October Update

Hi everyone! October was another month full of exciting stories and sweet reminders why there is such a need for the Gospel on the college campus. This month I want to give you give a glimpse at our activity as a ministry at large along with an update on my core and the girls I meet with, so let’s get started. Thank you all so much for making these stories and experiences possible through your generous support, encouragement and prayer. Almost daily I am astounded that spreading the Gospel at UTA is my job, I cannot express my gratitude to you all enough.

These are three of our student leaders Josh, Ben, and Grayson at our outreach display earlier this month! We wrote the question "What is the spookiest thing about religion to you?" on a white board, took it to a busy spot on campus, and started asking students to answer. This outreach display really got some neat responses and students were giving surprisingly vulnerable answers. I was able to talk with a freshman named Henry who came over to answer our question, his answer was "Blind faith". I had about a twenty-minute conversation with him about what he meant by that and what is specifically hard for him to trust God "blindly" in. At the end of our conversation I was able to pass his number along to Josh (pictured above) and Josh was able to invite him to his core (small group)! I am so proud of how our students took this opportunity to listen to their peers as they asked and wrestled with really hard aspects of following God. This year we are trying to heat up the value among our students of living an evangelistic lifestyle, so this was an encouraging experience to look back on as we continue to work towards this value.

This is a picture from a couple weeks ago at our large group meeting, which we call Thursday Night Fellowship (TNF). TNF is a time that we all get to come together and worship, learn, and hang out! It is one of my favorite parts of the week. Every year we have a theme which our sermons are based around, and one of our campus pastors will speak on a different aspect of that theme each week at TNF. This year our theme is "Life to the Full" based on John 10:10. As a community through the teaching of some of our campus pastors, we have gotten to explore what this means! Some of the topics and questions we have explored so far at TNF are "How does Jesus give life to the full?", "A full life can't be kept a secret.", and "A full life means full security.". I am so excited to continue exploring this theme with our students, personally these have been really meaningful teachings that have helped grow my affection for God.

This is a picture of my core from this month! Of the eleven girls here (besides Lizzy and I) I get to study the bible/meet one on one with six of these girls, how exciting is that! I really have grown to love each of these girls a lot as I get the privilege of leading them and doing life with them this year. Please continue to pray for each of them that they continue to develop eyes that see how great God's love for them is and what good good news that is.

I wanted to introduce you to another one of the girls I get to meet with every week, this is my friend Molly! Molly is a freshman at UTA this year. Molly is one of the most eager and earnest girls I study the bible with, she asks GREAT questions that indicate to me how critically she is thinking and how deep her desire to know Jesus is. Aside from how much I love meeting with her, she is so much fun, so sweet, and so vulnerable with the other girls in our core. I am really excited to see how God reveals himself to Molly through scripture and community this year.

I wanted to leave y'all with some fun pictures from this month, this is a picture of our UTA campus pastors at our Halloween party! We were all dressed up as characters from Toy Story.

Here are some friends of mine hanging out after TNF this month, these girls are all big parts of my life and ministry!

My core went to a pumpkin patch! This was such a fun day, I loved getting to spend time with my girls as a group outside of core.

Lastly, heres a picture of Lizzy and I hammocking together :) Thank you all so much for partnering with me and for all of your support, I can't wait to see how God will continue to use you and I to reach students at UTA next month.