Our New Friends Are Finally Here

FIRST CORE OF THE YEAR

Howdy and hello, friends!

    It is finally that exciting part of the year, when the school year starts and we get to meet hundreds of new students on campus. There have been so many neat conversations, invitations, and explanations of who Jesus is and what he is doing at UTA. Thank you all for your prayers and support. I would not get to be meeting guys like Garrett, Chaehoon, Andrew, Tyler, Teo, Trenton, Sam, and so many others if it were not for your support. If you are reading this, you had a big role to play in Jesus' name being made known this past month. So thank you so much.

There have been so many events that I could tell you all about, but I will cover all of them with this. We met a lot of new guys this Welcome Week, which was such good news. Our men's ministry has been shrinking, and our men's team did a great job of befriending and inviting new guys in. I could see Christ making many of these new faces leaders and disciples in the coming years. So that is really exciting. Overall, the week was a flurry of meeting people, inviting them play games or to come to FOCUS, and just generally serving the campus. 

This is my new pal Garrett! He is pretty quiet, but he loves God and seems stoked to study the Bible together. I am pumped to be his friend on this journey with him.

    Those events mostly boil down to the sweet faces that stick around though, like my new friend Garrett, and a handful of other guys. I have started studying the Bible with a handful of them, and ask that you could pray over these young men specifically: Garrett, Andrew, Chaehoon, David, Aaron, Tyler, and Brandon. There are more guys that I am meeting with, but I feel God is asking for me to invest in these young men currently. Please also pray that I am partnering with the Spirit in my time with these guys.

This is the bread and butter of our ministry: these One on One Bible studies called Focus On Jesus. Students sit down and get to read scripture with a new friend or pastor, someone who is intentionally seeking them out and praying for them. I know that my first time being discipled through FOJ was pretty formative and life changing, and I pray God can move through me with these young men here.

With the rest of this blog, I have many photos and little snippets of the past couple hard working weeks. Thank you all again for your support in this important Kingdom Work.

We were the only group passing waters out during move in, and honestly a majority of the first week. We got to bless thousands of students, parents, and faculty, as well as pass out our event cards. So many new friends were met through such simple serving.

We held an event called Olympics for Everyone. It was a goofy night of various challenges students could compete to win prizes in. Great way to meeting more men on campus.

For much of that night, I was inviting people while wearing stilts as kind of a "attention grabber". It is nice to know even the goofiest parts of me can serve the kingdom.

Our staff attended a Library Fair. This is where I met both Aaron and Andrew, two of the guys I am studying the Bible with now. It is so important to just show up to the events going around us, you never know who in your local community you could connect with.

We took a large amount of new students to get Raising Canes for dinner the first Saturday after move in. Everyone you can see in this photo is with our ministry. A great way to get them connected and have fun their first weekend of college.

We also grabbed ice cream after. Mauricio and Luke are two of our corefas this year and have been really faithful with meeting their classmates and new freshmen.

We hosted a United Worship night with four other campus ministries here at UTA. It caught the attention of some new students looking for ministries and was a really sweet sign of how God is working not just through FOCUS, but at UTA across the board.

We hosted a night of Zombie Tag. Austin and I went all out with makeup, torn clothes, and our best zombie noises. At this point I was exhausted, but what a fun and memorable night for these new students. Totally worth it.

Playing board games with students we just met in the UC before Waffleopolis.

We did a karaoke event at our local coffee shop and what a fun night. 

So many students had a great time and really opened up through these performances.

Here are two new students I have been trying to get time with, Sai and Malchus. They are not Christian, so they have had many reservations, but they loved Karaoke with us. Please pray for them to open their hearts to Jesus and to discipleship. I meet for lunch with Sai this Wednesday!