Kevin Pike Ministry Blog #40

 October Update

    Hey everyone! Thank you for taking the time to read this, I hope all is well with y'all! The seasons are changing and it is time to start enjoying that good weather. Here is what has been going on this past month at Collin College!

Fall Retreat:

    Every year we take our students to Mount Lebanon camp in Cedar Hill, TX for a 24 hour getaway. We had around 60 students join us this year which was such a blessing. Our theme was Survivor: Fall Retreat Edition where students were put into teams based off their small groups and competed against each other with a plethora of games. Each team had their own specific color and made their own team flag which was a big hit. Here are some pictures from the retreat:

   

 This is one of my favorite events that we host as it not only allows the students to have a fun retreat, but also it allows them to deepen their friendships with one another and seek out God intentionally. There is something so powerful about leaving our weekly routines to go into nature and actively declare that time as for the Lord. During the retreat, we had two sermons that were called "God as Father" and "God as Friend". We wanted to touch on how God can be both to us often see God as only one or the other. We also had students share their experiences with how they have seen God as their father or friend which was special to hear. Overall, it was a great experience where we felt feeling closer to God and one another. 

TNF (Thursday Night Fellowship):

    Our Thursday Night gatherings have been a blast! We have started a new sermon series called "Gospel Stories", which includes all of our staff taking turns and sharing about our favorite gospel stories. This has been a great way for our staff to share about how Jesus has transformed our lives in a concrete way and for the students to get a better understanding of who we are. I will preach about the story of Jesus walking on water and him saving Peter from drowning. I will post that sermon next month in this blog. Here are some photos from TNF recently:

General Ministry: 

    I am currently studying the Bible with 7 guys, with most of them we are going through FOJ (Focus on Jesus). With two of them, I am reading books about God that are not in the Bible. For one of them, we are reading the book A Case for Christ. This student was telling me how over the summer he had talked to one of his friends back home in Taiwan who had left the church and considers himself an atheist now. This student was very shaken by that and his friend asked him some hard questions about God which he had no response for. When I met up with this student again, he had many doubts about God and did not know what to believe anymore. I decided that we should read that book, A Case for Christ, together since it is all about evidence for the belief in God. I had never read it before but have always heard it was excellent because of all the evidence that it makes for the death and resurrection of Jesus. It is written by an ex-atheist who details his journey of investigating all the evidence for Jesus. Sorry for spoiling it, but at the end the author realizes that the evidence for Jesus is too concrete and he becomes a follower. That student and I have been reading and discussing the book for many weeks now which have helped grown his faith tremendously. Please be praying for that student as his doubts are growing weaker and weaker. That God may replace his doubts with firm truth. 

Prayer Requests: 

    Please be praying for our students to keep the "Jesus high" of camp since it is easy for that to wear off as they return back to their normal schedules. Pray that they remember what they learned and that they choose Jesus every day. Please pray for the students that we met during welcome week that have not come to our ministry yet, we are still contacting them and hoping that they will come to us one of these days. There are so many students on campus that do not know the goodness of God yet. 

Thank You:

    I am so grateful for your generosity and partnership in reaching students at Collin College. Your support is helping young men and women encounter Jesus, discover real community, and step into spiritual leadership. Your support is a blessing that God is using to transform lives and build His kingdom on campus. Thank you for faithfully investing in what He’s doing here!

P.S. Here is a testimony from one of our students at UTA. Your support directly impacts students like her to find a community that brings lifetime friends and a lifetime commitment to our Lord. Thank you!