Skip to main content

The Changing of Seasons

Hello everyone! I pray that your holidays have really been special this year. I pry that time with your family has been restful, and that the Lord has used this time of remembering His birth to strengthen your spirit. I pray that this letter and update will also serve to encourage you. I am always certainly encouraged whenever I think of you and your partnership in this ministry.
This is a fun, albeit blurry picture from our end of semester Christmas party. This years theme was Disney Christmas. These are a few of the guys that have been a part of my core group for this last semester. Troi on the left dressed as Maui, Josh in the middle as Kylo Ren, and Yafet as Mickey Mouse. Myself as Jolly ol' saint nick. This evening was filled with fun and laughter. There were definitely some great skits involved. But we also got to have a really sweet time of reading from the Gospel of Luke the story of Jesus' birth and then we all joined together in praise and worship to God as a response. I really love getting to meet with these guys each week and discuss with them life and Christ and discipleship. I would not be able to do any of that without your support, for which I am eternally grateful!
This is a photo from one of our last outreach displays of the semester. Every week our students are out on their campuses, meeting their peers and having spiritual conversations. Beyond that we emphasize to our students the importance of establishing relationships with the people that they meet so that they can extend to them Christ centered friendship and community. All of those notecards are responses from students that our students got to talk to that day during outreach. Your investment is definitely reaching a wide number of people. I can hardly begin to comprehend the impact!
I'm incredibly excited for what the new semester will bring. I have a few prayer requests that I would love for you to join me in.

1. Would you pray that our students will not only safely attend our Winter Camp coming up this next weekend but that God will meet them there and as a result student's hearts will be won to his kingdom?

2. Would you please pray for myself and the rest of the staff as we begin to discern who to select as student leaders in the next year? We start making invitations to our ministry training conference later this month. Pray that we would select people because of their heart for God and others. And not strictly for any externally visible skill sets that they might otherwise possess.

3.Pray for the continued maturity and spiritual growth of all of our current student leaders. God has given us such a gift in the form of these gifted and talented young men and women who are dedicated to making disciples on their college campuses. Please pray that God would continue to produce fruit out of this fertile soil so that the leaders of the church of the next generation continue to grow and mature into those roles now as leaders in college ministry.

Thank you again for everything that you do. 
In Christ,
Austin Gage

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Disciple Means Student

Two of the things that I have been most grateful for in the last month is the fact that God gifts us with so much fun in this life, and secondly, how God blesses us by giving us the ability to learn. At our online TNF's we have been hosting after events for our students where we try to do something that helps everyone feel connected. At one of our most recent after events we decided to host "show and tell" where everyone finds one or two objects that they are most proud of owning or they consider to be the most interesting thing they own. It was such a blast to see what the students loved and wanted to show off. In the bottom right Taylor Bass, one of our student leaders, was showing off the set of armor that he and some friends had crafted from cardboard. And 2 blocks above him Nathan Baugh, another one of our student leaders, shows off his autographed pictures of Ariana Grande that he got when he was in middle school. It was so sweet to laugh with those in attendance
Post a Comment
Read more

More Winter Retreat and Lucy Update!

  The fruit of winter retreat is evident! God really used that time to bond our guys together and point them more collectively towards following Jesus. Since winter retreat we have been able to identify several guys that we are excited to invite to be leaders next year in the ministry from Austen, to Josh, to Manny, to Chris (who's testimony is below) God is raising up young men who are eager to not only know Him but to share him with their peers. I couldn't be more grateful for you who helps to make that kind of heart transformation possible! One of our core groups, led by Ian and Crew has been in a particularly healthy place. These guys look forward to spending time together, reading God's word, praying for one another, and sharing their lives. Here they are hanging out an arcade together recently. But every week they are learning about Jesus together and growing as disciples! Speaking of Growing, Lucy is getting bigger. This photo above was from her first wedding recentl
Post a Comment
Read more

SICM, Staff Retreat, and Start of the Semester

 Hello friends and partners in ministry, The summer is over! We are back into the full swing of things, and I got to tell you. God is good and I am so excited for what is to come in just the next few weeks of campus ministry. This last week we got to have our staff retreat in Bridgeport, Texas. The goal of staff retreat is to collectively as a team of ministers recenter ourselves on Jesus and his work in the world, reflect on why we do what we do, and spend time together relationally. Pictured below is our UTA Campus Missionary Team for 2021-2022.  From left to right we have Jalen, Graham, Myself, Bailey, Emily, Sophie, Taylor, Emily, and Sarah. Myself, Jalen, Taylor, Emily, and Sarah are our returning campus ministers, while Sophie, Graham, Emily, and Bailey are our apprentices for this school year. If you don't know what an apprentice is, these are recent graduates from the ministry who are either interested in vocational ministry long term or just want to spend a year learning a
Post a Comment
Read more