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Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

 



Hello Friends and Ministry Partners, It's a joy to get to write to you all again! 

While I'm sad we are moving into the Christmas break when a lot of our students go home. I'm so encouraged with the momentum we have going into January and how much I see God's goodness being revealed in the lives of each one of these students.

Pictured above is most of our student leader team (3 unfortunately got cut off on the left side) for our last leader team meeting of the semester. Every week this group of students get together to encourage one another, share how God is working in the ministry, read the bible together, and learn leadership principles that will help them in their ministry and every other stage of their life as well. Beyond this each one of these students get mentored by one of our campus pastors in a more personal 2 on 1 context. So each week I get to meet with multiple pairs of these core facilitators to discuss how their core is going but also what is going on in their lives and guide them towards Jesus as they continue to discover who they are and how they want to live. Recently I've gotten to have conversations with students about creating a culture of friendship and discipleship that long outlives their time on the campus. I also got to discuss the profound impact one on one friendship can have on the life of an individual. And helped another young man process how to meet the healthy need of feeling lonely in healthy ways, as opposed to pursuing the meeting of that need through casual, non commitive, romantic relationships. These students are just a snapshot of the larger ministry, but as I see God working in their lives I'm so encouraged knowing that these students are reaching their peers and reading his word with so many other students here on this campus.
While I'm primarily at UT Arlington, I also got to help plant this ministry at a new campus called Tarrant County College Southeast. This has been an absolute joy! This is only our first semester but already we have a group of 8 students who get together every week to read the bible, share lives, and hang out as friends. This group is so eager for friends, and they love Jesus, and they are excitedly telling their friends in their classes about this new community they have found. We will start advertising in the spring and I'm so excited to see who else God brings in!


Some of our alumni brought donuts for our students to enjoy. This is two of our corefa's Jonathan and Richmond who I get to meet with every week, enjoying some fine quality donuts from Krispy Kreme. It's so encouraging to see adults who have already graduated from this ministry keeping in mind the students who come after them and doing what they can to enrich their experience. But so many of you provide more than donuts! Thank you for investing in college ministry. Below is an exciting announcement about our Keep Focus Growing annual fundraising campaign as well as this months student testimony. Thank you for all that you do to support campus missions and I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas.




In Christ,
Austin Gage








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