August Update!

My apprenticeship is over! We have made it to the summer!

Thank you so much for making this season possible through your support and prayers. I have not had time to fully reflect on what this year has meant to me, but I can say I have enjoyed being able to join in on what God is doing. The pace on the college campus is fast. It feels like it was just yesterday that I was welcoming incoming freshman and inviting them to play board games. It’s amazing how God can turn a casual conversation during a game of Uno into a meaningful friendship. Just thinking about welcome week makes me excited for my move to Arlington. Be praying for that transition over.

So speaking of Arlington, I wanted to share about the leadership conference we went to called SICM. The trip was awesome and I was able to bond with students from different campuses. Students from UTD, UNT/ TWU, and UTA were there to learn how to outreach to their campus and learn small groups. I was able to spend a significant amount of time with the students from UTA. We had the opportunity to explore Seattle together before the conference started. Our adventures involved some art museums, chinatown and sampled some tiny doughnuts at Pike’s Place. As I’m typing, I’m realizing I should’ve taken WAY more photos.

One of my favorite parts of the conference is a special event called pizza theology. It’s a simple event where a speaker teaches on a topic while we eat pizza. This year’s focus was on missions and international students. I thought the speaker did an amazing job of casting the vision for overseas missions, but he also did a phenomenal job of reminding the students of the mission field on our campuses. While that message can be challenging, my prayer is that more student will catch this vision to reach out to international students. UTA has over 5000 international students on campus. Hearing that reminds me of the verse in Matthew 9:37, " The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few". I have already started praying for God to open doors for me to become friends with people from different countries. Pray for God to begin opening doors now that will lead to meaningful friendships.

My pictures can't do justice for our trip to Seattle. I'm excited to see what God does with what we learned on this trip.

In closing, I wanted to ask you guys if you would partner with me praying about fundraising. Pray that God will provide new people to help make this next year possible by supporting me. I'm 70 percent of the way there. Thank you so much for your generosity and heart for campus ministry!