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Maverick Stampede; 40,000 Students

 

Welcome to UT Arlington at night during Maverick Stampede! Hard to make it out from this picture but there is a sea of students all the way heading down to that stage in the back. 40,000 college students attend this campus and every single one of them loved by God. Every single one of them a possible friend to make and invite into Christian community. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to be here to invite them in.

Our student leaders did a great job meeting so many of these students! I want to start to share about one event that we were able to host and how God worked through it and then I'll talk to you about some of the resulting fruit of their labor.

One of the events that we got to host this year is FOCUS Casino Night. Now depending on your Christian tradition and background, I know how that sounds. But, its completely free, students never spend a penny, but we get to hire some professional casino dealers come and put on an awesome night of fun and prizes, while our corefas and pastors are free to drift around from table to table and make a ton of friends while people wait to join one of the games. This year, I don't think I'm exaggerating to say that we had over 350+ students in attendance. And this year for some reason, the event heavily attracted international students so we really got to bless these students who have only been in America for once week and show them that Christian people are here to welcome them and invite them into friendship. Here's one picture from after the event.
Look at all of these new students that were so excited and thankful to have an opportunity to come and make new friends in their first week in a new land.

Since Maverick Stampede has ended our official ministry events have begun. Our first two weeks of our large group Thursday Night Fellowship we had over 120 students present there to learn about Jesus, worship him, and enjoy christian friendship. And this has been reflected in our cores. I have talked to multiple of our student leaders who have expressed that in their first week in core they already have 10 people attending and that they're expecting more to join in the coming weeks. How cool! In core all of these students will have the opportunity to learn more about Jesus and all of these students will be invited into a one on one bible study where they will learn more about what it means to follow Jesus as a disciple in every area of their life. Thank you for providing a place for students, American and international alike, to come and know Jesus.
Our church invited college students to join us during FOCUS TNF this last week, we provided them free pizza after the service and just got to know them. I love that intergenerational friendships can be formed and that I get to belong to a church that really has a vision for college students both while they are in college and in the longterm. Hayli and I will be hosting one of these college students over for dinner this week to get to know their story better and encourage them in their faith and pursuit of Christ. We are so excited to get to have the opportunity for this important work.

 Don't forget to read the student testimony below! And thank you all for your partnership in ministry.




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