Every Next Step = Another First Step!

 My friends & team - 

Here we are again - and I'll get straight to the point: I am absolutely pumped for this year!

I definitely sense a fun momentum among our students and, judging by how our summer has been going, this fall we will have more students than ever before ready to hit the campus ready to connect with and love the students we will meet. 

As I conclude my first year of parenthood, my concept of time is beginning to change. 

Sometimes my friends will ask me: "Dude, what is it like being a dad??" or "How do you feel, man?? She's growing so fast!". When I am asked these questions, I typically respond with a simple: "It's awesome!" or "I feel great!" 

My responses are true - I do feel that it is so awesome & such a gift. But, to be honest at a deeper level, I often have no idea what it is like because I haven't quite had the time to pause and ask myself that! I do not know quite what I feel other than: I love my baby <3. 

Or, when my wife & I do, in fact, get some downtime (to potentially ask how we're doing/feeling...), we just want to relax, connect, or prepare for the next day. 

Sometimes, when I leave a staff meeting, I will often drive home asking myself: Sirak, how do you think that meeting went? Parenthood affords few opportunities to pause, reflect, and summarize how exactly you're feeling & doing. 

Parenthood (so far) feels like a visceral, nonstop, full-body, emotionally-exhausting privilege that continually invites you to be present with what is in front of you - knowing that, in faith, you will make it to the other side. 

Campus ministry is similar - we are about to embark on a visceral, nonstop, full-body experience called: Welcome Week - and, our prayer is that we would remain faithful as God is faithful for us. God doesn't stop to ask himself: How do I feel about how things are going? (well, maybe he does - I'm not sure) He just...loves us. And pursues us. And...honors us where we are at as he calls us deeper to himself. 

I hope to be that kind of Father to Anaya. I hope to be that kind of Pastor to the students in my ministry. 

Thank you for your support - enjoy the pictures! 

We had our final summer FOCUS of 2024 and our incoming apprentices in addition to our returning staff made commitments in front of our students to serve and keep their eyes focused on Jesus this year. 

Anaya is 1! Where did time go? I feel so overwhelmed with love & gratitude. Wow. Feeling so grateful :) 

Summer FOCUS was a blast this year! Thank you Lord for the group of students that kept showing up consistently and making it a great experience. 

This is my friend Bernard! He is going to be one of our Richland Small Group leaders this year - he's been a consistent and engaging part of our ministry last year and I'm excited for him to step up and impact our campus. Please be praying for him as he connects with  new students, makes friends, and excels as a student!

Our Richland FOCUS Summer Boys-Club has been a blast this summer. These guys have encouraged one another and have been open with where they are at in their own personal faith journey. Please be praying as they step onto campus and impact the students they meet! 

Anaya & Sloan took me out for my birthday! <3 was a fun time - 36 years old! <3 

Summer FOCUS! 

Thank you again for believing in me & our mission to love college students :) Looking forward to another great year with y'all! 

Your brother & campus missionary,

Sirak

I Blinked...and Summer Arrived :)

 Howdy my team <3 

I titled this blog "I Blinked and Summer Arrived" because the theme of joy has been on my mind & heart. I remember when I was a kid I would at times be having so much fun in 1st grade that it would feel as if I would "blink" and 2nd grade would arrive...then I'd blink again and then 3rd...then 4th! At the same time, I couldn't wait to grow up! At times, childhood felt like it was lasting forever! 

Why was it that, as a kid, it felt as if life was both fast & slow? I couldn't wait to get older and yet it seemed that I was never getting older quick enough! I also would feel as if I wasn't getting enough time with my best friends and it was all slipping away! All of it was true simultaneously.

As an adult, I can fall into the trap of perpetual discontent. Always longing for the next season, vacation, or project to immerse myself in. My daughter is 9-months old and I can, at times, find myself longing for her to be in her "next season" of development (whatever that means!) in her life. It's almost as if there's a perpetual voice in my head asking: are we there yet? are we there yet?

We serve a God who both exists in & outside of time. "...do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like one day..." (2 Peter 3:7-9). I interpret this text to communicate to us that God is both in it with us and outside of it sustaining the entire cosmos along with our experiences. 

In the midst of God's sustenance, I would assume that God is experiencing...joy! He's watching with eyes of love and holding it all together with arms of compassion. This is encouraging news! I don't think God ever says: "This is taking forever!" or "This is flying by!" - I think that God is with us in it all with a perspective that perfectly encompasses joy! 

Jesus teaches that, "...unless you repent [that is, change your inner self - your old way of thinking, live changed lives] and become like children [trusting, humble, and forgiving], you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:3, AMP)

Children are perpetually enjoying the present moment! It sure felt that way when I was a child. As an adult, when the year "flys by", like this one did, maybe it's a good sign that I was in the midst of joy and didn't even know it. 

Lord, help us be more aware and present to the joy that holds the entire cosmos together! 

(I screenshotted below a devotional from Henri Nouwen that was from today - June 6th, 2024! Perfect timing!)

 

This May we sent a group of students to SICM for our annual campus ministry training conference. I'm really excited for what God has planned this fall on campus! 

She's growing! Bigger & bigger every day. We're enjoying every minute of it! 

We've had a few storms in the DFW area and the last one we had knocked a decent-sized branch in our front yard (see second pic below). We had a couple of friends come over the next day to help us break it down and put it away for bulk pickup. Praise God!  

Last weekend we attended a friends wedding and sweet Anaya took a nap on me <3 These moments are getting more & more rare due to her desire to crawl literally everywhere at full speed 24/7, hah! Such a blast! 

One of my earliest students at Richland FOCUS - Josh! He just completed serving in the Air Force and is back in town to take classes at UTD! It'll be good to have him back in the area. It was great catching up on him and reminiscing on 2017-18 Richland FOCUS. 

Miss these students - I'm excited to see them around at Summer FOCUS here soon :) 

<3 Thank you for your support!

Thank you for your support! :)  

I look forward to catching up with you this summer <3 - Let's have a great summer!

Your brother & campus missionary,

Sirak 

The End of a Beautiful School Year!

We did it :) 

The 2023-24 school year is wrapping up with finals week beginning on Monday and I'm beginning to taste the truth in statements like: "Wow, time flys!" & "Enjoy it while it lasts!". It feels as if every time I blink it is Saturday morning again. I blink again and it's Spring Break. I blink once more and we're having our end-of-the-year party.  

In James it says, "Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes..." 

One of our Richland FOCUS pastors, Joey, got married a couple of weeks ago and during the wedding I ran into different former FOCUS students from 2-3 years ago. Some were from 6-7 years ago. There were even a few that were there during my time as a student (10 - 12 years ago)! 

It sounds strange, but in my mind, they all sort of...coexist together in my memory as if they were from the same time period. I find myself interacting with a former student and introducing them to another former student saying: "Hey John, do you remember Chris?", as I gesture to Chris. Chris then gently informs me that he graduated last year and has no idea who John is, hah! John then says, "Sirak, I'm 37 and Chris is 23." 

I am bewildered because, to me, they all should know one another. We all attended Friday Night FOCUS, core, were a part of 1-on-1 Bible studies and the like. Two different people. From two different eras/generations of ministry. 

James continues: "Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.' As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them." 

Strange as it is to say, I am feeling the mist-ness of life with each year that passes. And as it mists before my very eyes - it also blends into itself. Years, friendships, experiences, camps, events, etc. begin to blend into one another as I feel led to dwell more into our Lord who holds all things together. I am pulled in to trust that even though my memory fails me, nothing is wasted in the Kingdom of God. 

My prayer is that we can each say with our lives and day to day duties/responsibilities that we are seeking the Lord's will as we "...do this or that...".  

Love you all & thank you for believing in me! 

Our Richland FOCUS ministry partnered with a local church, First Global Methodist Church, to have an "intergenerational friendship" partnership! Our students were paired up with different people from their church and are spending time with one another to build a spiritual friendship across the generations! 

Our weekly "Exploring My Strange Bible" group. This group has been one of the highlights of my week. We have been reading 1 Corinthians together chapter by chapter and connecting with the themes that connect our ministry at Dallas College Richland Campus with the 1st century Church in Corinth! Loved it! 

One of our Richland Campus Pastors, Joey and Baby-Anaya! Love these two <3 

Sandra (left) and Josh (right) w/ Baby Anaya at our friends wedding! Josh was a campus pastor with FOCUS 3 years ago and we miss him! 

Our Wednesday night FOCUS meetings have been such a blessing :) We're seeing new students every week and are excited for what this fall semester holds for us! There is a new building on campus that should open that we are excited to explore and consider reserving rooms in! 

See pic (and below) - the college was so generous to let us use the Richland gymnasium for a basketball/volleyball night! The students loved it and it was fun to play together! We're definitely going to do more fun events like this one! 

Our Richland FOCUS leaders (men)! Love these guys - and thankful for their commitment to loving and blessing the students in our ministry! 

Wednesday Night FOCUS ministry selfie! 

Our core had an end-of-the-year lunch together and it was encouraging to share & connect with one another! We went around in a circle to share: "who has been someone in this ministry that has shown the love of God to you?" it was very meaningful to get to hear from everyone. 

Our end-of-the-year party was awesome! The students had a blast and it was so meaningful to get to eat/karaoke/honor our leaders/and have our annual thunderduckee awards with one another! 

Jorge Sanchez and I have been studying the Bible together 1-on-1 these past three weeks and I'm so grateful that God has crossed our paths with one another. Please pray for depth and insight as he and I continue to build our friendship while also seek the Lord together! 

Thank you for your support & believing in the work we do - I could not be where I am without you! 

As we go into this summer season - I wanted to ask: do you have any close relationships in your life with anyone that might be interested in hearing about what we do on campus? If so, I'd love to reach out to them to share about my heart for campus ministry and loving college students! 

Your brother & campus missionary, 

Sirak 

He Is Risen Indeed! (And is full of surprises!)

My friends & team! 

We're almost at the end of such a meaningful year of campus ministry and I'm beginning to notice a universal truth: God is full of surprises. It's bewildering to live in the midst of a "surprise" (miracle, phenomenon, revelation, etc.) currently happening in your life and even more so to reflect on one that happened and you may have completely missed!

Yesterday our Christian tradition celebrated Easter and we marveled at the hope & beauty found in Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. It provides us with a hope looking forward to future "surprises" (mini-resurrections?) while still inviting us into our own crucifixions that we may be experiencing in our circumstances. 

Fatherhood has been an experience full of surprises. 

I was raised with an absent father and that, no doubt, has influenced the way I prepared (and projected) for what the experience of fatherhood would eventually be like for me. In short, fatherhood has been full of surprises! It's more fun than I ever could have expected! It's harder and tiring than I thought. It's more beautiful than I ever could have imagined and yet it is stretching me in ways that I could've never prepared for. 

Isn't that how surprises work? No matter how well you plan for something...the nature of a surprises is the "aha!" moment that it gets you. Though you may never get it...

The healings, baptisms, miracles, sermons, and life of Christ leading up to Easter were all surprises! At least, they were surprises to us...

Maybe what a surprise is to us, is just the protocol & purposes of God. In fact, even after the resurrection Jesus is still busy surprising people (Luke 24 - "While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them..." - but they didn't recognize him!). 

I want to have the kind of faith that lives in to the surprises! I hope the surprises of God never become normal or boring in any way. Should a mature follower of Jesus be surprised at God's faithfulness? Well...the answer is: yes! After all, what else could I (we) be? We serve a God that is anything but normal...or boring...

My prayer for us as we wrap up this wonderful school year is that we would be a people continually surprised and bewildered at the majesty and goodness of God - anticipating what he is up to next! 

Thank you for your support and for believing in our mission to love college students :) 

I look forward to catching up this summer :) 

Happy Easter! Anaya loved her first family-easter (even though she frowned at most of everything - there's just so much to take in!)

daddy & baby <3 

She's eating all sorts of new foods! Sloan has done a great job introducing her to a wide variety of solids - Anaya is growing and loving life! 

A few weeks ago, Joey planned an scriptue-reading after-event and the students loved it! We read the Easter story together and prepared our hearts for Easter! 

Our Wednesday Night FOCUS meetings! We have had some of our most consistent weekly showings of students to connect with God and become more & more a part of our community! 

Our Richland FOCUS pastoral team! I'm so grateful to get to lead & work with these sharp folks :) 

Our weekly "Exploring My Strange Bible" group! Have loved getting to read through 1 Corinthians w/ these students. 

Thank you for you support and for believing in our mission to love college students :) 

I am finishing my 11th year as a college pastor and I couldn't have done it without you! Thank you for walking with me as we love & invite students to surrender their lives to Christ.

Your brother & campus missionary,

Sirak 

February Has Been Faithful!

My friends & team! 

Thank you so much for your support & believing in our mission. I wanted to share a prayer w/ you (below) that has been on my heart & mind. It is the prayer of St. Francis.

2024 has been an up & down year - moments where I feel in control (which, of course, is an illusion) and others where I feel as if life is acting upon me. Fatherhood has brought me to the heights of joy and the depths of fear & worry. 

In the midst of the ups and downs, I am continually trusting that God has a rich and perfect plan for me. My prayer is that God would use me as an instrument even though the tune that is being played through my life feels a bit out of tune, at times. 

As a leader team, we have been having conversations surrounding what it looks like to build a culture of love & outreach versus feeling the individual pressure to reach out to & love every student that we come across. In other words, we are learning that it is not our job to care for everybody but it is our responsibility to help create a culture where everyone is cared for. 

We are learning the tough lesson that we cannot do it all nor can we carry the weight of all that needs to get done! 

Pray for us as we lean into how to build a culture that long outlasts us on campus. Our prayer is that this culture can change & shape generations to come! 

Our Richland FOCUS ministry! Thank you for your support <3 

Our 2024 FOCUS Winter Retreat photo - grateful for each of these students! 

Our weekly Wednesday Night FOCUS gathering - love our students so much! 

I got to play some electric guitar for our "Night of Black Church" last week! It was wonderful <3 

My girls <3 

Baby Anaya is getting so big! We feel so blessed <3 

Our Men's FOCUS leader team - grateful for each of these guys! 

Each week we get together to pray about & read through 1 Corinthians - this has been one of my favorite meetings this year! 

Thank you all for your support & believing in us week-to-week! I feel so blessed to have you on my support team & walking with me through this experience of being a campus missionary.

Love each of you!

In Christ,

Sirak 

Thank You Lord for January!

My friends & team!

January was a wild month! Well, January is typically always a wild month in campus ministry. The ups, downs, back-to-back events (staff retreat & winter retreat), students returning, and re-adjusting from Christmas break can all potentially overwhelm, but, God has been good in preparing us for what is going to be an awesome Spring semester!

In some ways, as a college pastor, I feel as if I never quite left college. Hah! Spending the majority of my time with college students is a blessing and reminds me of how unique & special of a season of life it is to be graduated from high school and pondering the interpersonal, cultural, and spiritual questions of life! 

Jesus met me in college in a fresh way that invited me to consider what my faith can look like in the context of community & a shared life among one another (my fellow students/classmates). It was revolutionary and forced me to step out of my individualistic & self-focused methods of expressing my faith. 

Even as a 35-year-old, married, father of one - I am still learning how to express my faith in the context of community. I am still reminding myself that our faith - is just as much about us as it is about me. 

Even though I am feeling more & more "out of touch" with the trends & phrases & lingo of young people today, I am still very much convinced that our lives are to be shared with one another. As a college pastor, the most important job I have is to show up (regardless of how uncomfortable it may make me feel, at times - which, says as much about me as it does about them!). As a parent, we are invited to show up. As a friend, we are invited to show up. 

I say this as a helpful reminder because, truly - college ministry is not much different from any type of ministry. College students are a demographic that are asking particular questions related to their specific place in time. Based on that definition, does that not also describe every one who has ever lived? :) And what is it that they need? I believe the answer is: men & women willing to show up - to love them. To love them in the midst of their weakness (and ours!) and point to Christ! Daily & forevermore. 

Thank you for your support and for continually believing in me! I truly love each of you. Let's have a great February :)  

Baby Anaya has turned 6-months! We feel so blessed & filled with joy to have her in our lives. What a gift life is! 

Our Wednesday Night FOCUS meetings have been awesome! We are working out way through 1 Corinthians and the students have been deeply moved & intrigued by Paul and his message to the church in Corinth! 

Another picture of our Wednesday night FOCUS meeting! 

I've had the fun privilege of leading a group called, "Exploring My Strange Bible" - each week, we meet and read a chapter of scripture. Last semester we read through Mark and this semester we are reading through the book of 1 Corinthians!

Arnold, one of our student leaders, sharing about how Winter Retreat impacted & shaped his heart!

Winter Retreat was a blast :) What a gift to get to spend a holiday weekend with students across our campuses :) 

We had a great time during praise & worship with our gospel choir! Our students loved it and were deeply moved. Lailah (one of our staff at UT Dallas) did an awesome job leading it!

Our FOCUS staff retreats have been a blessing! During the first week of January, our staff got together to prepare for the semester & winter retreat. I feel blessed to serve with such an awesome group of ministers!

A nice candid shot of our student leaders! 

My two main men: Yoni (in blue) and Bernard (in the back)! These guys have been consistent and reliable week. They have committed themselves to continual growth and participating in our shared life with one another each week! 

Thank you for your support & for believing in our mission :) 

I'm honored to get to walk alongside you on our campuses as we reach & love students together. 

Thank you!

Your brother,

Sirak