July Update

 

Women's bowling hang out with my church :)

Welcome back! 

    I hope you all are having a restful end to your summer and staying cool. Thank you all for being so responsive and encouraging as I've worked to support raise this summer! It is so meaningful and steadying to have you all as partners in ministry. I am so excited to share how God uses your generosity and prayers in the next month. 

    For me things are going to kick into gear again starting August 1st. Returning students will be getting back to Arlington around the 13th, and new students will be moving in on the 20th. In the meanwhile, before students are back we will have several conferences and retreats as a staff team to help prepare us for the upcoming school year! I am really looking forward to getting to spend more time together as a staff and getting to see UT Arlington come back to life later in August. 

What have I been up to? 

    Similar to June, July is a bit of a slower month because a lot of students are gone, but there is still lots to share! Something that has been really neat is getting to spend more time with women from my church over the summer. Arlington Central Church is a church that was planted by the church that helped start FOCUS, in order to be a support to FOCUS down in Arlington. They are adamantly committed to being a support and resource to us as campus ministers and to our students. The picture above is from a bowling hang out the women had recently! Most of these women came out of a FOCUS ministry so it has been really neat to get to do ministry with them as FOCUS alum :)

    Another big part of my ministry this summer has been learning and reading! I have read these two books by Paul Pastor this month and both have been deeply impactful. 

    The Listening Day is essentially a collection of 90 conversations between God and the author/reader that is based off of two scriptures. The author is very gifted at reminding the reader who God is. He paints God's character vividly through poems, conversations and stories. The way he writes is highly relational, and he is very gifted at highlighting parts of God's character I am prone to forget. God is fierce and powerful with a perfect sense of justice, but he is also incredibly gracious and compassionate and eager to extend mercy, he is also complex beyond my ability to comprehend or understand, but is also willing and able to simplify himself so that I can relate to him. This book has been so helpful in learning how to better relate to God and how to hold the complexities of who he is in tension. 

    The Face of the Deep is a book about exploring the Holy Spirit. It explores both Old and New  Testament encounters/imagery of the Spirit. I generally don't feel like I have the best grasp on the Spirit so this book has been so helpful to process some of those complexities. The name of the book comes from Genesis 1 "And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. ... Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep". Within the first chapter something that really was impactful to me was the author pointing out that the trinity was in relationship with each other before the creation of the world. I never pieced together the implications of this; this means that loyalty,  friendship, relationship, affection, creativity, etc.. are not just things we hope for, they are the root reality of nature itself. Something the author pointed out as a branch off of this point was that this means the spirit is creator just as much as God is! This spirit of creativity, that is making and remaking the world around us, resides in us and we get to take part in that. This really excited me and was impactful!  

How you can be praying! 

Please be praying for our students to build meaningful relationships within ACC, we want to set them up well for lives as disciples post college. Please pray that as a church ACC would remain attentive, flexible, and creative ways in the ways they look to meet needs in the students at UTA.  This church is a crucial part of our ministry down in Arlington so keep it on your radar to pray for! 

Please be praying for our preparation as a staff in the month of August.  Please pray that students who want community will find it, pray that students who want to meet God will encounter him, pray that we remain open and flexible to the spirit to use us as he choses to meet any of those needs. Please pray for diligence and discernment especially during welcome week (first two weeks of school)- we will be meeting hundreds of new students within the first two weeks of school. Please pray for boldness among our staff and student leaders, pray that God would silence any misplaced or inhibiting fears. Please pray that any efforts we make on campus this year bring glory and honor to God.

Thank you all again for your faithfulness and generosity. I am so pumped for August, and so honored that you would chose to partner with me in ministry. 

Sophie