Kevin Pike Ministry Blog #51

 September Update 

    Hey everyone! I hope you're all doing well. This September was a lot of fun, and I can't wait to share all the good things that happened at Fall Retreat this year! Let's jump right in! 

Fall Retreat: 

    Fall Retreat is our annual 24-hour getaway that we do to get students out of their routine, into nature, and into community. This year, we wanted to host this retreat in September instead of October to solidify friendships and community quicker than normal. Once students have a retreat together, they feel so much more bonded and closer with one another, which is totally what happened. We had around 50 students show up, ready to worship the Lord and get out of their normal routines for a partial weekend, and they had a blast! So many of them were so sad when we had to leave, as they wanted to stay for a much longer time. They are already excited for our Winter Retreat, which is about three times as long as this getaway. 

    Our sermon series for the retreat was centered around the verses in John 14:6, which is, 

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

    In the world today, there are a lot of voices trying to grab the attention of us all. We wanted to hammer into our students that Jesus is the only voice that they need to listen to. All other voices lead to anxiety, grief, emptiness, and death. The world is constantly wanting us to be fulfilled with money, lust, entertainment, and status. Jesus's way leads to real life. We hope that through this retreat, our students can see that Jesus and community are true life compared to the rest of the world. We had three great sermons that will be on Spotify soon if you want to listen to them. Here are some pictures from the retreat:







Ministry Update:

    This year I am leading three cores (small groups). One in McKinney, one in Plano, and one in Wylie. They have been a lot of fun! I lead the McKinney one with our men's staff for our students during their lunch break in the cafeteria. The Plano one is led with one of our student leaders who is doing a fantastic job. And the Wylie one is led by me and Mick, just like last year. We have a great group of guys who are giving up part of their week to read scripture and discuss with each other. I am truly blessed to be in a position to get these young men to read and dwell on scripture, it is the greatest job ever and thank you all so much for donating so I can keep doing this! 

    In the McKinney core, we are going over the entire book of Mark which was a blast! We regularly have about eight students show up! In the Plano core, we are going over the entire book of Romans and we have about five students show up. In the Wylie core, we are going over the book of Jonah and have another five students show up each week as well. Here is a picture of our Plano core:



    I am also doing FOJ (Focus on Jesus, our one on one Bible study that we offer each student that comes to FOCUS) with five students which has been so wonderful. These FOJ studies are some of my favorite as we really get to go deep into who Jesus was and how we can be more like him. Here are two pictures of the guys I'm doing them with: 



Prayer Requests:

    Please pray that the "Jesus camp high" from this Fall Retreat does not go out in these students as they get back to their daily routines. That they can remember that Jesus is the only way to life and to resist temptations in believing anything else. 

Thank You: 

    Thank you so much for all of your generous donations and prayers. It truly is a blessing that I get to be here at Collin College on campus evangelizing to these students. Most of these students have fallen away from God and do not have any community to be a part of. FOCUS is able to bring them back into a community and get them to hear scripture again while meeting new friends. Your donations allow a campus minister to be here. You are a part of these efforts to make and mature disciples in the DFW area. You are directly impacting students on campus through your donations. May God abundantly bless each of you for your generous support. Thank you so much! 

P.S. Here is a testimony from a student at TCU. Your donations help support students like her. 



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