Back to School!

 

Hey everyone! 

    So glad to be back with you again, August was a super packed month with lots to update you on. Every month I get to work on this team and on this campus serves as such a bold reminder of God's great affection for his people. You are one of those big reminders to me! Thank you for choosing to invest your time, finances, and prayers in me so I am able to work as a missionary at UTA.  The care and kindness of God overflows from each of you, I am very very thankful to have you as partners in ministry. 

       Staff Retreat

    Staff retreat is when all of our campus pastors go spend four days together learning from each other, resting, relating, and preparing for the approaching school year. Both the pictures above are from our four day retreat out in Glen Rose. The first picture is our entire FOCUS staff. So many of the people in that picture inspire me, live life with me, mentor me, and are very dear friends to me. Please pray for them as they try to bring Jesus to each of their respective campuses. Such a neat reminder that God is active beyond just UTA! 

    Something else I love about staff retreat is getting to learn from some of our more seasoned pastors. I have two ideas I want to share with you from these times: 
    1. The greatest reward and joy available to me is to be like Jesus. That is it. The greatest joy isn't success or meaningful relationships, it is simply being like my Lord. Everything comes back down to this. I was confronted with the fact that I don't think I functionally believe this, I get sucked into believing the greatest joy is being right, or being treated well, or being well liked. 
 
2.  When I lead out of my own strength, the people around me get NONE of God and the WORST of me. I again was starkly confronted with the reality that I functionally believe that when I lead out of my own strength the people around me get some of God and some of the best of me. I was reminded that apart from God I have nothing to offer people, to think otherwise is a lie. 

Please pray for me that these ideas and convictions would remain heavily present on my mind as I enter a new school year. Being firmly attached to these ideas are imperative to leading those around me to Jesus. 

Welcome Week!

    Welcome Week (or Maverick Stampede at UTA) refers to the first two weeks of school, this is such a vital time for campus ministry. This is when so many new students are looking for friends and hoping to get connected. We want to meet those students! The university hosts dozens of events through out these two weeks as a means of facilitating connection between students. Our ministry tries to be present at ALL of these events, in addition to hosting our own events, in order to be people who are present on campus welcoming students and inviting them into community. Mav Stampede is always a roller coaster, exciting and exhausting. This picture is most of our UTA staff and student leaders for the 2022-2023 school year. All twenty something of these students took seriously the challenge to be present during these weeks, all of them gave up sleep, work, and fun to reach their peers.  I want to highlight/introduce you to two students in particular.  

    If you were with me last year you will recognize Alisa from the picture above! I got to study the bible with her last year and she decided to make the commitment of being a corefa (Core Facilitator) this year. Early in welcome week Alisa was thrown outside of her comfort zone and was quickly confronted with the question of: Can God use me to bless people in my weakness? We had a good conversation about it but overall she felt discouraged. A few days later I had lunch with a new freshman that I had met and I asked her about her experience with friendship in high school. She immediately started to tear up and shared with me that friendship had been really difficult for her. I responded and I wanted her to know that this is a place that people will love her and want to be her friend. She responded to me and said "I know.." and went on to share how she had bumped into a girl named Alisa from our ministry who simply just said hi to her and had a quick conversation on their way to class. In her words "God sent her to me, to show me that there are people here for me.". Later I got to share that with Alisa! How cool that God was kind enough to give her a story like that to hold on to as a reminder that when we submit to him he uses us to bless people regardless of how we feel about ourselves. I've been able to encourage her with this story through out the rest of welcome week. Please be praying for more stories like this! 

    The second student I want to introduce you to is Loren! She and I will be leading core together this year. Loren fiercely loves God and people, she is warm and kind, quick to serve, and a super hard worker. Please be praying for our relationship as co-leaders, the core we will be leading together, and the girls in it we will be discipling.  Speaking of which......

Here is our first core! Almost all of these girls are new freshman, join me in praying for them as they step into community and college. 

Other Fun Pictures

    Thank you all for making it possible to reach all of these new faces. I can't wait to continue getting to know them with you over the course of this year. Please join me in praying for all of these students new and returning, our staff, and our campus. Also let me know what you think of writing on the pictures, just trying something new :) 

Love, 

Sophie