We first give glory to God for the 96 people who were baptized or restored in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Church of Christ. This is the most we have seen in a 12-month period in the last eight years! It’s encouraging to see our campus ministries growing, with 31 of the baptisms being college students. 
The church rejoiced this past year with the appointment of Don Murray as an elder. As well as Ben and Susan Borland and Adam and Bethany Smith being appointed evangelists and women’s ministry leaders, respectively (see article here). The disciples in the church continue to be generous, giving more than $400,000 last year to support mission efforts in Russia, Mexico and Texas. The church also gave $250,000 to support the HOPE worldwide efforts in La Paz, Bolivia and Manila, Philippines.
Thanks to a private donation from a family, Dallas, along with the churches in San Antonio and Houston, started the Texas/Oklahoma Campus Ministry Fund. The fund is supporting campus ministries in Brownsville(UTB), San Marcos (Texas State), Lubbock (Texas Tech), and El Paso (UTEP). This year we plan to help build up ministries at University of Oklahoma and LSU.
Last year, we also started a Ministry In Training (MIT) program for the Texas and Oklahoma churches. With 165 campus students and singles in attendance, the week- long event was a great success. These disciples
met together in Austin to receive training from Texas ministry staff, as well as to reach out and conduct Bible Talks around the University of Texas campus.
In January of 2013, Roddy and Mary Oaks moved their family to Dallas/Fort Worth to be trained for the full-time ministry by Mark and Connie Mancini. The Oaks plan to go to Lubbock in August of 2014, with a mission team, and to lead the Lubbock Mission Church on a full-time basis.
We are grateful for all the leaders from other churches that came to DFW to speak to the church, inspire us and train our leaders and staff. We have found this to be very valuable and unifying. Some of the leaders who came were Bruce and Robin Williams from Los Angeles, AT and Marci Arneson from Chicago, Douglas Jacoby from Marietta, Mike and Libby Rock from Los Angeles, Rafael and Griselda Lua from Los Angeles, and Doug and Angela Wens from Houston.
We had the first ever HOPE worldwide Singles Corps in the United States. Singles from around the world came together for an extended weekend to serve inner city children and to assist with the tornado recovery efforts in Oklahoma. As we start 2014, we are excited about the new DFW Ministry in Training Program. It is made up of twenty interns in campus and singles ministries, some of which are already in the full-time ministry. Members meet weekly for training and inspiration. We believe this will greatly impact our church now and in the future.
We are grateful to God for all he has done and look forward to seeing what 2014 will bring!