Skip to main content

Visitors From Another Land

Hey friends, I am really excited about what God has been doing on our campus in this last month. I can hardly wait to share with you some of the stories! 

This last month we had a group of students from Western Washington University who are a part of a college ministry called CCF (Campus Christian Fellowship) come and visit us at UTA. The trip took place during their spring break and their purpose in coming to UT Arlington was as a mission trip, to share Jesus with college students in Texas. 

The Washington students sharing in a devotional in the morning.
Sharing lunch on campus in a break between outreach.


We partnered with them all week to join them in their outreach and evangelism. Every day from 8AM-6PM these college students were on our campus, meeting people, and having conversations about Jesus. Not only did God show them the immediate fruit of their faithfulness through a lot of really neat conversations where people realized their need for God, but also the Washington students time here with us had a lasting impact on our college students. God has used their faithfulness to spur on in our students a further desire to be reaching out to their peers and sharing with them the good news of Jesus Christ. And even though we only have 5 weeks left in the semester, because of their faithfulness, God has actually brought more and more people into our community, excited to experience Christian Community, and eager to grow in their relationship with God. I have already heard several students express just how grateful to God they were that these students reached out to them and told them about this community of Jesus followers called Focus. Thank you for providing a space for these students to come and experience God's loving family on their college campus.

It's not too late to come to our Spring Showcase this Saturday! It's a variety benefit show, full of music, and art and dance, and comedy. And all the proceeds go to sending students to our annual leadership conference, Student Institute of Campus Ministry. If you want to specifically support sending students to this conference where they will learn invaluable skills on how to make disicples of Jesus on their college campus, than I can't think of a better way for you to do that than to come to Spring Showcase. Not only are you supporting a great cause, but you will have a lot of fun. I hope to see you there!
Thank you for investing in college ministry. You may never know the full impact that your generosity has on these students lives, but I fully believe the Kingdom of God is breaking through in powerful ways, as college students all across the metroplex discover the joys of following Jesus every day. 
Thank you, thank you, thank you.

In Christ,
Austin

Comments

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