Kevin Pike Ministry Blog #21

February Fun 

    Hey everyone! I hope y'all have been enjoying this beautiful weather, with the way Texas is it'll probably be super hot or cold within the next few days. I hope everything is well and I can't wait to show y'all what's been going on in February! 

Family Night TNF 

    Every year at Collin College, we have Family Night where we invite our student's families to come join us for TNF (Thursday Night Fellowship). It is so great getting to meet the students' families and allowing them to see what their kid does every Thursday night. We had two of our students share about how FOCUS has impacted their lives and we got to hear from one of the parents about how they have seen an impact on their child's life through FOCUS. This is always one of my favorite nights as we get to see the fruit of our labor here at Collin College. If you came to our Family Night this past Thursday, thank you so much for coming we're so glad you could make it! Here is a photo of all who made it and also a picture of our staff:

Outreach Update: 

    We have been spicing things up at the Wylie campus for outreach. We have found that students engage more with questions, so we've been doing more discussion-based outreach prompts which have been fun and informative to allow us to see a small glimpse of what is going on in the mind of the students these days.

    The most recent one, which is in the picture below, asked the question, "What is love?" since it was Valentine's Day. Yes, we did get a lot of answers that were, "Baby don't hurt me" but we also found that most of the students believed that love was just a romantic feeling. This does not surprise me because of the influence of romantic movies and books, they tend to create love to be this feeling that only comes around when you find that special someone and it makes all the problems in life go away. We tried to steer the conversation into one where love is more than just a feeling, it is an action. This was a great opportunity to share with them this verse, John 15:13 "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends." This created an interesting discussion where we tried to get the students to see that love is more of a choice to do something for someone even when you don't want to. It definitely can be something that we feel romantically and God made it that way on purpose, but a stronger more stable type of love is the one that acts against all odds and is self-sacrificing. The same way that Jesus loved us, a choice that was full of anxiety but ultimately ended in an action, to die for our sins.

    I've got to see our small campus at Wylie slowly start to build a little community of Jesus followers who are active and present on campus. Most students I meet bring up the fact that they know about FOCUS from seeing us or hearing about it from one of their classmates even if they are not religious at all. God has been doing some awesome work on this campus and I'm excited to see what the future has in store for us. Here are some pictures from our Valentine's Day outreach:

    

Small Group Update:

    Wednesday night small group has been wonderful this semester! We have five new guys who have joined and they are a blessing to have! Our group is getting closer to each other and we are having a blast. Something that I have been thankful for is the diversity of backgrounds that my guys come from. It is really cool seeing how different these guys lives are but at the end of the day, we can come together and talk about our shared experience with Jesus. 

    Since there is a women's core also on the Wylie campus, we had a joint hangout with them where we played board games and hung out. It was a lot of fun to meet the girls that go to Wylie and have a good time! Here are some pictures from that:

Prayer Requests:

    Please pray for the students at Collin College that they can come to know Jesus. Also for their midterms as they are coming up. Pray for our staff at Collin as well that we can continue to find students who are open to hearing about the word and that we can have wisdom and discernment for how to best disciple them. 

    Also if you could pray for my deviated septum surgery next Tuesday the 5th and that everything goes well within the operating room.

Thank You:

   Thank you all so much for your generous support of FOCUS. Your commitment to our mission fills our hearts with joy and inspires us to continue spreading the message of love and faith on campus. Your donations not only help invite students to know Jesus but also serve as a testament to the power of community and collective action. It is through your generosity that we can create a welcoming and nurturing environment where students can explore their spirituality and grow in their relationship with God. Your kindness and generosity are truly a blessing, and we are thankful for your continued partnership in this important work. May God richly bless you for your selfless contributions and may His grace continue to guide us as we journey together in faith.

P.S. Here is a testimony from a student at SMU. Your donations help students like her find a community that leads them to Jesus!