Hey guys! I hope you've had a great kick-off to the new year of 2022! Does anyone else still find themselves writing 2021 on things? I want to jump right on into just how cool January was for our ministry. Not only was my birthday this month 😉, but there were so many moments I got to be a part of that greatly glorified God. This includes baptizing a friend of mine, going to Winter Camp, and getting to fellowship with the other apprentices from other campuses.
One of the girls in my core, Anna, decided she wanted to be baptized now that she is growing closer to God. We had a lot of conversations about what baptism means, and she asked me to baptize her! How cool is that! She invited her family to come, and it was so inspiring to see her show her faith through this command that Jesus gives. Here's a photo of us, and I want everyone to know that the water was probably around 20 degrees. It was bitter cold.
Also, all of our Focus ministries want to our annual Winter Camp out at Sky Ranch for 4 days. A theological professor from Cambridge University, Rikk Watts, was our speaker for the weekend, and he did such a great job. He spoke on the way the gospel has radically changed the world we live in today; how, before Jesus, the worldview didn't care about anyone who wasn't an elite. By the end of the weekend, he yelled into the microphone, "THE GOSPEL HAS WON." There's so much detail he dived into, and I can get you the audio if you ever want to listen to it. What was so neat about this experience was how intellectually he presented these lectures. Most of it went over my head, but he did that on purpose. Watts wanted these students to think deeply about scripture and not be bored by it. Here are some photos of everyone at winter camp, and I threw in some from my core too.
On another note, one of my teachers, Mandy, asked our apprentice group if we were close to one another. Do we call each other when we're having a hard day, or do we call someone else? Her main point was that our group is so large, 19 in all, that we might be missing out on the closeness that previous apprentice groups have felt. She encouraged us to think about that and be more intentional with one another, so we decided to plan a few get-togethers throughout the rest of the year. Here's our first one; we chose to play Whirly-Ball. It was so exhilarating. I'm not athletic at all, so I felt like this was a great compromise. I've definitely started to feel closer to these friends, and I'm so thankful Mandy spoke up and asked questions.
Finally, Focus sends students every year to a leadership conference up in Washington called SICM (Student Institute of Campus Ministry). Two girls from my core have been asked, and it's a bit of money to get them up there. Because of this, Focus puts on a fundraiser, called Showcase, that is a show of really talented people. Showcase consists of two different showtimes, one at 2:30 pm and another at 6:30 pm. Each show will feature amazing musical performances from a variety of talented people in our community. The performances will be from several different genres, including musical theatre, country, pop, and hip hop. This is a time where we get to see the amazing musical gifts that God has blessed our community with! The Artisan Market between the shows will feature goods an art created by people across our community for you to browse or purchase. Paintings, photography, prints, woodworking, clothing, plants, baked goods, and many more mediums will be available for sale. If you are interested in attending, or even sponsoring a student, please let me know!
Thank you for all the support and love!
Emily Turner
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