Emily's Ministry Updates

  Hello August, my old friend. Above is a photo from our staff retreat featuring our new apprentices! It was such a bless to get to refocus on Jesus as we approach welcome week. It is surreal to think this is my sixth year of campus ministry. Thank you guys for your prayers and support. I wouldn't be here with you and of course, our Lord Jesus Christ.  Our retreat centered on a book called " In the Name of Jesus" by Henri Nouwen. In the book, he takes the reader through the three temptations of Jesus and how those apply to pastors. He summarizes as them as the temptation of being relevant, popular and powerful. I found myself reflecting on how I have chosen those temptations over trusting and relying on Jesus. I ultimately found myself feeling convicted of how much I desire control and influence over the people I minister to. My desire comes from wanting the best for people, but ends up perpetuating the belief that I have control or power. I am praying that I see this y

Greetings from Buc-ee's Above is a photo from Buc-ee's on the fourth of July. We got to met the celebrity beaver while visiting my family.  For any of my out of state friends, Buc-ee's is a huge gas station and this beaver is their face and mascot. I just had to get a photo of these two with him.  Here's a photo from our church's dog event. The guy above's name is Mauricio. The dog he is holding is his. We had a good laugh that his beloved dog was a pampered shih Tzu. He and Graham have become great friends over the year. He will be leading in the fall. Pray for our men's side of the ministry. What happens every four years or so is that many of our people graduate. We are coming into this year with fewer men leaders. Pray for them to have courage and boldness to reach out on campus to their classmates, friends and whoever. I'm hopeful with guys like Mauricio that we will meet the people God wants us to this year.  Ministry-wise, we have begun the prepara

Hello, July!  I want to start off just sharing some praises! God has been incredibly kind (again). Graham and I have both hit our fundraising goals. Thank you how generous you have been. Thank you for believing in campus ministry. Thank you for seeing value in people like me getting to be available on campus to minister and share the good news. You are an important and integral part of this mission. I hope you feel just as blessed as I do. June was restful. Graham, Waldo and I got to go to Hot Springs.  Work-wise, we have already begun planning for welcome week in August. Welcome week is one of the most important rhythms of the year. Freshman and international student alike flood the campus looking to make memories and friends. This where my prayer warriors come in. Please be praying for the students we will be meeting. Pray that our leader team will have the boldness to invite people to our ministry. A little refresh about our ministry is that our student leaders actually go out and i

  Hello again! It’s time for your ministry update. I have to start by thanking you for your prayers and support. This specific update is full special moments I got to have while doing ministry. God is kind to provide the way for me to work in ministry full time. Thank from the bottom of my heart.   Since we last spoke, I went with our students to SICM. This is our annual leadership training up in beautiful Bellingham, Washington. This trip was such a fun change of pace from the end of the year. I know I’ve been honest on these updates about how tired I felt from this semester ending. It was a tough semester for me, so this trip felt like a gift because it let me relax and get to know our students better. It is a blessing taking students who have never flown or been out of the state before to Washington. I loved seeing this trip through their eyes. A sweet moment was when one of our TCC students ran up to me and exclaimed, “You have to go to Pike’s Market!” At first, I wanted to say tha

  Another year in the books. God had been so faithful.  Someone needs to pinch me because I am in disbelief this year is over.   It’s time for an overview of this year!  Our TCC ministry grew this year. We did outreach the first couple of days on campus by playing board games and inviting people. This is how we met several new students. The weather was unseasonably rainy, so students were just wandering around inside before their classes. It was a perfect start for us. We got to talk with many people. One of my favorite goals at the beginning of the semester is to help make students' first week of school fun and memorable. Even if they don’t stick around, I want to remember FOCUS people were friendly and inviting.  This was a year full of baptisms. Graham and I were honored to baptize several people in our apartment pool. This reminds me of the story in Acts 8 with Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. After Philip explained Isaiah which the eunuch was reading before, it says: “ An