February Update!

My work as a campus pastor has clear seasons. January, our students are on break for a good part of the month. The past month was a time of prepping and praying for the work that is to come. This year, I have been leading a group of leaders that we call “peer team”. It consists of several pairs of ladies who are co-leading a small group. This has been a fun new role in my ministry. I love getting to be a friend and a partner with these women. Anyways, I was praying through each woman and how God might want them to grow this semester. I had spent the fall getting to know them and now this semester, it was time to see where they should be encouraged or spurred towards something better. I had this moment as I was thinking through each lady: I only have four more months before summer break! How are these ladies going to learn and grow in all the areas that I so desperately want them to?  

I imagine you have felt this way about someone in your life. Someone who you care for and desire for them to know the truths of Jesus and to allow that to change their life. It’s like I can see so clearly what their life could look like if these truths was internalized. If they would just stop believing this about themselves, they would be a force on our campus, in their friendships or at work. I really believe God’s word can do that. Change people. We read in James that God’s word is like a mirror; it shows us our true self and identity. I found as I was praying that I was reminded to point my people to scripture and reminding them of its power.  

This semester, my hope is that my ladies see that they can have an unshakable identity in Christ. In our times together, we have been reading Romans which is full of foundational truths of why we believe what we believe. I have been seriously blown away at how many verses in that book are quotable and applicable. Pray for my peer team. Pray that God will meet each lady in their unique situation and that they will better know him. Pray for indenities not found in worth or status, but in how God sees them. 

I know my relationship with these women does not end when finals come around in May. But, there’s something to the fact I only have a limited time in the semester. Pray that I can be discerning to the needs my people have and that allow God to help. Pray for my faith in what God is doing in them. I’m excited for what God will do. 

Outside of just leadership development, their small groups are off to a great start. We are meeting new people on campus who are wanting to be plugged into small groups. It is so exciting that we can be a place for new people to come and make friends. Pray that our new people stick around and that we can love them well. 

Lastly, I want to leave you with the verses that were on my mind while typing this:

Philippians 1:4-6, 9-11, “In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus… 

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God”. 

Thank you so much for your support and prayers. They mean the world to me.