How do I even begin? August was awesome. We just finished our first week of welcoming new students onto campus. We helped freshmen move in on Saturday and then we were on campus the rest of the next week. UTA and TCC both hosted events to kick off the semester. I want to walk you through my august as a campus missionary!
I had the most exciting start to August. My dear friend Hailey got baptized and I got to do it. I am so happy she made this step in her faith. She is an amazing leader on our women's side. What's more college ministry than baptizing someone in an apartment pool? She was surrounded by family and friends. It was special seeing everyone come out to celebrate her. Baptism is cool for many reasons, but I found myself moved by how it unites us with the believers who came before us.
After that, we moved into time preparing for school to start. Graham and I split our time between TCC and UTA. We were able to train up our leaders on both campuses for the welcome week the next thing we knew, school started. At TCC, we would meet people by inviting them to play games in the cafeteria. This was huge! TCC is a community college where everyone is commuting. The university did an amazing job creating events, and we went to them all (they fed me MULTIPLE times). We tried to help by creating spaces for students to interact by playing games. Monday, we had a full table of people chatting and eating lunch. It helped that the same day it rained so much. People had to be around. I was proud of our student leaders. Patty and Rowan made it their goal to meet and invite everyone they could. This photo is from after they came back from giving flyers out. They are fearless and bold!
UTA was a different world. Their biggest events are the nighttime events. I found myself at many loud, club-like events. My personal favorite is called Waffleopolis. You stand in a long line meeting the people around you. The school serves you half of a waffle that you can cover in toppings. It's seriously the best night.
Be praying for us as the semester starts. Pray that we will be a light on our campus. We had a training with our leaders and we already know of several students coming around who don't know Jesus. Pray they will be open to our message. I've already had some awesome opportunities to bring people into the community. A girl from TCC came up to our table and shared how she wanted to get involved with something. She wasn't able to come to our weekly group, but she ended up coming to our casino night at UTA. She was able to make so many friends. She later thanked me for inviting her, saying that she had never felt so welcomed by a Christian group. God really does place us where He needs us.
Speaking of being placed where God needs you, I have a story to tell. One of my favorite people on this planet called me to tell me about how God moved during welcome week. My friend is one of the new leaders on our team. She had been struggling with feeling like she wasn't good enough to do ministry. She was stuck in comparison to people who seem more gifted at meeting tons of new people. Late one night, she called me. She called and told me of two opportunities the Lord gave her this week. Both involved her sitting with someone and hearing them out. She connected with them and both opened up to tell her how lonely they had been. She got to be a light for two people during their first week. She got to be the hands and feet of Jesus as she listened to them. She also was able to tell them about our ministry and why they should check it out. I really believe we are being good news to people on our campus. Both big and small actions are being used by God.
I know I will have so much more to tell you in October. Thank you for supporting campus ministry. Thank you for supporting me. Pray for wisdom and strength. Pray for clarity on situations that seem unclear.
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