THANKFUL MINISTRY

-

 


Thankful Ministry!

The month of November has been another busy month of ministry! I'm excited to get to share with you all the things that have been going on at UTD this month. I hope you have enjoyed these past few months of ministry blog updates, and I'm so excited to share more in the future!


Small Group Worship

One of our values in ministry is creating an environment where people can make deep meaningful relationships with other Christ-loving students. Building a Christ-centered community is a large part of what FOCUS is all about. You may have noticed in my previous blog updates that we host a lot of events for our students and this is one of the ways we cultivate community. We invite our students to get to know each other outside of their weekly small groups. This past month we did exactly that with a joint small group worship night. It was really great to see a lot of our Tuesday night small group students show up and mingle with people outside of their small group. We talked about the importance of worship and how we individually relate to worship and finally we ended with a great set of worship songs.


Living Life Together 

Part of this theme of community also comes in the value of living life together. We don't want to just know facts about each other but we want to know each other deeply and purposefully. That means living life together in real spiritual friendship. I get to have a lot of neat conversations with students about their walk with God and where he is taking them and I am so thankful to get to that as my job. I also get to celebrate life with them! This month one of our small group guys, Cole, had his 18th birthday and so all of our small group decided to pitch in to celebrate him on his special day. It's little things like this that make being a part of this community so special to me.


Making and Maturing Disciples

Another large part of our ministry is making and maturing disciples. We help our students not just know God but encourage them in growing and maturing in their faith to better follow Jesus. Most of our small groups are led by students who volunteer their time to learn more about Christ and mature in their own faith so that they can faithfully help bring the kingdom to UTD. Every week, we have meetings that teach our students leaders about leadership skills and discipling skills in order for them to lead our community towards Christ more and more. I've been so blessed to be a part of a community that not only invites students into fun but also to a mature faith.



Winter Retreat

Every year we invite our students out to a weekend-long retreat before the semester begins. This week is full of teaching, worship, and fellowship. It has been such a big part of our community and continues to bless our community year after year. Last year I was sick with COVID and missed out but I am ready for this year's Winter Retreat over 1 John! Above is a picture of the video shoot we did to promote Winter Retreat this year. As you may guess, it was quite the video.

Thank You For Your Support

Everything month I reflect on just how blessed I am to have you as a supporter. I can't put into words just how amazing it is to be able to do the job I do, teaching and leading students to Christ, all with your support. You really are a big part of what God is doing at UTD this year. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for your support. You have blessed not only my life but the lives of our students. I want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Alumni Testimony 























Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SUMMER WRAP UP

-
Image
 Summer Wrap Up The summer is coming to an end and the 23-24 school year is on the horizon. I'm really excited for this next year because it comes with a whole new set of roles and responsibilities as a first-year staff member with FOCUS. I've recently joined our Campus Admin Team as the team member for UTD and I'm ready to see what the year will bring in this new role. I'm happy that the new role will not decrease my time ministering to students. I'm very eager to lead another small group this year, either alone or with another student, as well as supervising a few of our small group leaders.  Praying For The Year I'd like to ask all of you to join me in prayer for this coming school year. Pray that the students at UTD would be open and willing to know and follow Jesus. Pray that students who are lonely and in need of friendship would find it this school year. Pray that our students would be led by the Spirit this year and that they would find peace in their di
Read more

YARD SIGN FIASCO

-
Image
  Yard Sign Fiasco Well, this past month was a whirlwind of activity at UTD. March was filled with lots of fun, fellowship, and theft! You read correctly! We had yard sign thievery! Apart from the excitement of our yard signs, this month we had the pleasure of playing host to out-of-state friends and had a great time of out reaching to the students of UTD.   The Yard Signs A couple weeks ago before UTDs spring break, our team came up with a new and exciting plan to advertise our sermon series that we started for the rest of the semester. The sermon series revolved around the question, "Does Jesus Care About _____". The sermons have been talking about poverty, depression, politics, dating, and so many other topics. Like any good advertising campaign, we took our main tagline question of "Does Jesus Care About ____" and posted yard signs all around campus. Boy oh boy did were we met with a surprising response from the students. Their response came in the form of steal
Read more

2023 START!

-
Image
  Between Two Worlds The 2023-24 school year of ministry has started off with a bang! August was a wonderful month of welcoming new freshmen and students to UTD and getting to hear their stories. Even more exciting is the overflow of attendance in our Welcome Week events and our first three weeks of Friday Night Fellowship gatherings. God is working once again on our campus this year and I am overjoyed to be a part of it! Welcome Week Every year the Focus ministry spends the first two weeks of school welcoming and inviting new students into the community. I had the pleasure of meeting so many new faces and hearing their stories. This year felt like a massive overflow of interest in Jesus and joining a Christian community. Our Core Facilitators (small group leaders) did an amazing job with all of the students who were ready and eager to join the community.  Friday Night Fellowship  Our Friday nights have been filled with excitement since the beginning of the school year! Our Friday Nigh
Read more