Wrapping Up The School Year

December 07, 2022

Howdy and hello, friends! Merry soon to be Christmas!

Of course I am posting this once again a week into the new month while covering the last one! I feel equipped to minister to students, but sometimes feel so forgetful of these important tasks, like sharing good news with you all! Thankful for you, your patience, and your prayers.

We are coming on up on finals, so the school year is coming to a close. We celebrated with a Christmas party with both our UTA and TCC students together.

Say hello to Waldo!! (p.s. Emily is ecstatic)

A friend of mine on staff created this graphic to help
explain some of our commonly used jargon in ministry.

Our theme for the party was Christmas in Hawaii, so there was lots of great decorations, outfits, and themed snacks. Where so much of my job is meeting with students one on one, and having pretty serious conversations about life, scripture, and sins, I find that these celebrations do a great job of forming relationships and making memories. God changes us throughout the year, but these events are such fun memories and photos to look back on.

Taking a core picture at the Christmas Party. Feat our new friend, Luke on the end.

Vincent is a constant source of encouragement wrapped up in a very thoughtful guy

Something else I think God loves us doing is being vulnerable. And what is more vulnerable than writing and performing in your own CORE SKIT. We do this every year, so here are both my UTA core guys and our TCC core group's videos.

These were both so fun to make, and I could tell our students felt much closer after getting to be so silly and a part of a vision together.

Chris got pretty far in the limbo contest, just look at his technique with his feet.

Vincent did pretty good too, even if Emily Turner's face thinks otherwise.

TCC at the Christmas Party

TCC had our last meeting today doing a white elephant party. I have been encouraged seeing this group grow closer this semester. My friend, John from TCC (The one who got baptized this semester), texted me some screenshots of some Bible verses he was reading with the caption "this is so cool!"

THAT IS SO COOL! It's enough to see a student reading scripture on his own time, let alone sharing it with me as a friend to revel in God's good news.

One of our TCC corefas, Colton got to read a poem he wrote during worship at our TNF service. We found out in core last year Colton's gift of writing and reciting during a core where we read scripture and wrote stories and poems in response. Colton is a man of the Word, and you can tell how much the story and symbols of the Bible mean to him when he shares a poem. Really proud of him, the gift God has given him, and his boldness to share that gift to honor God.

As encouraging as this year has been, Winter often tends to bring a wave of sadness and anxiety over our students. Generally, please be praying for college students around the world to find peace in God or through God this break. It can be a dark time for many despite the festivities.

More specifically, I would love for prayers of guidance. Because of the confidential matters of my student's lives, I cannot write here what is fully going on, but Emily and I just seem to be seeing multiple instances of really tough situations for our students. Some are thinking about leaving ministry, some are in deep sadness over the loss of loved ones, and some are making decisions harmful to themselves in the long run. Pray for these students, but please pray for Emily and I as well, along with the rest of our staff, to have wisdom with guiding these students.

Thank you all so much.

And yes, we have a dog now! His name is Waldo, and he is very gentle and anxious. In the short few days of having him, I have loved getting to invite students to walk with us and to just love on him. God is good to us with these little creations. I find myself thinking of Him the more I am learning to take care of this little being.