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

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

Learning From the Wise

Dear Friends, Thank you for taking the time to read this ministry update. This winter season has been particularly encouraging and I am excited to tell you about what is coming up soon! The month of December began with a celebration. The school semester was coming to a close quickly so we threw our annual Focus Christmas party in the first week of the month. Talk about Christmas come early. The event was filled with sweet memories, worship, and funny skits put on by the various weekly core groups. Watching those skits is always a highlight of the year as everyone in the core often participates and everyone gets to see each others silly sides. A couple of guys at the UTA Focus Christmas Party. In the bottom picture, one of the roommates couldn't make the event so the rest of the guys thoughtfully chose to find a way to include him in the picture, no matter what.  Once the semester was over and the students went home for the holidays, I had a lot of time to read. Over the ...
2 comments
Read more

The Master Plan Of Evangelism

 In 1963 Robert Coleman published a book called The Master Plan of Evangelism. This book has, through the years, been to me one of the greatest encouragements as to why college ministry matters. In the book Coleman argues that the way that Jesus did evangelism was to call men simply to be with him, that they might observe his life, learn from him, and be sent out to be with others, that others might observe their lives and learn from them the things that Jesus had instructed. When I think about raising up leaders for college ministry I get so excited about this model. A campus missionary, who has walked with Jesus for a long while, inviting young, moldable, excited students to come and be with us a while, that we might continue to both model the love of Jesus, and instruct them in the ways to live according to Jesus. In hopes that in the next year they would meet multiple young, moldable, excited to students to come and be with them, that they might both model the love of Jesus, an...
Post a Comment
Read more