Into the thick of it! 🎵

Our UTD FOCUS community at Fall Camp!

Hello ministry partners! I hope that this month was full of blessings for you and your loved ones. I am so thankful for all of your continued support. This month of ministry was when things really started falling into place and I am really excited to tell you about it!

My core has been going really well! In the past month we have talked about friendships and have started forming deeper relationships with one another. Every week we have been pairing the girls to go and hang out with one another outside of core. Our girls have been studying for classes, eating lunch, and going shopping together, and I’m so thankful that in this season of the pandemic, the girls feel more comfortable doing things in person, what a huge blessing!

My core meets on campus outside!

Study party with my core girls!

Just buying some groceries

In September, we had our yearly Fall Camp, where the UTD FOCUS community will go to a camp for a weekend of fellowship, worship, and lots of free time for cores to bond more! The week before Fall Camp one of my girls, Miriam, told me that she would not be able to come because she needed to go home to get some things that she really needed. That night, I decided to drive her and a few other core girls to her house almost three hours away so that she could get her stuff and come to camp! It was so fun to have her show us around her small hometown--Miriam later told me it will be a memory she will never forget.

A photo from our spontaneous trip to Marshall, TX

Fall Camp was a really powerful weekend. My core got a lot of time to spend with each other hanging out and painting rocks, making bracelets, and chatting in our cabin. One night, each of the girls opened up about some of their personal struggles and expressed a lot of gratitude to have a place that they could open up to. During worship that night, we were asked to go and give a word of encouragement to someone we felt the Holy Spirit leading us to encourage. I watched as my sweet core girls whispered to one another and gave each other big hugs. Needless to say it was a really special weekend that has really glued some of core girls together. Please be praying that as the year goes on, girls who were not able to come to camp would feel that same sense of community through our time in core!

Making bracelets at camp!

In our cabin at Fall Camp

This month, each of the staff members, including myself, took a strengths finder assessment, and later met with a professional strengths coach, Carole Bungard, who walked us through our top 5 strengths. I think I was pretty skeptical of these kinds of assessments because I don’t really feel like I have a ton of strengths, but in my time with Carole, she shared a dream where she saw God with his hands opened towards her, and in his hands were her top 5 strengths spelled out. She said that she thinks of her strengths as God’s fingerprints on her, and that through our strengths we can show different parts of God to people. My top 5 were: empathy, developer, adaptability, connectedness, woo, and a bonus of includer! She said that my strengths were all people-centered, which really affirmed my sense of belonging on this campus ministry team! I can’t wait to keep learning how to let God use my strengths as I meet and disciple students at UTD!

Carole and I became fast friends!

This month I am introducing something new to my blog! Every month, I would like to highlight one of my core girls and have her share a little bit about her experience so that you can get to know them as well! Here is a little bit about Heidi:

Hi, My name is Heidi!! I am a freshman majoring in Psychology. I come from a small and random town about an hour from UTD called Kaufman, and I lived there for 9 years. Although moving into college was a big change in my life, I consider it a good change because with every day that goes by, I meet new people, I make new memories, I get to be a part of FOCUS, and most importantly I get to be in Zoe’s and Andrea’s core. God has been teaching me and showing me his love so much lately especially through core. Core is something I always look forward to because it’s always so fun to spend time with all of the beautiful girls. Some prayer requests include: motivation to pay attention in my philosophy class, as well as a mindset that allows me to make good choices and puts my whole trust in God.

This is Heidi!

Thank you so much for all of your support! I will reach out to you soon and ask for your prayer requests!

Love,

Andrea