AUGUST: HITTING THE GROUND RUNNING

 HI FRIENDS!

I am so excited to share with you what God has been doing over the past few weeks! I've been thinking about the start of my apprenticeship with FOCUS for several months now- planning, fundraising, and mentally preparing- but I still feel like it snuck up on me!

Our apprentice class hit the ground running starting July 31st with reading and classes. We are currently reading through the entire Old Testament, but other classes including Spiritual Leadership, Financial Stewardship and more will start within the next month. Our Old Testament class has been PACKED full of information. Even having read the Old Testament several times before, I feel like I've learned so much about God's heart for his people.

All of 10 of us apprentices (plus Veronica's husband in the top left) at our monthly Sabbath dinner. It's been so sweet to get to know everyone better! I clearly thought we were taking a funny picture...

We have also been doing lots of team building as the apprentices get integrated with the rest of the FOCUS team. In the second week of August we had a four day staff retreat where we spent time discussing what God has in store for our campuses this next year, strengthening relationships with one another, and splitting up into our campus teams to plan and get to know each other better. One thing that I have loved learning about FOCUS is how intentional and relational everyone is! As a newcomer on the team it sort of feels like we're the new kids in school (it's easy to feel overwhelmed and nervous), but every single person that I met and talked to at staff retreat was so welcoming, kind, and genuine. I am so pumped to learn and grow on staff with this team!

Our whole team (minus a few) at staff retreat! I feel so honored to work alongside these incredible people who love Jesus and college students so much.

We also had a licensing ceremony on August 6th where staff makes commitments/ recommitments to serve the community as ministers. It was encouraging to make this commitment with my fellow apprentices to serve the community with integrity, following the model that Jesus gave us. If you'd like to watch a recording of the licensing ceremony and see what our commitments involve here's the link: https://anyfocus.org/licensing/

My family and good friend Audrey at the licensing ceremony. I was so thankful that they got to come support me as I made this commitment!

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support! I could not be doing any of what I am doing without the encouragement and help of my support team. As we continue to prep for Collin's welcome week please join me in prayer!

PRAYERS: 

1. Pray for our upcoming leader training, that student leaders would be excited about leading other students in the love of Jesus and sharing the gospel of Christ on campus.
2. Pray for all of our welcome week events- that Jesus' love would be shined on campus and that students would have the opportunity to see how community makes college so much better!
3. Pray for stamina for our staff and students are we really push to meet new students on campus during these important first weeks.

I am so excited to witness what God is doing and hope to update you all soon!

With love,

Arianna