Winter Retreat and Winter Weather

 

UTA students at Winter Retreat!

  So excited to be back with y'all again! Currently it is snowing in Arlington, so I hope y'all are staying safe and warm if winter weather has hit you as well. God has done so many neat things this month. In the picture above is all our UTA students from a retreat with all of the FOCUS students from across DFW! These are all faces that have been incredibly impacted by your generosity and faithfulness. Thank you for reflecting Jesus to them and to me. Praise God for working through people like you and I to bring these students closer to him and into community. 

    Here are all the FOCUS students from all of our campuses at Winter Retreat! There was about 550 students at Winter Retreat which is crazy!! All of these students and our staff were together for four days. We spent the long weekend talking about 1st John, worshiping, and building friendships with one another. Winter Retreat is such a big deal to our students I want to mainly share about that today :)

    Here is a picture from one of the worship sessions, the two girls on the far right are from UTA. I get to study the bible with Sarah this year (far right in the patterned sweater) and I got to study the bible with Cassidy last year (far right next to Sarah in the white jacket). It was so neat to see them leading us in worship this year, God has done and is doing so much in their lives!

    These are the girls from my core who came to Winter Retreat! Left to right: Mia, Skylar, Molly, Loren, Me, and Jacie was there but is not in this picture! It was Mia and Skylar's first Retreat so it was super special to watch them get to connect. Last year Mia was also in my core but was not as invested as she is this year, which has been so neat to get to see. Adjusting to UTA and being away from her hometown has been difficult for her, which has just resulted in a lot of loneliness and discouragement. She told me before winter break that she had decided to move home to Houston because it was so tough being up here. Flash forward to after retreat, she was reflecting on retreat on our way home and she said that it makes her sad she didn't invest in community sooner. She also now has decided to stay at UTA, I'm so glad that she is really starting to connect with community and decided to stay, I love her. Join me in continually praying for her! 

Most of the UTA girls stopped for lunch together on our way down to retreat, here is a picture from that! Something that I have been thinking about since retreat is Pauls prayer for the Ephesians in Ephesians 3:15-19:  I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

I was reminded of this passage at retreat and I was struck with how powerful of a prayer this is to pray over these girls. That they may have the strength to comprehend how wide, how long, how high, and how deep Jesus' love for them is, so that they may be filled with all the fullness of God. Join me in praying this over them, this is what they need. 

Other fun pictures! 

Some of our UTA girls: L to R- Zoe, Jacie, and Cassidy

This is Sarah, she led worship in one of the earlier pictures! This is from one of our times studying the bible together. She always fills our time together with laughter and sincerity. We are always the loudest people in whatever coffee shop we meet in. Pray for our times together that she would continue to encounter God in new ways! 

This is Laurel, one of our student leaders at a birthday party earlier this month for one of the girls on our staff. Laurel is so thoughtful, funny, passionate, and incredibly gentle with people. Pray for her as she continues to grow as a leader! 

Thank you for making another month of ministry on the college campus possible! All of these students and myself have been heavily impacted by your choice to follow Jesus and look like him. We are so blessed by you! Stay warm and safe this month, 

Love, 

Sophie