Prepping for School to Start!!

It's good to be back with you! 

The summer is always a time I feel extra cognizant of you & how tangibly you're a kindness of God in my life. I truly am so thankful for your devotion to me, our ministry & furthering the Gospel at UTA. I believe God and his nature are revealed in devotion much like your own.  

This update will be a bit shorter, mostly because I actually have been out of the country for a significant part of the last month! I got to go with my parents & a friend to visit all my family in Australia for the first time since I was 18. It was special to get to see old friends & family and visit where we used to live. Just wanted to share this with you!

My parents & I on a ferry in Syndey

Sydney Opera House! 

Theme for the year:

I wanted to share with you what has been on my mind for our students this year. In May I had probably 4-6 discussions with young women who, to greater & lesser degrees were all wanting to do whatever they want sexually. Or in some cases, they did do whatever they wanted. Digging a bit deeper a lot of these desires and angst towards submitting their lives & desires to God came down to wanting their longings to be fulfilled. They desire love & intimacy & freedom from shame. What is heartbreakingly ironic is that they so badly want to throw off the yoke of Jesus to find these things, when it is only under this yoke that they will find it. 

In the midst of many of these conversations I found myself returning over and over again to

 John 6:68-70: 

“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”

All of John chapter six has been weighing heavily on me for the last several months, but Simon Peter's question has been piercing me. That is why it is our theme for the year. This year I want more of our students to wrestle explicitly with where they believe life is found, not where they want to find life. Lord, where else can we go? This captures the desperation, authenticity & earnestness I want them to engage with and experience. May they come to feel this question deep within them, as they look at the world and feel the tug of everything else promising them eternal life. May they come to know and believe that Jesus is the Holy one of God with the words of eternal life. Join me in praying this over them. 

Love, 

Sophie