It's fall y'all!
Hello and welcome to this month’s update! This month has been full of God’s provision and blessing to our ministry and I hope that it has been for you too. Thank you so much for choosing to invest in students here at UTD, I am honored to walk around on campus and meet new students because of your generosity.
This year, I have been given the very special role of a floater, where I have the opportunity to visit all of our different women’s cores and it has been so fun! Every week, I spend a couple of evenings with different cores getting to interact and meet the students in each core. I have had the opportunity to watch our student core facilitators build community among the girls in their cores and it is really neat getting to watch God work through each group in unique ways. Throughout the week, I try and set up one on one meetings with each girls from each core and in that way, hopefully by the end of the semester I will have spent time with each girl in our ministry. This has been one of my favorite things that I have gotten to do because I absolutely LOVE getting to meet new people and get to know their stories. Every girl that I have met with individually has told me that they are so glad that God brought them to this community because they have felt His love and warmth through the people in our ministry. It has been so clearly evident that God has a big plan for each of these girls and we are so blessed to now join God in His work by investing in each student that we meet.
Because I am not leading a core this year, I have been filling my schedule with one on one meet-ups with students and I have started up 4 Bible studies which have been a blast! I don’t know what God is up to this year, but it has been incredible witnessing so many students say yes to studying the Bible with people, we keep running out of booklets! One of the students that I am studying with told me that “This year I feel like God is calling me to get to know him more personally. I know a lot about God, but I don’t really feel like I know him in my heart yet… I’m ready to start letting him into my heart.” Another student said, “I know that I want to follow Jesus and I am nervous about some of the things he might call me to surrender, but I am excited to dive in and see what all of this is about.” It is so evident that God has his mighty hand on this campus! I will keep you updated on these studies!
This month it has been made so evidently clear that God has been moving so powerfully in our ministry that the enemy is angry and is trying to use anything to create division in our community and destroy the good things that God is doing here. However, I have been so impressed with how our student leaders have been quick to run to Jesus, trust in Him, and speak Scriptures to one another to encourage and strengthen one another in the Lord. The enemy will not prevail. It reminds me of the Scripture in Genesis 13, “What Satan meant for evil, God meant for good”.
This past weekend, we had our annual Fall Retreat! It was a blast getting to spend time with our students away from campus, they all had a great time. We spent some time singing worship songs, praying together, playing games and dancing together, and we got to listen to students give their testimonies in front of our community, which was awesome and I’m definitely still thinking about what they shared! Two of the questions that they answered were: What are some decisions you have made to have closer, more intimate friendships? And, what are some decisions you have made to have a closer, more intimate relationship with God?
During the retreat, we had a time where cores would gather together and share about how fall retreat has been going, and I got to group up with Portia and Rebecca’s core. Two of the girls from their core who came are sisters and mentioned that this was their first time at a camp. One of them said, “Yeah, growing up, me and my sister would dream of going to camp to make memories and bond with our friends, but our parents were very strict and didn’t allow it. Now that we’re here, it feels like a dream come true and God has been so good to us by surrounding us with this loving family.” Both of these students grew up in a Muslim household and it has been challenging for them to keep following Jesus a secret from their parents, knowing that they would react very poorly. Please be praying for both of these students, I know that they are not the only ones that are facing the difficult decision to follow Jesus.
Thank you so much for all of your support and prayers for the work that I get to do here at UTD. It is so clear to me that God is good and He is very good to me through each of you! Please let me know how I can be praying for you, I’d love to hear from you!
This year, I have been given the very special role of a floater, where I have the opportunity to visit all of our different women’s cores and it has been so fun! Every week, I spend a couple of evenings with different cores getting to interact and meet the students in each core. I have had the opportunity to watch our student core facilitators build community among the girls in their cores and it is really neat getting to watch God work through each group in unique ways. Throughout the week, I try and set up one on one meetings with each girls from each core and in that way, hopefully by the end of the semester I will have spent time with each girl in our ministry. This has been one of my favorite things that I have gotten to do because I absolutely LOVE getting to meet new people and get to know their stories. Every girl that I have met with individually has told me that they are so glad that God brought them to this community because they have felt His love and warmth through the people in our ministry. It has been so clearly evident that God has a big plan for each of these girls and we are so blessed to now join God in His work by investing in each student that we meet.
Because I am not leading a core this year, I have been filling my schedule with one on one meet-ups with students and I have started up 4 Bible studies which have been a blast! I don’t know what God is up to this year, but it has been incredible witnessing so many students say yes to studying the Bible with people, we keep running out of booklets! One of the students that I am studying with told me that “This year I feel like God is calling me to get to know him more personally. I know a lot about God, but I don’t really feel like I know him in my heart yet… I’m ready to start letting him into my heart.” Another student said, “I know that I want to follow Jesus and I am nervous about some of the things he might call me to surrender, but I am excited to dive in and see what all of this is about.” It is so evident that God has his mighty hand on this campus! I will keep you updated on these studies!
This month it has been made so evidently clear that God has been moving so powerfully in our ministry that the enemy is angry and is trying to use anything to create division in our community and destroy the good things that God is doing here. However, I have been so impressed with how our student leaders have been quick to run to Jesus, trust in Him, and speak Scriptures to one another to encourage and strengthen one another in the Lord. The enemy will not prevail. It reminds me of the Scripture in Genesis 13, “What Satan meant for evil, God meant for good”.
This past weekend, we had our annual Fall Retreat! It was a blast getting to spend time with our students away from campus, they all had a great time. We spent some time singing worship songs, praying together, playing games and dancing together, and we got to listen to students give their testimonies in front of our community, which was awesome and I’m definitely still thinking about what they shared! Two of the questions that they answered were: What are some decisions you have made to have closer, more intimate friendships? And, what are some decisions you have made to have a closer, more intimate relationship with God?
During the retreat, we had a time where cores would gather together and share about how fall retreat has been going, and I got to group up with Portia and Rebecca’s core. Two of the girls from their core who came are sisters and mentioned that this was their first time at a camp. One of them said, “Yeah, growing up, me and my sister would dream of going to camp to make memories and bond with our friends, but our parents were very strict and didn’t allow it. Now that we’re here, it feels like a dream come true and God has been so good to us by surrounding us with this loving family.” Both of these students grew up in a Muslim household and it has been challenging for them to keep following Jesus a secret from their parents, knowing that they would react very poorly. Please be praying for both of these students, I know that they are not the only ones that are facing the difficult decision to follow Jesus.
Thank you so much for all of your support and prayers for the work that I get to do here at UTD. It is so clear to me that God is good and He is very good to me through each of you! Please let me know how I can be praying for you, I’d love to hear from you!
Yours,
Andrea
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