Kevin Pike's Apprenticeship Blog #2

Welcome Week! 

Hey Y'all! Thank you all so much for your support! This past week has been so wonderful in so many ways! 

All of the Collin College campuses started their classes on the 22nd, which is also their welcome week. We believe this is the best time to outreach to students as for many of them, this is their first time on campus and they probably do not have any friends. So, for the past seven days, we have been hosting events to try to welcome them on campus and plug them into community. I was quite surprised by how many students were willing to talk and join in on the activities we were hosting. This was the schedule we were following for this past week:

On Monday, we did "Bad Tattoos" which was the biggest hit among the students. Here are some body marker stencil/temporary tattoos that we went through:

This was a great way to get the students to take a break from their first day jitters and just hangout. Drawing on their arms, sometimes their face, made most of them pretty open to questions concerning faith and their religious backgrounds. Not only the students, but also all of us in FOCUS had a great time as well.

On Tuesday, we did "Iced Coffee and a Prayer" where we would hand out free coffee to students and ask if they wanted a prayer for anything. Thankfully, the Starbucks on campus was closed, so we were the only source of caffeine for the students that day. We also had a bunch of board games and outside sport games that were a success. My personal favorite way to outreach was to go into the middle of the common grounds on campus and start asking people if they wanted to throw the frisbee. It was great way to learn people's names and get some time to talk with them.

                                      

On Wednesday, we had "Tie Dye Sock" day, where we would tie dye socks with the guys and gals of Collin. It was a great opportunity to get people to stop by and have some fun. 

On Thursday, our event was "Question for a Cookie". Anytime free food is involved, the people love it. The question we would ask is, "Do you have a faith?" I really liked this question because not only does it get them to think about a topic they probably don't think about a lot, it also allows us to see where they are at spiritually and bring up the fact that we are an on campus ministry that likes to talk about faith. One of our staff members, Eileen, pulled through and made three hundred cookies between the three campuses, she is a rockstar!

Then on Friday, we had board games in the inside of Alumni Hall and then soccer, volleyball, spikeball, football, and frisbee going on outside. It was nice to have an easier day in terms of no pre-planning or getting supplies. Here's a pic of us at Chick-Fil-A for lunch that day:

This week was so much fun and it was so great to work with everyone! Not only were the other staff members, Adriana and Katherine, super helpful and consistent, the student leaders, who also had class, were so consistent in showing up everyday and outreaching so much. We are definitely blessed to have them on our team. Here is a pic of us:

We also had our first TNF, Thursday Night Fellowship, which we are so thankful to have at The Church of the Holy Nativity. This is our large group event that we host every week on Thursday nights which includes singing worship songs, listening to a sermon, then hanging to get food or play volleyball or some other activity (volleyball is huge at Collin which makes me so happy). Here is a really bad selfie of the first TNF, we had a great turnout that night as well, also a picture of us hanging out in the courtyard before in prayer:

This week was absolutely packed, I was completely exhausted at the end of every day but it was so rewarding to reach out to so many students. Every morning, I made sure to have 10-20min of alone time with God, asking for energy and social stamina to get through the day and every time He delivered. I could not have made it through this week without God on my side, this has made me realize that to do campus ministry, I need to make time for God consistently and ask for his help every chance I get. It sounds so obvious and it is such a no brainer but even in ministry, it can be hard to make one on one time for God with the busyness of our schedule. I was thankful to have our staff drill in the absolute importance of alone time with God at our staff retreat. Jesus would constantly wander away to solitude and spend days praying to God. One of my favorite verses, John 15:5, comes to mind as I'm writing this,

"I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing". 

I have to constantly put time with God first or I will fail, but God is always ready to listen and give me the rest, energy, and confidence to carry out the duties of my ministry. 

Thank you all so so much for the support you have given me. Your gifts and prayers have helped reach the hearts of many students who are lonely and looking for a Jesus centered community. You are the backbone to this organization and you are investing in the lives of the students here at Collin College. I ask for prayers regarding the students, that they continue to show up to our events and if they don't, at least have our interaction with them plant a seed of faith in them. I also ask for a prayer to everyone in our staff that we have a restful weekend, so that we can be fully energized for this next week! Thank you all! 

This is all the student leaders and staff members of Collin College