Mexico Mission Recap

I had the pleasure of taking 12 students to Rio Bravo, Mexico over Christmas Break. We worked with Manos Juntas, an extension of the United Methodist cChurch working in the border region of Mexico to eliminate poverty.  

We had an incredible experience and left feeling as if we were more blessed by the community than we were able to bless them. We did construction on El Camino United Methodist Church on the outskirts of Reynosa.  

We had a very diverse group made up of freshman through graduate students that worked extremely well together. After long days of work, we enjoyed quiet evenings together playing games, reading, having devotionals, and enjoying the opportunity to be "unplugged" from the outside world. In spite of all that you hear on the news we never experienced any kind of violence or danger and were in good hands the entire time. We are excited for a return trip, God willing, next year.

Spring Semester Off and Rolling

The spring semester at OU began on January 18^th. We had our first worship service that very same day and welcomed a packed crowd, including 18 new students! Over half of those new students came back along with about ten more new ones and we had another full house the second week.  

We had our small group fair the first two weeks of classes and had about 200 sign-up for our 15+ different small groups!  

I began a sermon series last week on the 7 deadly sins. Each week we will be looking at how these particular sins take hold in our lives, how we can strive to flee from these things, and most importantly the role Jesus Christ plays in offering us grace to overcome and find forgiveness from sin in our life.  

If you want to follow the Vespers podcast, you can do so here. I'm absolutely thrilled with the way God is working in our ministry through worship, small groups, and one-on-one discipleship!

All Wesley Retreat

We are excited to have the opportunity to play a key leadership role in helping host the All Wesley Retreat February 18^th-20^th at Crosspoint camp. We are blessed to have Bishop Robert Hayes (Oklahoma Annual Confernece) and Bishop Scott Jones (Kansas Annual Conference) as our keynote speakers.  

Currently there are 16 different Wesley Foundations from across the region planning to attend! In addition to great worship, we will have small group time, team building games, Q&A with the Bishops, and breakout sessions including: What does it mean to be Methodist, What role can we play in overcoming poverty, how to become ordained in the UMC, and the art of worship.