Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Fall Fellowship

October is here, which means the students in FOCUS at UTA are making new friends, learning and growing together in Core, and getting ready for our annual Fall Camp!  Here are just a few of the exciting things God has been doing on our campus:

Core

Renee and I are co-leading a Core group this semester.  The beautiful ladies in the picture below (and a few more who have joined after we took that picture) gather together each Wednesday evening to share lives, pray and worship together, and learn about God through the Bible.

Our Core!
We believe in doing ministry through Core because it reflects the example set for us by Jesus.  He gathered around himself twelve men who were willing to spend time with him and learn from him.  When his time with them came to an end, he sent them out to go and make more disciples.  In FOCUS, we hope that the structure of a Core helps us to do the same thing.  The women in our Core are not just people I see once a week for an hour of Bible study.  They are my friends.  As I share my life with them this school year, I hope that we can grow together as disciples of Jesus.

Questions on Display

After the excitement of the first few weeks of school wears off, it can be hard to meet new people on campus.  In order to continue meeting people and building new relationships, FOCUS at UTA does outreach events called Questions on Display.  We set up a display in a heavily trafficked part of campus and ask people walking by to answer a question.  For those who seem interested, we initiate deeper conversations based on those questions.

This time around, we asked people, "What makes you afraid?"  Some of the answers people gave were silly (spiders, bees, dry skin), but some were deeper or more thoughtful (failure, losing a loved one, rejection).  I and the FOCUS students who came to help got to have encouraging conversations with many of the people who stopped and gave an answer.  I believe that God was honored through those conversations and that people got to hear the good news about Jesus!

Arlington Church

Arlington is an exciting city with a diverse, multicultural population, many famous sports and entertainment destinations, and a university that is growing rapidly and may soon become the largest in Texas.  As part of a larger community of churches around DFW, FOCUS has received tremendous support and help from those churches.  One of our goals, however, is that FOCUS at UTA would have a church in Arlington to support our students and welcome them into its ministries after graduation.  This past weekend we took the first step in that direction by meeting on a Sunday morning.  Check out who came in the photo below:

First meeting of Arlington Church
Please pray for the following needs:
- Fall Camp - Pray that students attending our upcoming Fall Camp would deepen their relationship with God during that time.
- Leaders - Pray that God would help us find and develop young men and women at UTA who are ready and willing to go and make disciples for Jesus.
- Arlington Church - Pray that we would be sensitive to the Spirit as we move forward with plans to establish a church in Arlington.


And please don't forget this upcoming event!  You are all invited: