators do most of the studying with students, but there are a number of other students helping each other learn and think through Scripture with that study. On top of this we have started Discipleship Class and are now in the third week. "D class", as we lovingly refer to it, is a two hour, once a week academic class that goes over the Gospel of Mark in great detail and uses the concepts from the Gospel to help students think through issues and ideas in following Jesus. We've had over 30 students regularly coming to this class which is such a great sign of health for our ministry!

There's much more but I don't want to inundate you with updates! Please feel free to email or call me any time to ask about how things are going, and I'd love to sit down with you in person if you'd like! In short, The Lord is moving powerfully at Collin; lives are being turned over to God and changed, people are developing authentic Christian community, and we have nothing but gratitude and thankfulness for it all! Thank you so much for your partnership with us!!!

Yours on the campus,
Garrett