Happy new year to you!

An entire semester of working at UTD and Richland has flown by quickly! Thanks a ton for your prayers and support this past year and I’m so excited for God has in store for our campuses this 2017. Getting to do campus ministry full-time could not have been possible if it wasn’t for your faithfulness to God’s mission.

Here is how we wrapped 2016 and other cool things!

DALLAS CHRISTMAS PARTY

One of my favorite events that we as a staff put together for our students is the Christmas party. This year we decided to take it back and have A Very 80s Christmas!  Such a fun-filled night of laughter, MTV, Lunchables and Twister! This event happened before our students were slammed with their finals so it was a good way to relax before exams.

Some of the UTD gals at the Christmas party! 

INTERN PARTY

Because there can never been too many Christmas parties had to have one with the other interns. This past semester one of the cool things about getting to do the apprenticeship is the special bond you form with the other apprentices. We take classes together, grow in our faith, cry together (good cry) and form deep spiritual friendships with the group. Before our Christmas break, we decided to have a party and do a secret Santa gift exchange.

Posing with our gifts! 

STAFF RETREAT

After Christmas and New Years break with family and friends, 2017 started with an all staff retreat in which we spent time reflecting about the book we read during the break called The Signature of Jesus by Brennan Manning. Getting to read this book has truly impacted by walk with God and I know will continue to bless me this Spring semester. You should read it! In a chapter of the book called Fools for Christ I was challenged to look at my life and the ways I don’t look different from the rest of the world because I choose to adapt. In the chapter Manning says:

“Christians will merely adapt to the secular environment in a tragic distortion of the gospel, in which the words of Jesus are reinterpreted to mean anything, everything and nothing.”

WINTER CAMP

This weekend from the 13th-16th all of our FOCUS campuses will be heading to Sky Ranch in Van, TX for our annual Winter Camp! This is a time in which our students get to worship, grow as disciples, play games all together. Please be praying for safe travels, that our students get to experience the work of the Spirit this weekend, that their love for God would increase, that they make best-friends and they have just a good attitude! For me Winter Camp is where I decided to take my faith seriously and live out the Gospel, pray that our students will open their hearts to that this weekend!

Here's a picture of my Winter Camp ever back in 2011! 

STUDENT TESTIMONY

This months student testimony is from my sweet friend Chiazo. I got to do ministry with Chiazo at UNT for a few years, I'm so honored to call her my friend and sister.

Again, I’m so thankful for you! I pray that the new year brings you so many blessings, that you learn more, that you love and feel loved more and so much laughter!

With Love,

Sandy