Skip to main content

Fall Camp and Good News

Hello Friends,

I just wanted to write and update you on some things I have seen God doing at UT Arlington over the course of the last month in hopes that these stories might serve as an encouragement to you. As always I am encouraged by my friendship with each of you. Every month that I write one of these updates, I am filled with gratitude for each one of you as I reflect on your partnership in this ministry. None of what I get to do at UT Arlington would be possible without your support so before I begin sharing the stories over the last month I want to reiterate my thanks. I pray that the Lord continues to bless you beyond what you ever thought imaginable.

Over the last month Hayli and I have been inviting the students from our leader team over to our apartment for dinner! It has been so encouraging to hear how God has brought each one of these students to UT Arlington and how God has used Christian community to inspire them to want to make disciples of Jesus on their college campus. Thank you for your investment in them! Pictured above are Ashlyn, Esther, Jeff, and Cole. Please be praying for them along with the rest of our leader team, for their ministry to their peers, and for their continued maturity in Christ. We are so grateful that you have provided for us the opportunity to welcome young students in our home and provide them with a home cooked meal to enjoy. Our hope in doing this is to bless them and encourage them in their faith just as disciples of Jesus have been doing for one another for thousands of years.
This is a picture of some of the rest of our male leader team. Every month my cominister Jalen Quintana and I get to welcome these guys over for a time of sharing of good news. And we also eat a meal together in fellowship. These are the young men who week in and week out lead small groups, and study the bible one on one with their peers. Each one of these young men are dedicated to making Jesus known on their campus. I have no reason to doubt that these young men will be future leaders in their churches and in their career fields, and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to mentor each one of them, to teach and encourage them in their pursuit of Jesus as Lord of their life.


And lastly, this past weekend was fall camp. We had about 80 students come to a retreat where they worshiped God together, shared with one another testimonies of how God has changed their lives, and together listened to the life and teachings of Jesus and reflected and shared together what aspect of Christ was most appealing to them or spoke to their heart the most. One particular thing from this weekend is that a number of the young men who attended were not Christian, and one of them earlier today asked if we could get together for lunch. When we met he told me he was wanting to follow Jesus! He had read the gospel of Mark for the first time in his life the week prior to fall camp and had found Jesus inspiring then, and then after fall camp he went home and started to read John. God is certainly maturing disciples on the college campus, but praise God that he is also adding new sheep to his fold! What a good good father we have. It has only been one day since fall camp, so the fruit of the weekend has still probably yet to fully be recognized but I am so grateful for your support of this ministry. God is using your gifts and responding to your prayers as he raises up a new generation of disciples who will speak and sing the praises of our Lord to all who will listen.

As always below is the monthly student testimony so be sure to check that out. Thank you for all the ways that you give to and support college ministry. God's kingdom is really breaking through here at UT Arlington and I thank God for your role in that. In Christ, Austin.


Comments

  1. Woah! I love that pic from fall camp! Also, that's so cool about that guy who wants to become a disciple. Praise God! You're doing good work brother!

    ReplyDelete

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

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

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