David's Ministry Blog

January is over! What a cold and chilly month. Despite the weather, it was also a month packed full of fun. The two biggest things that happened this month were staff retreat and winter retreat. Our FOCUS staff retreat was at Log Country Cove in Burnet (near Austin). It took place during the first week of the new year, from January 2nd to 5th. We all carpool to staff retreat and use that time in our cars as an opportunity to bond and talk with other staff members that we may not connect with all that often due to them being on a different campus, etc. Thus, our carpool groups are assigned with purpose, and we do our best to mix staff from different campuses together while still making it convenient for the driver, of course. Everyone actually is in two different carpools for the drive down: Your first carpool group is the one that you depart from the DFW area and stop in Waco for lunch with, and your second is the one that you head from Waco to the retreat center with. I enjoyed bo

We are now at the halfway point of the apprenticeship. Five months down, five more to go! There were a lot of wonderful things that happened this past semester. One of the highlights was our end-of-semester Christmas party. Every year, there's a theme, and this year it was the Polar Express. All of the decorations and activities were Polar Express-themed. There was a train track made out of tape and cardboard that was laid out across the church and that people used to take a tour in some train carts that were also constructed from cardboard and tape. There were board games, arts and crafts, lots of food, and hot chocolate as well. We played the movie, but we also brought the movie to life with the staff performing the hot chocolate dance for all of our students. Everyone wore their pajamas and had a golden ticket. Overall, it was a really fun and exciting night — probably the best FOCUS Christmas party that I've had the privilege of attending so far! Our students also really