Off With A Bang

We are officially underway with the school year! After a summer of prep and planning it’s exciting to finally be into the year. And if I’m being honest not a small amount of exhausting as well.

We’ve got the largest student leader team we’ve ever had, with 64 student leaders, even the logistics of keeping that many students all on the same page and on mission has been a hurdle. We used to do our leader meetings and prep days in our pastor's houses, but we can’t do that anymore. You’ll see that finding space to do things has been the challenge of the month. That being said, these leaders are just fantastic. They all spent 2 weeks on campus every single day for most of the day doing outreach and connecting with new students. It’s a huge ask, since it’s basically like a 2-week long mission trip but you’re also starting school at the same time. They met that challenge with eagerness though. They were consistent and had great attitudes and loved on these new students so well. At one of our events during welcome week, I overheard a new student say, “man, the vibe here is just so nice, everyone is so welcoming.”

I consistently saw these students spur one another on and encourage one another through the 105 degree days of being outside. It’s a lot of work for them and us. Our staff were running about 3 events each day on campus to meet people and invite the new students to. Once TWU started up school as well, we had more like 5 or 6 events a day our team was coordinating. It was a ton! But through God’s grace it all went so smoothly! And I know it was worth it. I was talking to a freshman about how his transition to college was going, and he told me “Finding FOCUS has been the best part of my week. I’m not a social person, so it’s all new to me, but these events have been my favorite thing I’ve done.”

Our Cores (small groups) have started up as well, and I’ve heard so many stories of students just absolutely loving it. A story I heard today is that after Core wrapped up one of the new students pulled the leader aside and hugged him and said, “thank you so much for inviting me to this, I never expected to have something like this in college.”

We’ve also had two TNFs now (Thursday Night Fellowship). I’ve been around for years and have seen God multiply His impact on campus, but saying I was blown away is a bit of an understatement. God showed up and so did the students. We had around 350 students show up each TNF so far. The energy in those rooms was pretty indescribable. So much excitement and joy and so many new faces. Our pastors were looking at each other in shock. Which maybe shows a lack of faith, because who are we to be surprised by what God can do! One of my favorite stories from the last TNF was a student who told me he’d recently become a Christian and was worried about showing up and being judged for being new, but said he felt none of that, and only felt loved. Then he said, “I think I found my people.” He was in tears during worship just because He was blown away by God’s goodness. As much as the numbers stuff is always cool and pretty mind boggling, it’s stories like his that really get me.

Thank you so much for investing in this mission to reach these college students. We couldn’t do it without you!

Some prayer requests:

Finding room- We’ve had a meeting place on campus these last two weeks, but that’s because the university has basically bent over backwards to accommodate us. We’re still trying to figure out a place that we can count on to meet weekly on campus, so prayers for us to find a space would be great!

Fighting comparison- Some of the student leaders that I meet with had a bit smaller turnouts for their small groups and are feeling discouraged because a lot of their peers have these huge Cores and comparing to them. Comparison is the thief of joy, so be praying for them to find joy in who God has given them to care for this year.

Faithful stewardship- It seems we’ve got a lot to steward this year, and so I’d love prayers for us to be able to do that well and be able to point these students back to Jesus over and over!