Tuesday, June 2, 2015

May Update!! Rest and Release :)

My Friends!

The month of May has been crazy! When I say 'crazy' - I don't mean hectic, I mean fully inspired by the heart and mind of Christ! In the month of may our students finished up the spring semester of classes, headed to SICM in Washington state, and were released to be campus missionaries on their college campuses :) I can't stress just how important SICM is to our ministry and I want to start by saying thank you to you who all who have prayed for our students leading into this week.

The official school year is over so many of our students have headed back home to be with their families for the summer. We have a lot of local students stay in the DFW area so we put on Summer FOCUS on Thursday nights @ 7:00pm at Lifepoint Church in Plano, TX. I want to invite any of you who are interested to come on down, I'd love to see you!

Throughout every school year our student leaders disciple and build spiritual friendships with the students that attend their small groups. We have a week-long campus ministry training event called SICM (Student Institute of Campus Ministry) in Bellingham, WA that is put on my CCF (Campus Christian Fellowship). God has built such a strong relationship between our two campus ministries that when we go up there it's like seeing old friends :)

My peer-team for the year. All of these guys were student leaders in our ministry this year and were faithful servants of the Gospel! Front row: Charles, me (Sirak), JD, and Austin. Back row: Morgan, Stephen, Ryan, and Marcus. (photo taken at our end-of-the-year party)

James Junior (middle) is one of the main worship pastors at CCF in Bellingham, WA. Whenever we go up to SICM he and I try to set up time to share our ministries with one another and hear what God has been up to in each other's lives.

All of our UTD students we sent up to SICM this May! Many of these students will end up being small group leaders beginning in the fall 

At the end of the week our students attended the SICM graduation ceremony. You can see them all out relaxing on the grass enjoying their weeks.

I got the opportunity to attend Regent College in Vancouver, B.C. (Canada) for two weeks (May. 24th - June. 6th) to take theology classes with several of the other FOCUS staff. This has been such an enriching experience and joy to learn from some of the most wise minds in their respective studies. God has been teaching me how important it is to read and hear what some of the most brilliant minds of our faith have to offer in regards to scripture and God's creation. (see pictures below)

Every Monday/Thursday we have been attending the chapel services that Regent college offers to the students. They have been leading the congregation in open corporate prayers and I took a quick picture of one called "Prayer of Commitment". I hope it finds you well and it is an encouragement to you wherever you are.

I took a course called More Than Music: Reimagining Worship and here is a group of the students we had together. Our instructor, Christine Longhurst (back row, third from the right), did such a great job 
I went for a walk around my neighborhood and was in awe at God's creation. Enjoy!


Summer is here and I'm so happy to get in contact with you all :) Thank you so much for your continual support and belief in the mission. It is always an encouragement to know you're all behind me through the power of the holy spirit. Your support this year has paved the way for spiritual friendships, baptisms, and lifelong changes through God's holy spirit.

You'll be hearing from me soon!

Your campus missionary,

Sirak