UTA Staff with the gifts we got in our secret santa. I seriously love this team. Earlier this month we had our annual winter staff retreat. It was smaller than usual and many precautions were taken before going but I am so glad we got to do it. Staff retreat is always so sweet and restful for me. It gets me excited for the upcoming semester. I get to see staff members who work on other campuses and hear about what God has been doing there. This year specifically we had two sessions where we talked through the history of FOCUS. (Those who couldn't attend in person joined us on zoom.) It was a time for each person in chronological order to share about how God brought them into FOCUS and then brought them on staff. We heard from those who were there when Focus came together in 1996 at UTD a campus that had no student life let alone christian ministries to get involved in. FOCUS actually started the first welcome events that UTD ever had in a effort to bless the campus and reach out to
View from the South Rim of the Chisos mountains in Big Bend National Park where I spent Thanksgiving. It was very restful. As the semester comes to a close in the next two weeks everything has gone online. We are wrapping up cores and Deep Dive for the semester over zoom and the internet. As a result our typical Christmas party is not happening. Instead, as a staff, we are brainstorming different ways for our community to stay connected over the break in ways we haven't explored before. Many students have gone home since the start of Thanksgiving break. It will be another two months before they come back and many will be isolated due to COVID. Our staff is going to be providing book clubs, scripture readings, and virtual hangs for our students to get involved in over the break. One on one bible studies will continue virtually and we are encouraging our corefas (core facilitators) to get their core together virtually a few times over the break. So in many ways because of COVID minis