He Refreshes My Soul



As the deer pants for streams of water,
    so my soul pants for you, my God.

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
    When can I go and meet with God?

My tears have been my food
    day and night,

while people say to me all day long,
    “Where is your God?”

These things I remember
    as I pour out my soul:

how I used to go to the house of God
    under the protection of the Mighty One

with shouts of joy and praise
    among the festive throng.

Psalms 42:1-4


Hello, my support team!

        April went by fast and now we're on the final lap of the semester! It's crazy to see how quickly the 2021-2022 school year went by quickly. Core is coming to an end this week and next week every student will be taking their final exams and heading to their summer plans. For me, I am still finishing strong to keep doing outreach, meet with students and staff, and reflect with God on the past years being in this ministry before I leave. On Saturday (May 7th) We will have our end of the year banquet where we will celebrate and give praise back to God for how he's been good and faithful through the school year. I prepared a slideshow video of photos the student sent to me. I hope to see some tear-jerking faces :,-). 
        In this last month being a campus pastor, I will have some transition classes and final work to do, but importantly, I want to focus my attention on rest and refresh my soul with the Lord and reflect on gratitude for his faithful work in me throughout the past. Here are some highlight photos of the 2021-2022 school year.

 From meeting outside to having our own room for Thursday Night Fellowship! This is the first time Collin Focus is not meeting in a back cafeteria, and I hope they continue to meet there until they outgrow the. The growth of students coming to FOCUS since covid hit continues to increase!


   
This year being my last year leading core, I am glad that my last year of ministry would end at Preston Ridge where I first began as a core facilitator (corefa). I've been blessed to know and serve these guys to show them Jesus and have genuine friendships with them. I've enjoyed every super smash bro's games to Super Fight card games with them and endless nonsense conversations. I will truly miss seeing them. 


Pray:

1. A smooth transition for me and the students to have a restful and purposeful summer.

2. For our senior staff and apprentices that are staying on staff will raise 100% of support for next year.

3. For a teaching position for next fall. I have an interview coming up for an elementary school in Garland ISD. Pray the interview goes well.

Please reach out to me if you need prayers or encouragement. Love you all

        - Austin Bailey

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ripples and Waves (My Final Ministry Update)

Image
As I was pondering what to write about in my last ministry blog with F.O.C.U.S, I asked God for a prompt or theme, and He responded with an image in my head of a single water drop in an ocean and seeing ripples flow across the sea. If you are not familiar with what ripples are, they are small waves or series of waves on the water's surface. They are especially caused by an object dropping into it or a slight breeze. Ripples are the instant effect of wind on water and they die down as quickly as they form, as the surface tension of the water dampens their efforts. If a wind blows steadily across a large enough patch of water for a few hours then the ripples become waves and these will not be dampened so easily. Ripples are mostly affected when the water surface is calm. By throwing the rock or dripping a single water drop into the river, you have given the water some energy. That causes the water to move around, trying to spread out the energy so it can go back to having a still, fl
Read more

A Purposeful Life

Image
  So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31 Full of Purpose Can you recall the first time when you discovered "the truth" from God and believed your purpose on earth is? For me, I was 18 at a summer youth camp who knew of Jesus but didn't believe why he had to die for my sins and was raised to live. A devotional study I was at that camp, educated me on what a true hero was. The truth is seeing what God's true purpose was to save all humanity. Not just the people in the past but for all generations who encounter the gospel could be saved just by believing in Jesus who loves me and died for me to live for him. My paradigm of Christianity shifted as I moved forward to my adulthood, even when I stepped into F.O.C.U.S at Collin and learned my purpose as a disciple. Following Jesus' example of what it means to be created in the image of God (or what it means to be human) starts with Jesus. Our purpose of living l
Read more

Ezekiel 11:19-20

Image
  Winter Camp 2022  " I will give them an undivided heart   and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone   and give them a heart of flesh.   Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God." Ezekiel 11:19-20 A New Heart The longer I walk and fix my eyes on Jesus, the harder it gets. He shows me weak areas of my heart that are very hard for me to fix on my own. It's humiliating to see myself as weak and I try my best to avoid hardship, mistakes, and weakness. If I try to avoid them then I wouldn't need Jesus at all in my life and would say I'm perfect, but I'm not. I can't rely on myself or follow my flesh to avoid my own mistakes. I need to admit that I am a sinner and weak and I need God to change my heart, even when it's painful. " My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever " (Psalms 73:26, italics a
Read more