May Update!

Hey everyone :)

I hope you are all doing well! May was seriously a crazy month, it was the last month of my apprenticeship so there was a lot to wrap up before June. I want to thank all of you profusely for sticking with me during the last 10 months. It truly is counter cultural to do what you all have done, commit to supporting college missions for 10 months and follow through on your word. Thank you for taking your commitment to campus missions seriously and having a heart for college students who need to know Jesus. The impact of your generosity from the last 10 months will be felt for generations of college students to come.  

Here are eight ways your generosity will be felt on the college campus for years to come! Molly, Anna, Lizzy, Laurel, Zoe, Alisa, Cassidy, and Maliyah all had the chance to meet one on one ( four of them with me personally) with campus pastors and be discipled. They also were all invited to attend SICM (Student Institute of Campus Ministry) to teach and equip them to be missionaries on UTA's campus or wherever they go. Each of these girls love God and love people deeply! Because of your generosity they came to know God in a new way and are empowered to carry the Gospel to the thousands of students they will encounter during their time at UTA. And this is just eight of the people that were profoundly impacted by you this year!! Thank you for letting God multiply your investment in me profoundly, join with me in praying for these girls and their individual impacts and walks with the Lord. 

This is a picture of our first Summer FOCUS! Which is all the FOCUS campuses across DFW meeting together on Thursday evenings in the summer time in place of our campus specific large group meetings during the school year. 100% of the people in this picture (and so many more) have been impacted by you this year. Don't think these are just empty words! Either direct or indirect, big or small, your generosity has allowed these students to experience God in new ways this year; through me, another student,  or someone else on our team of campus pastors. This is why they show up week after week, thank you for allowing your generosity to be far reaching, join me in praying that this sent out/missional mindset would continue to be a priority this year and this summer. 

Here is a picture from a going away party for one of our students Emily (top row first from the left above me). She is moving home to San Antonio this summer and will not be in our ministry next year. Emily's last two years in FOCUS gave her the foundation to continue to desire to walk with God and find community in San Antonio. This is such good news, I am so sad to see Emily leave our ministry but I know she will bring consistency, fun, and depth to the new community she will join. Thank you for allowing students like Emily to be met in our ministry. Join me in praying for her as she adjusts to life outside of Arlington and as she searches for a new community, pray she will continue to love and serve God even when it is hard! Thank you on behalf of students like Emily, there are so many like her that have been touched and forever impacted by your generosity. 

Some of my fellow apprentices at a hang out :)

I want to leave you with some updates and questions! 

As I mentioned in my previous update I have accepted an offer to remain on staff at UTA for five years which is so so exciting to me. I am going to be fundraising in the coming months to be able to be on campus full time. I have reached out to you all personally by this point about remaining on my team, and  currently I am at 50-55% of my goal for the year. I have arguably the hardest fundraising season ahead of me as I transition from apprentice to staff, so I wanted to ask you all several things as I enter this time: 

1. If you haven't already would you pray about and consider remaining on my team after my apprenticeship? Thank you SO much for your support this year, as evidenced God used your generosity tremendously on UTA's campus this year. I am so thankful for you regardless of your answer. 

2. If you know of anyone who would be encouraged to hear about my UTA please connect me with them! One of the biggest ways you can help me is by connecting me with people who are excited and passionate about campus missions. Even if they are not able to give financially please consider connecting us. Can you think of 1-2 people who would fit into this category? 

3. Can you please pray for provision and strength of mind in fundraising for me? It can be pretty easy to get discouraged and make this about my own efforts. Pray for people who are thrilled about campus ministry to get connected with me! Pray for daily reminders that this is about God's power not my own strength. 

Lastly I want to thank you for the impact this year had on me. I am truly forever changed from God's work in me this year. It is hard to explain the impact this year had on me concisely so I wanted to share with you all an assignment we had to do for one of our classes. We were assigned to share for 20 minutes on our three biggest takeaways from the apprenticeship and I've put the link to my notes for this assignment here. Some of it might not make sense because I wrote it to share with a specific audience in mind but I still wanted to share with you all so you can catch some what of a glimpse of how this year impacted me. 

Looking forward to how God will continue to use you guys, and so thankful for this year with you all, 

Sophie