Thankful

 

Hello ministry partners! I hope you have each had a wonderful summer and that you have been able to find some times to rest and recharge in the Lord.

This month has been pretty sweet! One of my favorite things this month has been an Ephesians class. Every Wednesday morning for the last 6 weeks, I along with some students have been gathering together to study the book of Ephesians using the Bible Project Classroom resources. It has been so encouraging to see the students engage with Scripture at a deeper level and to learn alongside them the depth and meaning of such a short but insanely powerful letter of the Bible.

I've attached the link to the Ephesians Bible Project Class if you're interested in checking it out yourself!

I asked a couple of the students, Whitney and Carson to share some of their takeaways from the class and here’s what they said: “I learned a lot in the Ephesians class. I feel like I can be quick to apply my own interpretation of Scripture sometimes, but taking this class made me realize how important it is to understanding it in its context. It also made me reflect on how my decisions here on earth really do matter and that they can have an impact on the kingdom that God is building here.” “In the Ephesians class, we learned about how in the letter, Paul is addressing the collective group of believers. It can be easy to read Scripture these days as God addressing me personally, but it makes Scripture all the more powerful when you realize we are meant to live in community and that God’s word is made alive and active when in fellowship with other believers.”

This is literally the only picture I got from the Ephesians class. I promise there were students there, I'll do better next time.

One of the students I’ve been studying the Bible with, Mariana, has been a really sweet encouragement to me this summer. She joined my core in the fall but was a bit flakey and only came a couple of times to core. When I asked her if she wanted to study the Bible with me, she gave me a hesitant yes and we spent a few weeks in the fall in Scripture together. Before she went to study abroad in the spring, I asked her if she wanted to continue studying the Bible over FaceTime, but she asked me to pause the study until she returned in the fall. At the time I felt a bit discouraged but I prayed that the Lord would reveal to Mariana her need for community and fellowship with other believers and ultimately that God would protect her and show her how much He loved her even when she was across the globe. Sometime in the spring, Mariana reached out to me and said “Actually, I think I’m starting to realize that I need people who can encourage me in my walk with God, I’m struggling being so far away from other believers. We started studying the Bible again over FaceTime and when she eventually came back in June, we continued our study in person again! This summer, I have witnessed God starting to transform Mariana’s heart to long for a relationship with God and with his people. She has offered to host a Bible study at her apartment and has been doing her homework with FOJ, reading the Scriptures before our study so that she can be prepared with questions to ask me. She has expressed to me a deep gratitude for sticking by her and for walking alongside her in faith. It’s stories like this that make my heart beat for campus ministry. I don’t know what God has planned for Mariana, but there are many like her on our campus. People who God will use just a bit of faithfulness from fellow believers to encourage and point people towards him.

Here's a picture of Mariana showing me her white taekwondo belt!

Another exciting thing that happened this month was something new that we tried this year! We gathered the student leaders that were in town across all of our campuses and put on a weekend full of classes and workshops to help gear them up for the fall and to help them prepare their hearts for what God is going to do! It was such a sweet weekend, we had over 60 students come join us for a really encouraging and empowering time. I could feel the Spirit moving in the room as students took notes and buzzed with excitement as they chatted with one another throughout the weekend. I got to lead one of the workshops titled “Evangelism as you go” with my friend and fellow campus minister Graham Spencer, who serves at our UT Arlington campus. I absolutely loved getting to embolden our students to go out there and befriend people, making them feel loved and seen, and through all of it showing the love of Jesus.

As the fall quickly approaches, would you be praying for each and every one of us stepping onto our campuses? Our student leaders, returning students, incoming freshmen and transfer students, international students, our campus missionaries within FOCUS, our fellow brothers and sisters working under other campus ministries, the administration, professors, and everyone in between? That we would all have our hearts oriented towards Jesus and that His Spirit would move among us and within us to bring peace, reconciliation, harmony, and communion with our good Father. I pray all of these things for you too. I am eternally and indebtedly grateful to each of you. I praise God for the blessing of your generosity and I am humbly honored to be someone that you would trust with the task of spreading the gospel on our campuses. I pray a blessing over each of you, that God would continue to have his mighty hand pressed on each of your hearts and that his breath would be over all that you do and all that you touch. Blessings! Andrea

One last picture! Our students love to worship together on Thursdays over the summer. It has been a sweet time!