Claire Umstead Ministry Updates

  Our students at the End of Year Party! I has been such a sweet year! Here is the serious one haha. One of our students posted this on their Instagram! SICM - Student Institute of Campus Minstry Six of our students went to a week-long student leader conference in Bellingham, Washington. Below are some pictures of them there!    Summer Focus!!! Summer Focus is where all the students that are still in town during the summer come to CARE Church in Richardson for fellowship and worship!  The theme this summer has been "Repent and Believe the Good News!" You can join us on Thursdays at 7:30p at CARE Church in Richardson or watch here on the live stream!  Summer Focus Live Stream You can also go back and listen to any of the past messages here on Spotify. They are called "Summer tnf: (sermon title)" Summer Focus Sermons I have been teaching Devereaux how to drive! She has been doing so good and I have been learning how to explain driving well, as it is just 2nd-nature to

Our small group! From Left to Right: Taniha, Dakota, Rebecca, Quincy, Me, Sandra, and Trang in the very front. Love these girls!!! Hello! The end of the school year is here and summer is upon us! Thank you so much for supporting me and my mission on the Richland campus. I reached out last week to hopefully get time with you to share what God has been doing at the Richland campus and in me. I hope to hear from you soon! We did a photoshoot for our leader team at the end of the year. Trang is a fantastic photographer and sweetly came and took some pictures for us! Below are some of those and all of us just goofing off together. Below are pictures from when we put on a couple of fundraisers for our students that are going to SICM (Student Institute of Campus Ministry). It is a week-long leadership conference in Bellingham, Washington. Six of our students went this year! From our two fundraisers, we raised about $1800! We are so thankful for how generous our community is. Below is a pic of

This is our leader team! I can't believe the school year is almost over and I am so thankful to have had them all on our team!   Hello! This month's blog will be a bit different. I want to share about one of our students, Devereaux. She joined FOCUS at the end of the Spring semester in 2022 as a non-christian. Since then she has been learning and growing in her faith! Devereaux and I have a sweet friendship and I am so thankful for it. She shared with me some thoughts after reading through the book of Hosea. It was impactful for me so I thought I would share it with you, of course with her permission. This is Devereaux! Hosea 5:15  "In their misery they will earnestly seek me"  This verse really spoke to me because grief has always been a part of my life. Originally it was the obstacle that caused me to feel so much despair. I couldn't believe in any type of afterlife despite yearning to believe because I dearly loved all of my friends that have died. Now I see my

Trying a new day for Fellowship Nights     There is a trend that we have been noticing in the student population these past couple of years. Wednesdays seem to be the busiest days of the week on campus. There are more students to reach and invite! As a staff team, we thought why not try capitalizing on that!      So for March, we have moved our fellowship nights to Wednesdays as a trial run. We will see how it goes and then revisit if you want to keep it on Wednesdays or move it back to Thursdays.      If you will be praying for Wednesday evenings that we will be able to meet more students and for the students already coming that they will reach out and invite friends and classmates! Picture yourself there Our leader team that meets every Monday! Kris placed her head on mine so I took a picture. Some students met up to play soccer! It was super fun! Spring Semester Club Fair!  From left to right: Fares, Yoni, and Sarah We had a special worship night, and this is our worship team. From

The Richland Team!!! Hello! Happy New Year!! Can you believe we are in 2023 now? I pray that all of you have had a good start to the year. I want to share this scripture in hopes of encouragement and comfort. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.  Ephesians 3:16-19 If you haven't read through the book of Ephesians before, I highly encourage it! It is a book of encouragement and sweet reminders of the truth. I have been reading through it with a student this semester so I wanted to share with you what has been laid on my heart.  Christmas Party and Wi