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Many Reasons to be Thankful

Praise God for the 90 Degree Weather! 

Our team is celebrating. We made it through the welcome week at UTA. It was hot. The days were long, but we met so many students. Our first service had 135 students attend. This was mind-blowing for us. Last year, we averaged around 85 students each week at our weekly service. I am finding myself celebrating the boom in our attendance and also, celebrating the opportunity for these people to hear the gospel through our service. It can be so easy to measure success by having more bodies in seats. I am praying that our student leaders will help us as we connect with each of these new students. I am praying we have tons of new one-on-one bible studies. Pray that no one will be overlooked as we experience this surge of people. 


Our theme for this year is "Between Two Worlds". In the past two weeks, we have been preaching through the Beatitudes, exploring how Jesus compares His kingdom to our world. It starts in verse 3 by saying: 
 
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 
Blessed are those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted".

   We see Jesus elevate such different qualities that we don't typically highlight. He says these people are blessed. My heart has been heavy recently despite all of these exciting welcome week events. I am just reminded of how students come to college with such different stories. Much of my conversations recently have been full of excitement for this new chapter. High school is hard for many people. Many people have an eager expectation of new friendships and joining our ministry. They say that they can't believe they found a group. These stories energize these early weeks when we are on campus all day. They are the good news. But, I have also experienced students who are grappling with grief; the loss of friendships and even loved ones. The Beatitudes are good news to both of these groups. Pray for my students who are grieving and hurt. Pray praises for those who feel like their beginning of college feels like a homecoming, and some of that has to do with our ministry! 

Thank you so much for your prayers and support! You make this ministry possible! 

A glimpse of the past few weeks: 



At TCC, we hosted a game hang out. There was a very intense game of Jenga. 

We hosted a karaoke night in a local coffee shop. We had a blast and many of our new students came. 

Here I am with some students at our annual Waffle-opolis. 

We hosted an event called Zombie Tag. We ran around a building after hours. Graham dressed like a zombie. 

Here's a photo from our United Worship event. Five different ministries came together to pray over the new school year. UTA is a very special place: the ministries on campus have great relationships with one another. It's a glimpse of heaven. 

Here's a photo of me and some gals. I did our one-on-one study with all of these ladies, and now they are leading. How exciting right? Praise God!




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