Sirak's November & December Update!

My friends & team!

We're almost at the end of a WONDERFUL fall semester. God has been so good providing our Richland FOCUS ministry with a group of students that are engaging and continually open to one another and what God is doing on our campus :)

Every one of our students is so unique and they each have played a unique role to make our ministry what it is. This fall semester I began to realize that God has been actively at work not just in the lives of our students, but in the local community we are strategically placed as well. 

As of right now, FOCUS is one of two campus ministries on Richland College. There are over 15,000 students who are enrolled in classes and we feel so privileged to get to be in touch with the students who are on campus with us. 

Please pray for us as we prepare for the spring semester. Pray that God would continue to open up doors for new spiritual friendships & connections with the campus! 

We feel extremely grateful since our relationship this year with the Office of Student Life is the strongest that it has ever been! Dallas College has hired a fun, upbeat, and warm-hearted group of staff that we get to serve the campus with. Yes!!!

Me & the Richland FOCUS fellas at our end-of-the-semester party! 

Our Wednesday Noon Men's Core - it has been such a great experience to get to learn & grow with these students.

Grateful for our Thursday Night Fellowship Meeting times!

Joey sharing with us at our end-of-the-semester party! 

For our last core of the semester, me & the guys went to get Ethiopian food! I've loved leading with Yoni (far right) this semester and I am grateful we get to share in our Ethiopian culture with each other! 

Joey planned & coordinated a Thanksgiving potluck with our students! It was a blast to get to eat and share the great things God has been doing this semester within our ministry. 

We are grateful for Tom and his heart! He loves our students so much and we are always honored when he gets to share on Thursday nights!

We had our Fall Pizza Theology in November and it was a blast :) We talked a

bout the book of Revelation - our students were attentive and engaged with what our speakers had to share!

Grateful for our Thursday night gatherings - it has been a great place to connect with other students and remember God's faithfulness from week to week!

Our 2022-23 FOCUS Staff! 

Thank you so much for your support and continued partnership. I'm honored to have each and every one of you on my support team. I'm excited to see what the spring semester brings. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me if you need prayer for anything in your life.

Have a Merry Christmas! 

Your brother & campus missionary,

Sirak 

 

Sirak's October Update! (We Have Momentum!)

My friends & team!

It's been an AMAZING September & October - God has been truly building momentum among our students & student leaders. I can confidently say that it feels like we are at 100% full capacity from COVID!

This year I am studying the Bible 1-on-1 with a student named Nick. He is 22 years old and has been consistently attending Richland Campus FOCUS Thursday Night Fellowship and Core. He has been a huge blessing to my life through his consistency and eagerness to learn & engage with Gods' word (see photo below). 

Typically at a community college, we have 2 years or less to get students plugged into our community in order for them to build spiritual friendships and cultivate a space for them to grow in their relationship with Jesus. Over the last few years we have sensed a type of trepidation and angst among incoming students to be bold and let themselves be known by other students around them. This year we have probably seen the most open & warm-hearted group of students enter our ministry. 

I hope the photos below encourage you and show what your support has been going towards! There are a lot of cool things going on and I want y'all to know all about it! Even this last Thursday night we had an after-event where we encouraged our students to go out, grab some food, and come back so we can all watch "Coco" the film together. The majority of them came back and we had a great time!

This year our worship team has consisted of me & Kris (right). She has been doing an amazing job playing Cajon and making our Thursday night fellowship times encouraging.

Our 2022 Richland Fall Camp group! We had such an amazing group of students this year come & join us! 

Our Wednesday Noon Men's Core - they have all been so consistent and engaged with one another every week! 

Joey giving instructions to our students for a cool worship activity :) 

I

This year I get to lead core w/ Yoni (above). Here he is sharing his student-testimony at Fall Camp! He did a great job being vulnerable and sharing how God has impacted & shaped his life.

Our Thursday Night FOCUS gatherings have been a great time of sharing in one another's lives. These students are definitely busy and it means so much to our staff that they would make it a priority every week to show up! 

Here's a pic I took at our annual FOCUS Worship Class! We all get together to have a fun class on talking about the "Why & the What" of Worship with one another. What a great gift to get to lead this class!

Last night Joey did a great job preaching on "Come & See: God's Heart for Growth" :) Grateful to have him on our team! 

Thank you all so much for your support & for believing in our mission! October was a powerful month of seeing God's faithfulness in action and beyond that, I get to see God's faithfulness through YOU all. 

THANK YOU - for your encouragements & love! I'm honored to get to walk alongside you on campus as we get to be vessels for God's love! 

Your brother & campus missionary,

Sirak  

...And We're Off! (Sirak's August Missions Update)

The year has begun! 

My friends & team! I hope that your August wasn't too hot and that you are ready for a beautiful fall season. The year is off to a great start and I'm excited to get to share with you what God has been doing at Dallas College Richland Campus. 

Welcome week was a great experience as we got to connect with a new incoming class of students at Richland College. We've typically set up a volleyball net outside of the main cafeteria, but we have noticed that over the last few years fewer and fewer students were interested in coming outside in the heat to play volleyball (I guess most people want to stay indoors and be on their phones, hah). 

The campus let us set up two different tables on campus to maximize the number of people we would connect with. It was a great experience! Joey (one of our senior staff) coordinated with Starbucks to help us get free coffee every day and we were able to connect with a new students throughout the week! 

Our first week of core was also a great success! The students are excited and motivated to get to know one another and pursue what following Jesus could look like while students. We have momentum and synergy among our students that I have not seen since pre-COVID. Please pray that we would be faithful in loving & serving the students among us! 

Thank you for your support & for believing in our mission to love college students! I hope that the pictures below encourage you and fill you with love. Your support means something! There are students who are being impacted and are being introduced to the Jesus-way of living! So good! 

Pictures Below: 

For one of our welcome week events, we did a Braums night off campus to meet some of the students that have been coming around! It was fun! 

A group photo after our first Thursday Night Thunder meeting! It was awesome to get to be with everyone on Thursday Night - we have a lot of fun personalities in our group this year! 

We did an Arcade-night and afterwards we got pizza together! 

I had the privilege to speak at our first Thursday Night FOCUS of the year. Our theme this year is "Come & See". In our sermon series, we are inviting the students to Come & See the many aspects of who God is; I can tell that our sermon series is really resonating with the students! 

My core this year! I get to lead w/ Yoni (student in the black/white striped shirt) and he has been an absolute blessing to my life. I love getting to work with him and serving alongside him. Please be praying for him, he got in a car accident about a week ago and is currently working with his insurance company to handle all of the details. 

Here is me - as a young lad w/ my sister, Meron. We are walking along a riverwalk in Windsor, Ontario. 

We did an Super-Smash-Brothers event on campus during welcome week - it was awesome! We had a bunch of new students come and hang out with us! 

The campus has been more open in letting us advertise around campus with fewer restrictions. Hopefully we are able to connect with more & more students that way! 

Claire w/ our FOCUS table at Welcome Week! 

Thank You! So much for believing in me and walking with me along this campus missionary journey :) 

I'm looking forward to an awesome year! Let's do this!

Sirak 

The Calm Before the (Beautiful) Storm!

 My friends :) 

Summer is almost over and I am 100% pumped for the school year! Thank you for all of your continued support and partnership through these last 10 years of campus missions work. God has been faithful to grow & develop me in this very unique mission field. 

Summer was a great time of rest & remembering God's faithfulness through countless relationships throughout the years. Campus ministry has provided me with a wealth of friendships that have truly blessed and encouraged me in ways that I have no words for. 

Our Dallas staff team is hard at work preparing for welcome week events, room reservations, and kicking off the year strong with an open heart; ready to meet a new generation of students we can love & serve. 

I hope you all are encouraged by the photos below - thank you so much for believing in me and our mission to love college students!

We had an awesome staff retreat last week and Becca (one of our Collin FOCUS staff) got baptized! It was awesome to see!

It was tough saying goodbye to our 2021-22 FOCUS staff - they are off to do great things for the kingdom in their respective vocational fields. 

Our Thursday Night Summer FOCUS meetings were such an encouragement this summer. We have a great group of students across our campuses and I'm excited to see what the fall semester has in store for us!  

Also, I turned 34 years old this summer! Feeling old! :)

Me, my wife, my beautiful mother and brother!

We had an awesome SMU/Dallas College student leader training over the weekend. We have a fun group of students that are excited about this fall. Please pray for each and every one of them that they would be bold in connecting with new students as new friendships are built!

Another shot of our leader training from this past weekend!

Grateful for this group of students! I'm excited for what this year has in store for us.

Thank you so much for believing in me all of these years :) I'm blown away that you all would partner with us as we get to love college students! Please don't hesitate to reach out to me if you need prayer for anything in your life.

Please pray for us as we jump into Welcome Week next week. It'll be jam packed with meeting new students, connecting with their hearts and hearing about how FOCUS can serve them this year! 

Thank you for your support!

Your brother & campus missionary,

Sirak

Summer Is Off To A Great Start :)

My friends & team :) 

Summer is off to a wonderful start! Thank you all for letting me reconnect with you and share about the vision to love college students this year! 

This summer my goal is to re-connect with graduates, Richland FOCUS alum, and friends/family that have been instrumental in my ministry journey. I couldn't do any of this without you! 

Summer FOCUS is off to a get start (see photos below). There are many new students that I am meeting week to week who are excited about learning what it means to follow Jesus. Awesome stuff! I feel honored to get to be a part of their journeys this summer before we hit the ground running in August. 

Please be praying for our FOCUS staff as we support-raise in preparation for a great school year this fall :) 

There is so much to be grateful for :) THANK YOU for your support and for believing in me and the mission to love college students. I hope that the pictures below are encouraging and uplifting to you! 

I love getting to meet up with Yoni every week to study the Bible together. He will be a sophomore at Richland College this fall - he has been a true gift to our ministry! 

We spent some time honoring our FOCUS staff who are transitioning off of staff and into the workplace. (From left to right: Ashlyn, Amber, Taylor, Garrett, Alex, Austin N. Austin B. Cole, and Connor) We are going to miss them! 

Our first summer FOCUS meeting! :) It was a blast! 

My wife (Sloan) had an ankle surgery about 5 weeks ago. She is recovering great and it off to a great start! We're expecting a full recovery.

Our Richland FOCUS men!

Our Richland FOCUS women! 

God has been so good this past school year and I'm excited for what the summer holds! Please do not hesitate to email me if you need prayer for anything going on in your life!

Your brother & campus minister,

Sirak