My friends & team!
It's been a while and I have much to share but before I begin I want to say: Thank you! Thank you for believing in our mission to love college students and show them what a new life in Christ can look like. God has put so many brilliant, talented, and powerful students in our path and I am excited to be a part of their stories during their time at Richland.
FOCUS Winter Camp was amazing (see pictures below)! We met so many wonderful students across our campuses who are living mission-filled lives during their time as students. I am touched by their openness and warmth towards one another. I'm grateful to get to be a part of the change happening in their lives.
It is powerful to know that all it takes is one conversation to change the direction of someones story. We have been emphasizing and praying for outreach to be a core value in Richland FOCUS. Many of our students are afraid to meet new people and engage with them on a personal level. It is much easier to be glued to our phones and believe that all of our interpersonal connection should happen through technology.
2020 taught many of us the limits of human connection via technology. We are relational beings who long for personal connection with one another. It is work to emphasize these things, but it is worth it! Pray for us as we lean into these topics and try to understand what God is calling us specifically to do as we love our students.
I hope that you are all encouraged by these pictures. Your support has paved the way for so many students to be befriended and loved. Thank you so much for your support!
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| Our end-of-the-year Christmas service was great! It was so powerful to be a part of. |
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| I enjoy our Wednesday, 2pm core small group. The students are always willing to share & engage with one another. Bryan (2nd from the left) and I have been leading it together. I enjoy working with him so much! |
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| Our FOCUS Worship Class was powerful! I appreciated all of the students coming to engage and share with one another as we discover and discuss the history and tradition(s) of Christian worship. |
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| Thursday Night Thunder is a gift because it creates a space for us to love and know one another. I am thankful for the students God has placed in our lives and I am thankful to be a part of this part of their Christian journey. It's a small part, but, college is such a unique and special time in our lives! |
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| Our Richland FOCUS students at Winter Camp! It was a blast! |
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| Winter Camp 2022 was such a beautiful experience. I am honored to have gotten to be a part of It! We have very special students in our ministry! |
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| A view from the back of one of our Winter Camp sessions! |
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| We brought in Rikk Watts, a retired New Testament professor who has taught at Regent College in Vancouver, BC. I appreciated the way he engaged and shared about the New Testament in an open & relational way. I picked him up from the airport and dropped him off so we got some time with each other to talk. I am grateful for him coming and speaking with our students! |
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| Our Richland FOCUS ministry; grateful for them and their hearts this year! They are a sweet & special group of students. |
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One of our Richland FOCUS alums, Josue Mulumba, recently graduated from UTD! I'm so proud of him. He was involved in Richland FOCUS in 2018-19.
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Thank you so much for your support and for believing in what we do! I am honored to get to serve alongside such brilliant other staff and students. Please pray for our Richland FOCUS ministry - that we would be attentive to the needs around us and LOVE our students in the way Jesus would!
Your brother & campus missionary,
Sirak
