February Update
Hey everyone!
I hope you all are doing well! As always thank you never goes without saying, I hope at this point I sound like a broken record. Thank you all for partnering with me to love and care for these college students day in and day out, thank you all for the sacrifices you all make to put me on campus, your generosity is not lost on me. I am excited to share with y'all what's been happening at UTA this month so lets jump in :)
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| Cassidy performing at Showcase! |
Showcase!
I mentioned Showcase in my last monthly update, it is an annual benefit concert FOCUS hosts in order to raise money for students that we are sending to SICM ( Student Institute of Campus Ministry). SICM is a really neat opportunity to develop leadership and a missionary mindset as a student, my time as SICM was highly impactful and influential. There are three girls that I meet with regularly who are attending, Cassidy, Molly, and Alisa, plus Lizzy because she was unable to attend last year! However, they are a small part of a huge group of students attending from across all of our FOCUS campuses. Which is why we host Spring Showcase to help offset the financial cost of attending this leadership training, as it is about $900 to attend.
The final total is still being determined but we were able to raise a lot of money to put towards the development of these students! Praise God for his continued provision and your generosity.
If you are interested in watching Showcase, or feel led to scholarship one of the girls I mentioned click here! Our very own Cassidy was one of the first performances. Join me in praying for this trip and all of our students attending!
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Here's a picture of me, Sarah, and our friend Emily from when I attended SICM as a student in 2018. Now I get to work with Sarah at UTA, as a campus pastor alongside her, doing what she did for me the last five years.Classes: |
I wanted to touch base with y'all about the classes I'm taking seeing as that is where a huge portion of my time goes. Currently one of the most impactful classes I am going through is New Testament Foundations. My fellow apprentices and I meet once a week for 2.5 hours to discuss the portions of the NT we read and lectures we listened to that week with Garrett, one of our campus directors, and with Professor Rikk Watts! Rikk was our winter camp speaker this year if you remember that from my January blog. It is an immense privilege to meet with Rikk weekly, he lives in Canada and has many other things he could be doing but he chooses to meet with us weekly! He is incredibly gifted at helping me catch the vision of the NT along with deepening my understanding of God and his heart.
A question I am thinking through from this class currently is: Many books in the NT were written to a minority people group living in a hostile majority, our lives in DFW in 2022 don't really fit that same description so how then should this impact our reading and interpretation of the NT? Here is a picture of all of us meeting with Rikk over zoom a couple weeks ago.
Good News and the Future:
I want to end by sharing some updates with you all on my plans for the future. Last month I got offered a five year commitment with FOCUS at UTA, and I accepted! I am super excited about this, the past seven months have really fanned into flame my passion for campus ministry and it seems to be a really good fit for me. I love the students at UTA and cannot wait to serve them for the next five years alongside my fellow campus pastors, and some of you.
Please continue to pray for me as the end of my apprenticeship draws closer and I approach a longer season of campus ministry! Also join me in prayer for the students we are sending to SICM, specifically Alisa, Molly, Lizzy, and Cassidy.
I'll leave you with some other pictures from the month :)
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| A day in Fort Worth with some of our students |
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Outreach this month with Ryan, Jazlyn, and Lizzy "How has love impacted you?"
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Looking forward to next month,
Sophie
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