Kevin Pike Ministry Blog #50

 August Update 

Hey everyone! This past month was amazing! Let's jump into what happened! 

Welcome Week:

    Every year, our staff at Collin spends all day every day on campus for the first week of school. This is to invite students to be involved in our ministry and let them know that there is a Christian presence on campus. It is one of my favorite times of the year as we get to meet so many students! Here is what we did every day on campus:

Monday (Free Iced Coffee)

    To kick off the week, we gave out free iced coffee at the Wylie, Plano, and McKinney campuses. This is a great way to not only provide the students with a much needed coffee on the first day, but also to get to talk to them while they pour out their own drink for thirty seconds to a minute. We get to ask them if this is their first semester, what major they want to study, and what hobbies they have. At every event we had this week, we also gave out bookmarks and stickers with our meeting times and Instagram on them. I did forget to get a picture of our event, so sorry. I did get a picture of me with my new Collin Student ID as all of our staff are students so we can not be kicked off campus, and we also get a lot of free stuff:

Tuesday (Tattoosday)

    Tattoo Tuesday, or Tattoosday, is one of my favorite days as we get to ask any passing student if they would be interested in getting a free temporary tattoo or let us give them a freehand style tattoo with a marker. This is another great opportunity to get to chat with them for a bit and let them know what our ministry has to offer. We do not want to give the students free things that they can grab and go; that is not furthering our mission to make and mature disciples. We want to be able to talk to them and invite them to our ministry and get to know them. It was a great day, and here is a picture:

Wednesday (Dirty sodas and ramen cups)

    This day was our biggest hit! The students went ravenous over the ramen and dirty sodas! It was so great getting a lot of traction at our table. I was at the Plano campus for this event and we had to go buy more ramen because we ran out so fast! Later that night, we invited some guys we met during Welcome Week to play pickleball with us in the evening. Here is a picture of us after we played pickleball and ran through the sprinklers nearby:

Thursday (Prize Wheel and first TNF)

    Our prize wheel offered croc charms, straw toppers, ramen, stickers, candy, and pens. The students would come up and spin the wheel, and we would give them whatever it landed on. It was a great attraction as students wanted to see what was on the wheel!

    We also had our first TNF (Thursday Night Fellowship)! We are finally back on campus, as last year we were not allowed to be at the Plano campus because of all the remodeling they were doing on campus. But this year we are allowed, and our first TNF was a huge hit! We had 64 students show up, which is awesome, as many of them are brand new to FOCUS! We had our worship songs, sermon, and big group games afterwards. It was a total blast, and many of them said they'll be back every week! God is good! Here are some pictures from TNF:

Friday (Block Party)

    Our last event of welcome week was our block party, which ran from 7-11pm. We had snow cones, pickleball, volleyball, spikeball, football, frisbee, and cornhole. We wanted this event to be accessible to all students and to get as many of them to show up as possible! We had around 30 students show up which was awesome! It was a blast and a great time! Here is a long-range picture from the event:

 

Prayer Requests:

    Please be praying for the students of Collin College and that they get to know Jesus. Pray for the students who have come to FOCUS this past week and that they continue to show up so they can learn more about Jesus and deepen their relationship with Him. Please pray that the faculty at Collin allow us to meet and have events on campus throughout the week; we were getting some trouble from them as they were being sticklers about rules that do not exist or are unconstitutional and violate the First Amendment. 

Thank You:

    Thank you so much for your generous support and prayers! Without your donation, my wife and I would not be able to be on campus this past welcome week, inviting students to get to know Jesus. You are making an impact on these campuses. You are allowing these students to find real, eternal life. God bless you all!