Emily's Ministry Updates

 Hello World!  I thought you guys would excuse my blog entry being later this month. Our lives have changed recently. Bonnie is here. She came earlier than expected, but she is healthy and adjusting to life outside the womb. Graham and I have felt so incredibly supported during this life change. We are praising God often and praying for his strength as we navigate the late nights with our new roommate.  Leading up to Bonnie's birth, I was taking full advantage of the restful nature of summer. I napped. I went to the pool with students. Thought I would maybe get a tan in preparation for the baby... even though I don't really tan. We finished our staff book club. I hosted an after event for our weekly service. I did what I could as a very pregnant lady. It feels surreal to now be starting my maternity leave. I will be soaking up these precious early weeks with Bonnie until my twelve weeks are up.  Graham is back to work, but thankfully, he has a reduced schedule because of the su

  I thought I would start with this photo of me. It cracks me up. I was serving tacos at our end of year party, and this photo was snapped. Wouldn't you want to see that happy face as you were handed tacos?  The summer is here! I have already been reaping the benefits of a slower schedule. I am thankful my last month of pregnancy is during this time. While I am still meeting with students, it is in a much slower pace than the school year. I am helping plan what I can before Bonnie arrives. FOCUS will host services over the summer open to all of our campuses to come and worship. I have been on the team planning hangouts after the service. Our goal is to help students make friendships across the campuses. We are optimistic our students will enjoy these creative events since we have historically just gone to restaurants afterwards. Who doesn't love saving some money and meeting new people?  Graham was a part of the team who went up to Washington for our annual leadership training

 Year 2023-2024 is in the Books! Someone cue a song of celebration. We made it to the end. Above is a photo of our UTA leader team from this past year.  I hope your May is starting off well. May marks for me the end of the school year and the beginning of summer. Which means... I'm even closer to having a baby. All prayers are welcomed and appreciated. I plan to send an update in June focusing on family and ministry in regards to our little bundle of joy. (I totally plan to continue in ministry, so don't fret.) This update is going to be centered on outreach and evangelism. I  wanted to highlight some outreach efforts that have encouraged me this year!  Every year I've been in ministry, we have approached outreach in different ways: whiteboards displayed with thought-provoking questions, pairs of students being sent to pray over people, and we've hosted giant events for international students. The most consistent question we have asked has been, "How do we develop

Happy Easter! He is risen!! We have about five weeks left in the semester. Our students are currently juggling tests and projects. This is about the time many of our pastors are having pep talks with students to finish well and trust Jesus in the chaos. Pray our students will keep their eyes on Jesus during this time.  This month wrapped up with two really neat events. The photo above is actually from one of them. Every spring, TCC hosts an international festival. They always go above and beyond with the entertainment and free food. Organizations have the opportunity to table at this event. I was encouraged by the turn out and interest in our organization. I met a student named Kim who was thrilled to have found our club and swore she would be at our next meeting. So pray we can see fruit from this festival and we see new people come by.  The second event was the last week of March. All of the ministries at UTA hosted a 72 hour prayer event. The event was hosted in a tent in the middle