Ryan's Ministry Blog

Hello friends! It feels like just yesterday that I was writing last month's update, time really does fly when you are having fun! I have some great things to share with y'all that happened over the past month! But before I start, I want to thank everyone for their prayers and support throughout my time as a minister so far, I couldn't do it without y'all! Let's dive in! We had our annual Fall Camp in early October! We take travel down to Mt. Lebanon in Cedar Hill for 24 hours and worship and fellowship with everyone in our Denton community. In the photo above, you can see some students waiting to share. It's always encouraging to hear students be vulnerable in front of their peers. We could really feel God speaking through them and the students were really moved by what they shared. This is a less than flattering photo of myself and two of the other staff members (Ryan and Aaron). Our whole staff dressed up as Disney princesses! I was Ariel, Ryan (midd...

Hello everyone! Another month is in the books and the time has just flown by! I've been so encouraged in my time so far and I'm excited to share about it with all of you! Here we go!  Pictured above is one of my favorite outreach events that we do! We built this structure and play a game called 9-square. It attracts a lot of students and is a great way for us to talk to students! We spend several hours a week doing facilitated outreach at various times doing various things, and it is so encouraging! I love getting to watch our students have fun while doing the Lord's work. It reminds me why I love my job so much! This is our staff plus a couple of significant others! We took some time this past month to have some fun together (on top of all of the fun we have doing ministry). I love all of these people so so so much. I consider them family and I'm so blessed that I get to work with them each and every day! They challenge and encourage me in various ways ...

I can't believe that a month has already gone by! My transition to Denton has been seamless and I feel like I'm fitting in great. So many great things happened this month so I'm going to dive right in and hit the highlights! Move-In Day Above is a picture of me and some student leaders from UNT move in day! We got to volunteer as a student organization to help students move in to their dorms. It made me so happy to see the reactions of students and their families when they saw that we were there to help them. I was also so proud of our students who gave up their weekend to come serve these students. It was a great way to invite people to all of the stuff that we were doing during Welcome Week! Outreach As you can see above, we like to have fun! Every week on Tuesday and Friday, we do outreach during the day to meet new students. We've used that big beach ball and it has made me feel like a little kid again! I feel that God truly works through...

If you would have asked me when I started college that upon graduation I would be working as a campus minister, I would have told you that you were crazy! But God works in super cool ways and here I am, an ordained campus minister. We have 12 apprentices that will be serving on our FOCUS staff this school year across our 11 campuses. It's been so much   fun getting to know them over the summer and I'm so excited to get to work closely with them! Above is a not so serious picture of us on our official first day! For four days, our entire staff of almost 40 (!!!) spent time together at our staff retreat. It was so encouraging to hear stories from various staff members on how God called them to be campus ministers. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know some of the staff that I did not know well. Getting to be around such a positive, friendly group of people has made the transition on to FOCUS staff seamless. Last week I moved to Denton and I'm so so excited to be the...