August is here, God is good!

 

Hello everyone! I am literally tearing up and about to jump out of my seat of excitement. This past month has been so incredible, God has been immensely faithful like he has always been to us! At the beginning of the month, we had our staff retreat where we all got together to pray, worship, and prepare our hearts for the fall and all that comes with the start of the semester. I loved getting to spend time with my UTD team and our larger team, it is always encouraging to be united and worship God together as we dream and hope of what the fall will bring.

Our FOCUS Staff team

UTD students moved in, and we kicked off the semester with 2 weeks of event after event, trying to meet as many students as we could. IT WAS AWESOME!!! On the days that the freshmen moved into their dorms, we set up outdoor games and bracelet making for students to come by and meet one another. I helped with an event where we took a deeper look at the book of Jonah, and we filled the whole room of 50 students! We also got to show students where their classes were, and I had several meals at the dining hall trying to sit with new students I hadn’t met! On the first day of school, we had a Paint N’ Sip with painting supplies and mocktails, and we were not expecting more than 100 students to show up. GUESS WHAT! Over 300 students came, and we completely filled one of the largest classrooms on campus. IT WAS INSANE!

While at the Paint N’ Sip, I sat down next to a freshman who asked me to share my testimony with her because she was feeling lukewarm about Jesus. I shared with her that God had used my time in college to show me who he was by being faithful, good, and by surrounding me with a community of believers that loved me and pointed me back to him. I teared up while sharing Psalm 139 (my favorite, if you know me) with her–that God has known each step taken, thought, and word spoken, and that he has led her to UTD. That she is not here as a coincidence, but that God is giving her the opportunity to know him personally and to decide for herself if she wants to follow him. Whew! Please keep this student in your prayers and for each student who is stepping foot on our campus–that they would come face to face with the real Jesus while here.

We also had our first Mi Gente Ministry event called Latino Meet & Greet, it was so successful! We had over 80 students come and make friends with one another, and over the past week I have been trying to get together one on one with as many of them as I can to welcome them to UTD and invite them to be a part of our FOCUS community. I am already planning on studying FOJ (our 10 lesson Bible study) with two girls that I met there–one of them in Spanish! Please be praying for this semester, as we try to engage Latino students’ spiritually through events like worship nights, prayer meetings, and bible studies.

This week, each core had their first meeting! This year I am leading core with a student named Ro, and we had an awesome first core this past week. I’m still trying to calm down from how amped up I am about it, I woke up this morning thinking about my girls and praising God for bringing them to our core, I love them so much already! Several of the girls I met at the Latino Meet & Greet, one of them I met at the dining hall, and we had some girls from previous cores join our group. Throughout the evening, all of the shared if they had grown up in any kind of spiritual community and what that experience had been like. To my surprise, more than half had very little experience in any kind of church, but they had so many questions about what Christianity was that we hardly got to ask the questions we had prepared! Here are a few snippets of things that were said: “My grandma is really religious and she often texts me things like ‘God bless you’ or ‘I’m praying for you’ or ‘Jesus loves you’ and I don’t really know anything about this God she’s talking about. So when I heard about FOCUS, I figured this might be a good place to get to know who this God is” “I grew up an atheist, but God has been showing up in my life and telling me that he’s real so I’m still very new to this but I want to know more” “I’ve never been to church or anything, but whenever something good happens in my life, I feel like I should thank some higher power, maybe that’s God?”

My sweet core. I can't wait to get to know them better this year!

Would you be praying for Ro, me, and all of the other core leaders and members as we devote this year to serving the students in our cores and point them to Jesus? It is a big task, but one that we are so excited to be a part of. It is truly miraculous and gracious that God would allow us to be a part of what he is doing on this campus, we are thrilled! Please also be praying for our advertising strategies! For many many years, we have been advertising events and our Friday night meetings using yard signs that we strategically place around campus. Many students come to our events because they saw a yard sign with information. However, the university has set a new policy banning yard signs, claiming they interfere with the sprinkler system. Please pray that we can find either an alternative way to advertise our events that is just as successful, or that this policy would be lifted. We know and trust that God will make a way! I could write forever, but I will end it there. Thank you so much for all of your unending support and prayers. I am eternally grateful that each of you trusts and hopes in God’s promise to bringing reconciliation to this world, and that you would choose to invest in the lives of college students. I love you each dearly and I pray that God would continue to show each of you his incredible love, power, and mercy.  Blessings, Andrea