Kevin Pike Ministry Blog #31

 January Blog 

    Hello everyone! Hope your 2025 is going so spectacular, Keep those new years resolutions up and running, I believe in you. This year is going to be a great one because we've already had a fantastic start, lets jump into it!

Winter Retreat 

    Every year we host our much anticipated Winter Retreat the weekend before school starts and this year we had our biggest turn out yet. 700 students from our campuses around the DFW area came to spend a weekend seeking out Jesus and friendships. I had about ten guys from my small group come to the retreat and they have not stopped talking about it since. 

    The sermons were all centered on the topic of, "Who is Jesus?" Our director, Brandon Worscham, started the weekend off with telling us three stories about Jesus and what they said about his character. He chose Jesus's first miracle of turning the water into wine, the story of Peter almost drowning in water, and the woman touching Jesus's cloak and being healed. There were many great insights into who Jesus that Brandon highlighted, but the one that he spent the most time on was about Jesus's joyfulness. Jesus is abundant in joy, happiness, and partying which is surprising! But Jesus did make anywhere from 108-130 gallons of wine at the wedding, that is around 350 bottles of wine. We often get to caught up in the sadness of the world and forget the joys and freedoms we have in Christ. Jesus was constantly eating, drinking, and enjoying the presence of other people. We have to show that to other people and if we are not feeling that joy ourselves, which Jesus are we following? That question has definitely stuck with me and I will be pondering it for a while. We were very blessed to have our staff speak to the students, they are all so talented. 

    There were amazing worship services, movie nights, board games, football, basketball, etc. This Winter Retreat was so fun. I had a blast and so did all of our Collin students. Here are some of the pictures from the weekend:

Ministry at Collin:

    The first week of the semester our staff split up and did outreach at all three of the Collin campuses that we are at. We played Uno, walked up to people, and had lunch with anyone who was willing to join us. Some of our students have been doing outreach of their own as well as they continually feel the need to meet new people and invite them to know Jesus by themselves without us prompting them which is really cool. One of the girls in our ministry continually invites her classmates to our large group fellowship meetings (TNF) and invites them to do our one on one Bible study with them. The students are definitely still feeling the fire from our Winter Retreat which is all we could hope for. 

    Our Core (small group) is off to a great start. On the first week back we helped the students make some spiritual S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Manageable, Articulate, Reasonable, Timely) goals. These are to help our guys have some sort of goal to be in touch with Jesus this semester and start off strong. An example of a smart goal is saying, "I want to read my Bible 15min every other day for the rest of the semester". Then at the end of the semester we can see if they were able to follow through with their goal and see what came out of these disciplines. 

    TNF (Thursday Night Fellowship) has also started off well too! We already have a lot of new faces! This semester our sermon series will be on "Disciples are..." and each week will be a different characteristic of a disciple of Christ. This first week was "Disciples are doers", they not only listen to Jesus's teaching but also do what he says. I'm excited for our students to hear these sermons this semester!

Prayer Requests:

    If you could please pray for the students as they get back into the swing of school that they are able to prioritize their school and job work well so that they can have enough time for any activities related to FOCUS. Also, for our ministry to continue to fan the flames that were created during Winter Retreat and to continually point the students to Jesus. 

Thank You:

    Thank you so much for your generous support of my mission at Collin Community College. Your contributions make it possible to share God’s love and truth with students, creating opportunities for spiritual growth and meaningful connections. Your partnership is a true blessing, and I am deeply grateful for the impact your generosity has on these students. May God bless you abundantly for your faithfulness to this mission field of ministry. 

    P.S. Here is a testimony from a woman at Richland about how Focus has impacted her life. Students like her get to have a God centered community at their college because of your donations.