Kevin Pike Apprenticeship Blog #4

Two Months In

Hey everyone! It has been a while since I last posted, I finally figured out how to schedule my time efficiently and will be posting these blogs monthly at a consistent pace. 

Co-leading small group on Tuesday nights is one of the highlights of my week. I had to switch to help lead another group at the Frisco campus instead of the Plano campus because Frisco needed another staff person to help outreach and also lead a Core. But, I was blessed to join and help lead a wonderful group of guys that are so engaged and consistent with being on fire for God. There are not many places in our world where we can read scripture, share our life stories, and talk about meaningful topics. It really feels like we are more than just a group of guys that meet up once a week then never hangout again. Throughout the week we play volleyball, go out to eat, and see each other at TNF (Thursday night worship). I am so thankful for each and every one of them!

Here is our amazing group, a couple of guys are missing sadly

Every Tuesday, we have an outreach event planned for the Preston Ridge Frisco campus which has been going great! It is a lot of fun planning each event and trying out new strategies to get students engaged in spiritual activities. Two weeks ago, we did a "Bad Portrait" event where we had students come and get their portraits drawn by me which ended up horrendously. This was a great event that was fun and also a good way to ask them questions about their faith and outlook on life. Another event was reading scripture on campus. We had picnic blankets and background music playing while we read the sermon on the mount. To our surprise, we had a good amount of students sit down and read with us and ask questions. 

Here is a group of us from Frisco hanging out at the Texas Sculpture Gardens

My favorite event so far has been creating and giving out encouragements. We spent a couple of hours writing down scripture, encouraging phrases, etc., to help out the students as it is midterms week this week. So many of the students accepted the cards with thanks. One girl looked like she was about to cry and another guy told me that he had been praying about his anxiety the day before and that the card was an answered prayer. He is now going to join us for TNF this week! It was such a great way to let students know that they have people who care about them on campus.

Here is one of our family dinner nights at TNF

My apprenticeship classes have been going well. The Old Testament class is about to come to an end and finals are soon. It will get replaced with New Testament, but it has been so helpful reading and analyzing the entire Old Testament. One of the main things I have learned so far is the fact that God's love and mercy is never-ending. Throughout the OT, God has stood by the people of Israel even when they turn against him a multitude of times. God has the right to punish and break his covenant with Israel, but our God is a God of love and mercy, so he forgives and continues to bless them. This has given me tremendous hope as even though I continuously fail and sin, God will not give up on me just like he stayed with the people of Israel. I am so thankful that our God is good! 

The other apprentices and I have also started two more classes which are Leadership Strategies and Financial Stewardship. The leadership class includes reading about successful churches and their strategies for developing leaders, being fiscally responsible for the church, problem-solving, and surrendering everything to God at the end of the day because he is the top boss at the end of the day. Financial Stewardship has taught me a lot about being responsible with my finances which was been super helpful. 

Even though I have only been in my apprenticeship with FOCUS for two and a half months, it has felt like a year so far. I could have not embarked on this amazing journey without the help and support of you all! Thank you all so much for the donations, it truly is a huge blessing! May God bless you and your families! 

If I could ask y'all to pray for the students of Frisco campus, that their hearts may be open to the teachings of Jesus. 

Here is a student testimony that shows the impact FOCUS has had on this young man's life.