Summer is coming!
This is my last month of the FOCUS apprenticeship, it’s crazy how this school just flew by. I’m overwhelmed by the many things God has taught be during this apprenticeship and the impact they will have in my ministry. It’s been such an honor getting to do His work at UTD and Richland this year, and I’m already looking forward to next school year. I still have a couple of weeks left of the apprenticeship, I will be share with you next month about some of the things I have learned and how I saw God at work in our ministries.
After the crazy busy month of March, April was very relaxed. This month tends to be the busiest and most stressful for our students, due to finals, but we made sure to finish well and celebrate the end of another school year. Here are some of my favorite things that happened this past month.
Friday Night Fellowship: For our last FNF we had an open mic night, we encouraged students in our community to come and answer the following “how have you seen God work in yourself and others this year in our community”. This was one of the sweetest focus nights for me, I loved getting to hear from so many of our students. Student after student shared about how through this community they had found friends that loved, challenged, and encouraged them. There were so many moments I was teary-eyed because of all the work God is doing. I encourage you to take the time to listen to some of these stories, you can listen to it here.
Wednesday Morning Fellowship: We also had our last Richland Focus meeting and our sweet little family got to eat together, laugh, and play games. We also took time to share encouraging words to one another and I felt the love by so many of our students. We then gave our students a note card and asked them to write out their personal vision for Richland Focus for next Fall. I kept these notes and was encouraged for the students visions. A note from one of our students said the following.
"My vision for Richland Focus is that it would be a place where people are loved when they are angry, sad, or feeling suicidal, and are still able to show up anyway. I want people to feel the life of God and show up as much as possible and simply try to be active here, and sacrifice things for this to take place."
"My vision for Richland Focus is that it would be a place where people are loved when they are angry, sad, or feeling suicidal, and are still able to show up anyway. I want people to feel the life of God and show up as much as possible and simply try to be active here, and sacrifice things for this to take place."
SICM: This week I hop on a plane with over 80 students to attend the Student Institute of Campus Ministry in Washington state. I had the opportunity to attend SICM as a student, it not only trained me how to lead at my campus, but it encouraged me to learn more about Jesus’ teaching style. I’m so excited to get to attend SICM again and for the students that get to experience it this year. Please be praying for safe travels and that this week would impact the hearts of the students attending.
Thank You so much for being part of my team! You are all such a blessing me and to this ministry. As always, let me know how I can be praying for you.
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| Our good looking 2017-2017 FOCUS staff. |
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| These are corefas I met up with every week this past year, I love them! |
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| Our Richland leader team, I sure do love these weirdos. |
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| Some of our Richland core girls! |
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| This month, my sweet niece Zoe was born. She is so cute and so loved already! |
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| This is whom I lead core with at Richland! |
OMG BABY!!! So cute.
ReplyDeleteI hope you have such a good time at SICM. It is different going as a staff person, but I think you will still learn a ton and have a good time hanging out with the students. I will miss you that week!
Love you Sandra!!