2024 August Update! Another Year!

 

Welcome Week

The students love 9-square!

The year has started! And just as it starts every year, this year is no different. We go hard from sun-up to way past sundown in order to meet students and give them a great first experience at UTD. Some of these students will end up joining our ministry. But the vast majority will not, and that is their choice. The gospel, though, is that God loves them where they're at and wants to be with them. And if he wants to be with them, then we do too. So, we pursue and we put ourselves out there and we make them feel welcome at this campus. Over the course of the two weeks, we probably meet between 1,000 and 2,000 unique students. A lot of students, and yet a far cry from the over 30,000 that attend this university. Our hope is that each and every student would be invited to know Jesus at some point in their college career, and this is the planting season when they are most open to that invitation. 

The Grove

We fill up the classroom!

This year we have rebranded our Friday Night Fellowship meetings to The Grove. We found that FNF meant a lot to our members, but was unmemorable to our campus. So to begin with, we wanted to articulate our values for this meeting so that we would have a clear vision. Those values boiled down to rooting deep in the word, branching out to others, and bearing fruit of a transformed life. This is how we came to the language of The Grove! It required buy-in from our current students who were attached to the old language, but they decided to follow the new direction. And it seems to be connecting because we had 240 students show up to our first meeting! For the past few years since COVID, our first meeting numbers have been around 170-190. So this is encouraging to see that something we're doing and something int he culture is shifting to being willing and open to engage in Christian community.

Core

Our cores, what we call our small groups, have started this week and will continue to build foundations and momentum for their groups in these next few weeks. Please be praying that students get involved in this part of our ministry where they are able to grow deep in their friendships and grow in vulnerability with one another. This is the core of our ministry because so much happens when we choose to live life together like Jesus lived life with his disciples. That time together changes us to be more like him when we choose to follow, so pray for great groups!

William

William and his cousin!

With both myself and Emily back at work (and intense work!), we've been getting in the routine of dropping off William at daycare. It's quite a change in schedule to account for dropping off and picking up! He's been loving getting time with his cousin though. He's been such a happy baby, no sicknesses, no issues, and generous with his smiles. He's waking up in the wee hours of the night, but on the scale of babies, he's been quite kind to us. Pray for continued healthy growing for William and for energy for Emily and me as we continue to power through by the help of the Holy Spirit and God's gift of caffeine.

Thank You!

Thank you all so much for another year on the team. It's because of your support and generosity that I'm able to continue to minister to these college students and pass on a Jesus-loving culture from one generation to the next. Looking forward to a great year, one full of problems and opportunities that God will use to grow his people!