Has it been a month already? That seems impossible; time is flying by and the ministry is moving forward rapidly! I have a lot to tell you about so I'll just get right to it.
I'll start by talking about my favorite thing that happens every March. Students from Western Washington University in a campus ministry called College Christian Fellowship come down to Texas for a week while they're on their spring break and they visit all of our campuses. They spend most of their days doing outreach on campus, while they themselves are lead in times of prayer and worship by their campus staff. They even come to our churches and ministry meetings throughout the week! It was such a blessing to get to engage our campuses in meaningful discussions about spiritual matters during that week. At Collin we had two different types of display boards up. One asked questions like, "What's your story?" and "How does your story end?" and the other asked things like, "Does God care about justice?"and "Does God care about suffering?" It was such a cool way for our students to get to share their faith on campus and we all feel very blessed to have been a part of what God was doing that week. 
Another highlight of the month was our annual Focus Parent Night at Collin. It was so encouraging to hear from the parents of students in our community about how their involvement in the ministry has impacted them. We shared about what we do in Focus on a weekly basis as well as what we're all about. God has certainly blessed us with some great students this year, and I have no doubt that he has used the parents of our students to help bring them where they're at. If this is your first time to read my blog update because you signed up for it at Parent Night, thank you for coming and for your interest in what God is doing at Collin!
On a more personal note, I was recently accepted to begin summer classes at Regent College in Vancouver. Regent is a well-known seminary that I am delighted to begin studying at. Much of what I have learned in the past few years has been because of listening to audio classes from numerous professors at Regent. I plan to begin a long-term journey at the college to receive my masters of divinity. I will be taking some distance learning classes through the year and every summer I will return to try and complete more classes. Getting this degree is not something that is vocationally imperative for me, or even something I could say I needed in regard to continuing in campus ministry. But it is something I feel like will make me a better minister and man of God in almost every way. I'm excited to start this summer!
Finally, I wanted to take a moment to brag about the student leaders we have at Collin (we call them core facilitators or corefas for short). These students are the reason I do ministry. Their growth this year has astonished and humbled me. God has been so faithful to use their efforts to build his kingdom on our campus and I couldn't be more thankful for them. Below is a picture of JB, one of our corefas. JB studied the Bible for months with Randy, they became friends, they lived life together, experienced community together, and the Lord used JB to help Randy make the decision to give his life to Jesus. I was blessed to be a part of the baptism, and reap where I had not sown. These students challenge and encourage me so much, and I hope you are as blessed by the news of what they're doing on campus as I am!
Please continue to keep us in your prayers, friends and partners. We need the direction of God as much now as ever. Thank you so much for your continued support and belief in what we're doing. I appreciate you greatly!
Yours for the campus,
Garrett
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