Kevin Pike Apprenticeship Blog #6

November at Collin! 

    Howdy Y'all! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and got to spend it with the ones you love! This month has been stuffed (get it, stuffing) with so many gifts from God and I can't wait to share them with you! 

    Twice a year, our staff puts on an extensive theological study on a topic that we believe will be of use to our community. We call it Pizza Theology and this year we went over the entire book of Revelations. As you can see from the picture below, we had a huge turnout and the students thoroughly enjoyed the topic. I was glad that we got to listen to a college-level presentation on a subject that is not normally gone over. 

    We had our last TNF (Thursday Night Fellowship) for the semester this past week and ended it with a bang. It was a Christmas-themed service that included holiday-themed worship songs, community sharing, a human Christmas tree decorating contest, cookie decorating, and a dance party. It was a lot of fun and great to see the students interacting with each other. My co small group leader, Tom, volunteered to be the tree that we would decorate. Ours was by far the best but due to a corrupt group of judges, we only got second place. Next year, we will bring home the first prize for sure. 

(Left) Tom being our Christmas Tree, (Right) Full Collin Staff photo at the Christmas Party 

    I have been so thankful for the small group that God has given us. All of our guys have been consistent, willing to learn, and vulnerable with us. We decided to start a six-week plan on, Finding Our Identity in Christ, which has been going so well. I saw a need to address identity among our guys as many of them have invested their identities in how they look, their grades, their jobs, and many other worldly things that are not in Christ. We have also made it a goal of ours to get more time with them outside of our weekly times, so we can develop deeper relationships with them. We went paintballing and hung out one night at Legacy West. Over the break, we plan on having weekly board game nights so that we can continue to develop brotherhood with each other. 

    Tuesday morning outreach has continued to be a wonderful experience. A couple of weeks ago, we had a question, "Does God still love us despite our choices?" and posted it on a board in front of the commons building. We had a lot of students from all different backgrounds come and have intentional discussions with us. It was so great to learn and hear about what people believed, we also were able to invite multiple people to come join our small group. Then last week, we made posters that said, "Need a prayer for finals? You got this! Need a high five?" to let the students of Collin know that people are cheering them on for finals. We got to have a couple of group prayers for some of the students who needed it which was really amazing to see. God has been so gracious and kind to us during our time outreaching on campus. 

    This past week our Holy Spirit apprentice class has come to an end. I have learned so much from the class but one of the main things I learned was the impact that the Spirit has on us as followers of Christ. After Jesus died, the Spirit was made available to everyone who called themselves a follower of Jesus. The Spirit gets rid of the need to have a temple to experience God, the temple is now inside of us! It now leads us to grow closer with God and our community, who are people who are also filled with the Spirit. The Spirit given to us is a sign that God's kingdom is near but not here yet. The Spirit is still seeking others that can join the family of Christ. This means that we have an active role in helping bring the Kingdom of God to Earth, that we can help bring others to experience the same love and blessings that God gives us since we have the Spirit in us. It makes the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20) so much more exciting and understandable! I'm excited for us to start our other classes as well! 

Here is a picture of all the apprentices and Eileen and Rhett getting lunch after an apprentice class

    Thank you all so much for your donations and support. I truly have been so blessed by each and everyone of you. I could not be doing any of this without your generous donations and prayers. So many students have also been blessed by your donations as well. I ask that you pray for the students as they head back home for the Christmas break. Some of them do not have households that they enjoy being in and have family problems. Also, being in break makes it easy for them to be away from community and go back to old habits. Thank you all so much and may God bless you!