April Update!

Hello friends and supporters!

I hope you're enjoying the beautiful weather we're experiencing as much as I am. With all this great weather has come some pretty great experiences that I'd love to share with you in this ministry update. I'm going to tell you about the Western Washington University students' trip to Dallas, our huge annual fundraiser Spring Showcase, our Parent Night, and give you an update on how the Collin and Preston Ridge ministries are doing!

Student Spring Impact (SSI) is a service event put on by Campus Christian Fellowship based out of Western Washington University. They send student teams around the country (and sometimes world) during their spring break to go serve other ministries and areas that need help. They have made a trip down to Dallas to serve Focus the past 4-5 years and it has been great every time. They reach out on our campuses every day of the week and try to share God with the students around them. Many of them are young and have never had a chance to reach out in that way, so it's always really impacting to them. Our students are also blessed by it because they get to host students from so far away who have the exact same purpose as them: to glorify God in college. Such a cool experience this year!

Spring Showcase is an event we put on every year that includes an art sale and musical performances (both by students). North Dallas Bible Fellowship is the church that graciously allowed us to use their building free of charge. They even had their own staff help work the event. I'm so thankful for their willingness to open their doors and hearts to our students; that church is kingdom folk! The purpose of the event is to raise funds to send students in our multiple communities to SICM (Student Institute of Campus Ministry). We handpick students that we think show promise and send them to this intensive 9 day conference to learn how to lead peers on their campuses. And we get to do it with the exact ministry we mentioned above! It's a very meaningful and eye-opening time for the students that go. Oh yeah, and this year we're taking over 100!

Our Parent Night was earlier in March and it was such a blast! We had well over 200 people come to our Collin/Preston Parent Night on a Thursday night from 7:30-9. To see how many parents came to Focus to see what was happening in their students' lives is a testimony to how they've seen God change their students and want to know the ministry that plays some part of that. We got to hear from parents about how their child has been impacted by the community and that was so very meaningful. We place high value on developing relationships with the parents of our students, we know how pivotal they are.

Finally, I just wanted to give a brief update on how the Collin/Preston Ridge ministries are doing. We only have about 4 weeks of school left this semester; it's unreal that I'm saying that right now. The year has past by so quickly. Our ministry is full of God-loving students who are passionate about Jesus, led by the Spirit, and eagerly growing more and more. God has been so incredibly good to us. With that said, many students are beginning to feel stressed, anxious, and worried about their plans for next year, their grades, their schedules, and so on. I ask that you would be praying for them to finish well, to not merely survive but to thrive, and that their focus as always would be on Christ!

Thank you so much for all that you do to help make all of the above possible. I value you deeply.

In Christ,
Garrett