Skip to main content

Mustard Seeds

Hello Friends, I pray that this blog post finds you well today. I'm so thankful for your prayers and for you support of college ministry. As I write this I'm reminded of how Jesus describes the Kingdom of Heaven in Matthew 13:31-32.
"He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”
That is largely how I see God working here at UT Arlington, sometimes the action we take in bringing Jesus to our peers can seem small, but in time God uses the seeds we plant to bring about his kingdom in powerful ways. I'm so grateful for that. I hope that the stories below encourage your spirit and affirm for you again today how God is truly at work. 

A Chalk Advertisement, one of several around campus. I personally met several students this last week who ended up coming to our Thursday Night Fellowship because they saw these! I'm grateful that God works through things as simple as chalk to bring people into something as beautiful as a community of believers worshiping our Lord together!

About half of the students at last weeks TNF after the service was over, sticking around to hear a workshop from a team of missionaries on the topic of World Missions and why God cares about reaching all nations with the good news of Jesus Christ.

Grabbing dinner at Wendy's with one of our student leaders named Stephen Allen. Stephen loves God and is so grateful for the impact that college ministry has had on him. He is passionate about helping to point other young men towards Jesus and he's doing a great job of it!
Hayli and I are continuing to host one of the pairs of the student leaders at our house for dinner each week. This week we had Emily and Lauren over and played catchphrase afterwards. Our hope is to have opportunities to encourage and pray for the student leaders that give so much of the time of their year in order to point people towards Jesus. We want them to know how much God loves them and how grateful for them we are.

A few exciting things below. The first one is a formal invitation to our Open House event this Saturday the 9th at UT Arlington. We will have students sharing their testimonies on how God has used college ministry to impact their lives. We will also be hearing from different parents and loved ones on how they have seen God use college ministry to change the hearts of their student. Anyone is welcome, it will be an evening of giving God all the glory for what he is doing here at UT Arlington. I would love for you to come and hear from the students here yourself. I'm so grateful that you have provided for them a place to come and know God more. I pray that somehow you'll get to see the full impact of your generosity. Open House is this Saturday the 9th at 5:30PM at UT Arlington in the SEIR Building Room 198. I hope that you can make it! And lastly is the student testimony for this month! Thank you again for all of your support. Please let me know if there is anything I can be praying about for you, or if there is anything more that I can do to express my gratitude.

In Christ,
Austin


Comments

  1. masalabarandgrillApril 2, 2022 at 5:35 AM

    I will share it with my other friends as the information is really very useful. Keep sharing your excellent work. Read more info about Best Biryani Near Me.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

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

When Miracles Are Common and Pizza Theology

  A student shared this at our most recent Thursday Night Fellowship and I thought it was so beautiful that I wanted to share it with you. "In Focus, Miracles are happening all the time. People are becoming saved, like I was a year ago, through this community, and equally miraculously people are becoming more like Jesus, like I'm still learning to do. But God is using this community to bring about those miracles. And I know that this all can feel common to us, especially those of us who have been around for a while, but if we are in a community where the miraculous is common , we should thank God for that community." That was shared by a student named Josh Krause who I have the pleasure of studying the bible with over the duration of this school year. I have been so encouraged by his willingness to keep learning about the grace of God and respond by living out of that reality. And I was doubly encouraged when he shared such a beautiful and praise filled sentiment with th...
Post a Comment
Read more