June Update!

 

Precious and Ashley (and a duck lol) during SICM!

Happy June! 

The past month was SOOO FULL of things to share with you! I want to primarily share this month through pictures. I have so many, it would be a bummer not to get to share a few of them with you. The main thing I want to update you on is SICM ( Student Institute of Campus Ministry) in Bellingham Washington. It is such a pivotal part of raising up leaders each year I want to spend a good amount of time taking you on that journey with us. 

Fundraising Update: 

Before we jump into that I wanted to give you a quick update about my fundraising for this upcoming year. Currently I am about 90% fundraised for the 24-25 school year!! I am still looking for a few people to help me close the final gap in my fundraising. Here are some ways you can help! 

1. Pray for me! Pray that God would reveal new people to reach out to and He would connect me with people who are excited and able to give towards campus ministry. 

2. If there is room in your budget, consider increasing your current monthly giving. If all of my monthly supporters increased by 10%-20% I would hit my goal. Even a $10 or $15 increase can make a difference! I am so thankful for all that you already do! 

3.  If you know anyone who would be passionate or excited about what I am doing on the college campus please connect me with them!

Please be praying for me as a wrap up this season of fundraising, my ministry needs prayer in order to bear fruit. So thankful for your current partnership and prayers, ministry would not be possible without God's work through you and your generosity!! 

SICM: 

Like I mentioned, SICM or Student Institute of Campus Ministry is a 10 day leadership conference put on by FOCUS' sister ministry in Bellingham Washington. Every year we send a group of students who we believe have caught the vision of both being a disciple and making disciples. This year was our largest group yet, with 160 students!! The hope is that this conference would fan into flame the vision and mission to go and make disciples, and they would return to UTA in the fall ready to be missionaries to their peers. 

 

These are all of our girls from UTA who attended SICM L:R- Dom, Precious, Ashley, Sarah, Haven, Kenya, Evalynne. We flew into Seattle and spent two days there while we waited for everyone to arrive, then drove up to Bellingham! 

Me and some of our UTA girls went on the ferris wheel in downtown Seattle!

On one of the days in Seattle our staff took a group to Mt. Rainer! It was extra fun because our rental car for the week was a Jeep Wrangler so we got to take the top off while going up the mountain. Students wanted to take pictures on top of the Jeep which was fun, these girls were the three in my car, they are from SMU! 

Couldn't leave out that we got to see the Northern lights that same day!! What a treat

The next day we headed up to Bellingham and went to Western Washington University, which is where this picture is taken. WWU is where our sister campus ministry is held. I get excited about this upcoming year of ministry just looking at this picture. What a force for the Gospel all of these students will be across DFW. 

This was one of our pitstops in Bellingham, Whatcom Falls. 

That same night (big day!), we met our host families for the week. I was in a host home with Precious and Kenya (pictured above), and Evalynne and Sarah. This is the view from their porch, unreal. 

This was my view for the next six days! This is where SICM actually took place, all the sessions and worship were in this room at Hillcrest Church. One of my favorite things from SICM that I have carried with me since my first SICM experience in 2018 is the session on spiritual friendships. I don't think anything else more clearly articulated the vision for discipleship to me. As a freshman this session opened my eyes to what kind of difference I can make in peoples lives. People need to see the Gospel lived out in front of them, they need friends who are deeply committed to them before, during and after their decision to love and follow Jesus. Friendship is the avenue through which the Gospel can move from 2D to 3D, it is where we get to express the love of God to one another. People need these kinds of friends and I can make the choice to be one. I can choose to take Jesus at his word in John 15:13- there is no greater love than this, to lay down ones life for ones friends. If disciples are to be made, disciples need to believe this and live it. I can choose to be this kind of friend. This really shook up everything about what I thought discipleship was when I was a freshman in college, it excited and freed me then, and it excites and frees me all over again at 25. It was special to get to relive that awakening and watch our students begin to catch that vision. I am thrilled for them to return to UTA in May and really get to BE good news to their peers not just share the good news. 

This is how we ended a week of intense learning! 

Here are all our girls again from the last day. Join me in praying for them as they go home for the summer, may this week of learning sink deeply into their hearts and change how they live as disciples. 

It's impossible for me to look at a week like this and not think of you! You reading this have made it possible to raise up leaders at UTA like these seven girls. Our ministry would not be possible without you. I am so thankful for your heart for college students coming to know and follow Jesus, you have impacted their lives, faith, and college experience more than they will ever know. 

Until next month, 

Sophie