Winter Camp 2018

Winter Camp 2018

We had over 600 students join us for Winter Camp! Numbers are certainly not our measure of success, but it is cool to see how large of an impact our campus ministries have made.

Winter Camp 2018!

This Winter Camp was pretty special to me. I prayed before camp that God would help me to see what He was doing on our campuses and He really answered that prayer. As an administrator, I think it's easy for me to get caught up in what I need to do and forget to look around and see what God is doing.

While I was still a student, I helped with our ministry at NCTC. When I graduated and moved to Plano, the distance between NCTC and where I lived/worked was over an hour. I felt like God was opening doors for me to transition from our NCTC ministry and instead help with our SMU ministry.

Jessica and Geoff Mumley came from WA to speak at Camp 

What does this have to do with Winter Camp? While at NCTC, I had been meeting with a girl pretty consistently. We had many conversations about God, but she didn't want to make the commitment to Christ. At Winter Camp, she pulled me aside to let me know that she had committed her life to Christ! Not ten minutes later, another NCTC girl told me she committed her life to Christ during worship!


While I wasn't meeting up with these girls or a part of NCTC, God allowed me to see what He was doing on that campus.



Also, it was super cool to see our SMU students at Winter Camp! Our topic this year was "Send Me". As a new ministry, this is something we had already begun to talk about. But, I think it was helpful for our students to learn how they could be sent on their campus!

Our SMU ministry at Winter Camp 2017

Our SMU ministry at Winter Camp 2018

Most of our students who attend our fellowship meetings were able to come to Winter Camp! From our conversations during and afterward, it seemed like they all enjoyed their experience at camp. It was cool to see how our students made friendships with people from other campuses but were also able to spend time together as a ministry.

SMU

We kicked off our semester at SMU with an outreach event that we call Coffee House. We asked some talented musicians from our community to perform, provided coffee and snacks, and invited everyone we could think of. While we didn't have a lot of new students come, our students from last semester had a blast!

Coffee House at Canterbury House

The next week, we had a worship night during our normal Core time. Our students did such a great job of being outreaching and invited a lot of their friends! All of our visitors jumped right into our discussion and stayed for a while afterward to hang out with us!

For the rest of the semester, we've decided to start meeting in one of the Commons (student housing), Cockrell-Macintosh. SMU structures a lot of their community-building around each Commons, so we decided to meet where the people are and join in where they live. Please be praying that God would open doors at the Cockrell-Macintosh!

Student Testimony

This is our of our SMU Students! I'm so excited to share her testimony with y'all!

Candice Fudzie
Southern Methodist University
Math, Environmental Engineering, and Sociology

"This past semester, I was a 17-year-old girl who felt very overwhelmed with all that college had to offer. I deal with depression and anxiety. Throughout high school, these disorders tore me apart and made it extremely easy to block out my friends, my family, and God. I was going down a destructive path and, frankly, it’s by the grace and love of God that I am even alive. FOCUS has given me a community where I’m allowed to be vulnerable and transparent. FOCUS has helped me emphasize my personal relationship with God; now I’m sure to let him know how I’m feeling (something I couldn’t accomplish in high school). Due to my growing relationship with God, I’ve been able to see a clear and healthy path towards dealing with my depression and anxiety where He is a part of my journey. PRAISE God! Whether it's lying on the floor listening to “Build My Life” by Housefires, writing out my negative thoughts and turning them into positive ones, or calling my mom to tell her how I’m feeling, I remember the Spirit is with me to give me strength."

Prayer Requests:

•  Pray for our upcoming Pizza Theology, that our students would grow in their knowledge and love for God as they learn about Jesus’ Second Coming.
• We had over 600 students join us for Winter Camp this year! Please be praying that our theme “Send me” would empower students to be missionaries on their campuses this semester.