Happy December!

 

This is Lizzy, one of my best friends and our student leaders!! We got to lead a core together last year :)

    Happy December! 

    So glad to be back with you! I hope that your taste of the holiday season last week was restful and full of meaningful time with family and friends. I am so thankful for you and your generosity towards myself and college students, you are one of the ways God consistently reveals his character to me. Thank you for choosing to take seriously the call to make disciples! I am so pumped to introduce you to some more faces this month and share what God has been up to at UTA. 

    There was a lot going on this month with Thanksgiving and the end of school approaching quickly, so there is lots to share about but I wanted to introduce you to a few more girls that I meet with every week. Giving you a window into the hearts of students that God is shaping day in day out is probably the clearest picture of how God is using your generosity at UTA. These are a FEW of the students God is using you to impact tremendously! I hope it is not lost on you what God is doing with your faithfulness and care. 

New Friends

    This is Skylar!! She is a freshman in my core this year. We share a mutual love for Jesus and boba tea haha. Something I really admire and appreciate about Skylar is her eagerness for Jesus to be her Lord in every area of life. There is no one I can think of who is more receptive and teachable to new ways of doing things that are hard, but honor God. Skylar regular puts herself out in the open, and exposes hard parts of herself and her heart for the sake of looking more like her Lord and learning from those around her. Skylar is the only one in her immediate family who is a Christian and came to UTA seeking community, God clearly has been after her heart for a long time. Pray that she may continue to seek Jesus and his way of doing life more and more, and remain open and flexible to the Holy Spirit in her pursuit of him. 

    This is Jacie! She is junior who is also in my core this year, we meet every Saturday morning for coffee. Jacie came into our community last year, and has thrived this year. One of the neatest things about getting to meet with Jacie this year is getting to watch her set the pace for the younger girls in vulnerability and initiative! She really has taken seriously loving people and loving God.  Jacie is one of the easiest people to get to know. She is ready to let people into her life, this is such a unique character trait that I think reflect Jesus well to younger girls. God has used community as fertile ground this year to do immense work in her life as well this year. Planting new truths, and tilling up soil that has been hardened by previous experiences. I am so so thankful for Jacie and her friendship. Pray that she may continue to take seriously loving those around her and pursuing her Lord, as she does so, pray that she settles into her belovedness before God. 

    These are two of the many girls I get to meet with every week, because of you! These are two of the many students at UTA who have been touched by your generosity. These are two stories of many that have been changed because of your faithfulness. These are two lives that look more like Jesus and love him more because YOU took seriously looking like and loving Jesus. Thank you, thank you, thank you for allowing me to be present on campus for students like these girls. 

Update on CORE!

    Last update I shared that a lot of the girls I meet with have expressed feelings of loneliness recently. Almost half of my core has expressed feelings like that, so Loren and I decided to have a conversation in early November about that with all of them. To simply express that their friendships to each other could be one of the most meaningful ways to care for each other right now, also to alert them that a lot of people around them felt similarly!!  It felt so silly that so many of them felt the same way but never talked with each other about it. We had a great conversation and since then, the way they have loved and cared for each other has been so special. They seriously all seem like best friends now, it is so cool. So thank you for praying for the loneliness in our students, God has seriously provided for them. I also think it's neat that their relief from loneliness came by trying to care for other people, I think that looks a lot like the example Jesus sets. What a neat memory to hold onto, God teaches us in such neat ways!! 

Update on Keep FOCUS Growing

Last update I shared about our annual fundraiser Keep FOCUS Growing. We had $56,000 dollars in matching funds available to FOCUS on giving Tuesday and we surpassed our goal!! We were able to raise about $130,000 to help FOCUS stay on college campuses in DFW for the years to come. Thank you for praying and giving, it would not be possible to be on campus without people like you. So thankful for you! Can't wait to see how God works next month

love, 

Sophie