And Everything Has Changed :) (Baby Edition!)

My friends & team!

Wow, so much has happened over these last 30 days :) 

My wife & I went to bed on Wednesday, August 2nd expecting a fine night of sleep when, around midnight, contractions began and the rest is history! We shortly welcomed Anaya Laine Asfaw to the world on August, 3rd 2023 at 12:57 PM! God is good!

I was looking through my early campus missionary blog posts from way back in 2013 and it is strange how time works. I feel like, in some ways, life is beginning again for me - a new era & season of parenthood is upon me & my wife. I'm excited for this new season while grateful for the last 10 years of preparation for this. I had no idea how the experiences of a decade of campus ministry would prepare me for parenthood but it seems there are universal lessons that God aims to each his people: faith, hope, and love.

"Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 

And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love." 

(1 Corinthians 13:8-13)

When I look at Anaya, I feel a deep love for her that moves me to consider a glimpse of the love the Father has for me. Not just for me - but for all of us. When I look at Anaya I see a soul that God has entrusted me & my wife with that God has a plan and a purpose for. I get the privilege to love & care for her here & now. The college students that walk onto our campus I (along with our other campus pastors) get the privilege to love & care for here & now. 

Anaya turned one month old a few days ago and it truly seems as if only a few hours have passed since she was born. I've been a campus pastor for 10 years and it truly seems as if only a few weeks have passed. 

Faith. Hope. Love. But the greatest of these three are love. Love has always been there - I suppose the only difference is that I am more aware of it now than ever before. Lord have mercy on me and sustain me so that I will not forget Your love. 

My prayer is that I would be faithful, hopeful, and loving as I follow my savior. That I would trust his work inside of me isn't done yet. My prayer is that I would have a simple faith to pass onto my daughter to live as if I am loved as I hope she will as well. 

Thank you for your support & for believing in our mission to love college students. I hope the photos below encourage you and warm your heart a bit :) 

Me & baby girl :) 

My older brother got us a blanket w/ her name on it! Beautiful!

Our first core of the year! We had a fun group of guys show up for our first discussion :) Excited for many more!

Our first leader team meeting of the year :) Love these students!

:)

Our first Wednesday Night FOCUS of the year! We had a great turnout :) Grateful for all of these students!

We tried a few new welcome week events this year - we did an event called: Ethnic Beats & Eats! We brought in food from different cultures and had get-to-know-you activities to get students to connect with one another!

Fun pic of some of the nephews meeting their new cousin Anaya!

Thank you for your support! I'm honored that I get to share this journey with each of you. Thank you for your prayers for a safe delivery :) We are grateful and excited to get to share our experience of parenthood with you!

Your brother & campus missionary,

Sirak 

July 2023 - A Month I'll Never Forget :)

Hello my friends :) 

What can I say? First off: Thank you! To you who are newly joining my campus missions support team - I'm so grateful to have you side-by-side with me on campus as we love a new group of college students :) What an honor! 

Our baby due date was this past weekend but our doctor told us to be expecting labor to begin at any point this week. We are excited! Wow...these last 9 months have flown by so quickly. I sometimes feel that the 9 months of pregnancy are just as much for the parents to acclimate as they are for the growing & developing baby on the inside :) 

We are excited to meet baby Anaya and we can't wait to share photos with you! 

This year is going to be an interesting one! By the grace of God I want to be the best father I can be to my daughter & best husband I can be to Sloan. I also want to serve the campus and connect with as many students as I possibly can. 

I turned 35 years old a few weeks ago and I can already feel that campus ministry at 35 years old has a qualitative difference when comparing it to campus ministry at 25 years old! This difference is hard to put into words. In a way, ministry is sweeter & more meaningful. I'm less concerned with making a name for myself & less concerned with impressing those around me. 

I am, however, more concerned with staying tuned in and connected to God as he leads me (Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path, Psalm 119:105). I'm less concerned with managing & telling my team what to do and am more concerned with making sure they are balanced & also connected with God in their week to week ministry life. 

Paul has a line in 1 Thessalonians 2:8 where he says:

"Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well." (1 Thessalonians 2:7-8)

My prayer for my ministry & my leadership this year is that God would give me courage to lead in a way that allows me to share my life with students & my team as the Gospel is proclaimed. I want to be open with what I'm newly learning. I want to be insightful and give glory to God as he teaches me through the obstacles and roadblocks in my life! To me, that is what spiritual leadership is all about! Lord be with me!

I still don't have it all figured out. I am very aware of how little I know. But, I am very excited for this new season. If God has shown me anything since COVID it is that: nothing stays the same but Him! 

In the midst of all the change and transition - I feel blessed to have you all consistently month to month supporting me as we walk this journey together. 

Not as many photos this time around - but I'm sure that will change as my blog update may or may not be filled with pictures of baby Anaya :) Love you guys! 

Our weekly Wednesday afternoon "Richland FOCUS Boys Club"! This was such an encouraging time for us to spend time together each week. 

I love our Richland students :) I'm excited for this year! 

I've enjoyed our weekly Summer FOCUS meetings! It has been encouraging to connect with the different students from the other campuses. I think we're going to have a great year this year! 

What a fun group this year! Claire (taking the selfie) will be transitioning off our Richland ministry team at the end of September. Be praying for her as she enters the market place and looks for work in her field (she has a Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain Management).

I look forward to sharing baby photos w/ you! Thank you for your support & please don't hesitate to reach out to me if you have any questions or if you need prayer for anything going on in your lives.

Your brother & campus missionary,

Sirak 

Sirak's June 2023 Update!

My friends & team! 

This summer has been off to a great start and we're already beginning plans for Fall 2023! I'll try to get a picture of our 2023 Dallas College FOCUS Staff here soon - we've had a few meetings but keep forgetting to take a staff photo. Veronica, a graduating student from The University of North Texas. will be taking the next year to be a part of our FOCUS apprenticeship and we're excited to have her join our team! 

This summer, Joey (my co-Richland pastor) and I have been having "Richland FOCUS Boys Club" on Wednesday afternoons and they have been so encouraging. I feel blessed and honored to get to spend time with our Richland guys each week. We've been having great conversations and enjoying the change of pace from a busy school year. Grateful for our time together! 

Thank you again for all of your ministry support! In just a few weeks, my wife & I will be welcoming our daughter, Anaya, into the world and we're excited to get to meet her! I can't wait to show y'all some baby photos. Please pray for a safe & smooth delivery! She is going to be a light to all of us :) 

Enjoy the photos below! Each summer I try to change up my pace and spend more time in scripture & prayer. I'd like to share a Psalm (below) that has been ministering to me (Psalm 131):

Psalm 131:

My heart is not proud, Lord,

my eyes are not haughty;

I do not concern myself with great matters 

or things too wonderful for me.

But I have calmed and quieted myself,

I am like a weaned child with its mother;

like a weaned child I am content.

Israel, put your hope in the Lord

both now and forevermore.  

This Psalm helps me rest & find union with Christ. Each school year is filled with one-on-one appointments, books/articles to read, camps to plan, meetings to attend, etc. they are a blessing but can often keep me so busy that I forget what it means to rest. I hope that this Psalm can minister to you wherever you are. What are the "great matters" that you find yourself concerned with that God may want you to lay down for a bit to rest in him? 

Summer FOCUS!

Student baptism! 

My wife & I celebrated 5 years of marriage in June! Time is feeling as if it is flying by, but, that is how I hear it goes! 

Our Richland FOCUS Boys Club!

Getting the baby room ready for Anaya!

My family came out to celebrate our baby shower! 

Thank you so much for your support & partnership! :) I'm honored that I get to serve with you side-by-side! Let's have a great summer and kick off the year at Richland College!

Your brother & campus missionary,

Sirak

Sirak's May Update!

My team :) 

Here we are in June - almost halfway through 2023 and I'm so grateful for what a wonderful year we had with our students - see all the photos to be encouraged and uplifted. 

Thank you all for your support & partnership over the years - this summer I'm looking forward to connecting with each of you as we get ready for another awesome fall semester. 

We got back from SICM, our student leadership conference in Bellingham, Washington and it's exciting to see God raise up another generation of student leaders to impact their campuses this fall. I remember in 2008 when I attended SICM as a student I felt my world shift and broaden. I was deeply impacted by the invitation to not just go back to campus as a student - but as a missionary as well. It was intimidating, but through the God-given support of community I felt equipped and prepared to head into the school year with a renewed mind. 

We have a really great group of student leaders that we are excited about! Please be praying for them as they consider student leadership this fall. :) 

Thank you for your support!  

One of our students posted this on their Instagram stories after our end-of-the-year party. I felt very encouraged :) 

A good friend of mine let Sloan and me stay in their weekend cabin to take a baby-moon trip as we get ready for baby-Anaya to show up :) (Due date July 29th!) We played Chess together for the first time and loved it! 

Our Summer FOCUS meetings are off to a great start :) I love getting to meet the students from the other campuses. I feel encouraged and grateful for each of them!  

Our Richland FOCUS Students who attended SICM this year! It was encouraging and fun to get to connect with each of them. Love them!

Our end-of-the-week SICM banquet! I loved it :) 

Our students praying for one another before we head out to campus for evangelism! 

Here's an updated picture of myself :) Thank you for your support! 

Our Richland FOCUS end-of-the-year party! Loved getting to connect with all of these students. What a fun year! 

Thank you so much for believing in us and for your support :) Grateful for each of you! 

Your brother & campus missionary,

Sirak 

2022-23 Was a Year To Remember! :) Thank you!

 Wow, what a powerful year :) 

Time is a strange thing. Not that twitter is my main go-to source for commentary on life, but, I saw a tweet a few days ago that said: 

Once you get past 25 years old, you've experienced over 85% of your 'subjective time' life experience.

I believe that what the tweet was attempting to communicate was before the age of 25, the majority of our life experiences are new & exciting but there comes a time that we fall into a routine and life becomes procedural to a degree. 

This isn't necessarily bad, it happens to all of us. We feel as if life can become predictable and unsurprising. Maybe God designs life this way to show that he, too, is in the routine of life. I can confidently say that it feels like time is moving quicker. Campus ministry at 35 feels different than it did at 25. I am less rocked by the waves and currents of the modern-day college student. College ministry is anything but predictable, however, there are aspects of the work that we do that I have noticed are cyclical and seasonal. 

This does not make the work bad or inferior. I feel like God has been establishing me and growing me into more of a rock so that I can be a consistent presence in the lives of the students around me. 

In fact, in the midst of the routine I find that I love the work I am doing. I love the routine of seeing 18 year old freshmen have their world open-up as they encounter students from all walks of life and all backgrounds receive & respond to the message of Jesus. If that ever gets old to me, then we have a problem. 

There were, however, a few difficult years. Years of drought and pain. Wondering if the work I was doing was making any kind of difference in the lives of those around me. Years of unlearning habits, fears, and lies that I, at some point along the way, took on and became friends with. 

But, I suppose that with any career path, there are certain 'mini-deaths' that God invites us to. Campus ministry has been mine (so far) - what has yours been? 

As each year passes, maybe there are 'mini-deaths' that are leading us toward the (not-mini) death we all face that will eventually bring us face to face with our Lord. These 'mini-deaths', however, are (if I can remember in the moment) mini-celebrations - moments of mini-trust that are shaping us into who we are becoming each and every day. 

I love that I get to be a part of the lives of the students who enter my life & get to walk alongside them as they learn to die to self and let Christ take over. What a joy! 

I pray that these pictures are encouraging and are a reminder of God's faithfulness to you! 

Our 2022-23 Richland FOCUS Student leader team! 

Each week, I've had the privilege to lead worship with our student worship team (here you can see Kris hold her dog, Champ, as we pray)

Our Richland FOCUS students hosted an fundraiser after-event for UTD FOCUS and we made breakfast tacos for them! We had a great time serving & helping our students raise money for SICM!

After the breakfast taco event, our Richland students hosted another fundraiser at church the next day!

We went to IHOP for one of our after-events and it was probably one of my favorite 

This year I led core w/ a student named Yoni. He is a sophomore studying Business and it was a true pleasure to get to lead with him each day. 

I feel so honored & grateful to get to serve the Richland campus with these great people! 

Each year we invite a group of students who are not officially student leaders but who show leadership potential to our leader meetings to further their growth & development. They have been such a great addition to our team! 

Claire & Sandra have been two amazing ministers to get to work alongside this year! Grateful for another year with them. 

Thank you again for all of your support & for believing in our mission to love college students :) I'm grateful for each and every one of you. Thank you for walking with me and being on my team!

Your brother & campus missionary,

Sirak