January 2025

 

Hello guys!

Thank you SO much for taking the time to read this and for investing in the ministry I am doing here at Dallas College through praying, giving, and so many other forms of support. I am baffled by God's generosity through you guys.

This month, we had Winter Retreat! This is an annual FOCUS retreat where all the Dallas-Fort Worth-based campuses attend. We had over 700 attend this year - praise God!!

What I love about Winter Retreat is that it is such a catalyst for growth. What typically is accomplished over the course of several weeks of me meeting with student one-on-one is intensified and sped up over a period of 72 hours at Retreat. 

What kinds of things am I talking about?

Leading students to a see the value of surrendering their life to Jesus; casting a vision for students about the important role community & spiritual friendships play within the life of a believer; fueling them with a passion to worship & follow God...

And so much more!

Through Winter Retreat, I see students forming deeps friendships with one another (staying up until 2am at the campfire exchanging life stories), recognizing the magnitude & goodness of God (through the worship and sermon sessions), and having the space to get away from the usual distractions of life.

Retreat gives them a little taste of what the Kingdom of God is like and sparks a hunger to seek that more in their day to day life beyond retreat.

The picture below is the students I drove to retreat: Arnold, Jorge & Shelly. It was Jorge & Shelly's first time attending something like this. Words cannot describe how meaningful it was to experience it alongside them and hear their reflections on the drive back. I really see God doing a work in them!

Can you guys be praying for our ministry? My prayer is that the momentum that was started at Winter Retreat would continue throughout this semester & bear good fruit. Please be praying that the students would be utterly dependent on GOD and not on FOCUS or some "spiritual high" that comes from a retreat.

Thank you guys for reading! Love you!!

Veronica

From left to right: Shelly, Arnold, Jorge & I

Doing the zipline at Winter Retreat with some of the girls in my small group!

Dinner with the Dallas College girls!

Worship at Retreat!

My Dallas College FOCUS coworkers - Sandra, Joey & Sirak!