Welcome Week
We had the first normal-feeling Welcome Week at UTD in years, and it was a big success! Peter and Andrea led our team of over 60 pastors and student leaders, and they did an amazing job! If you'd like to watch the video commercial we had showing in the Student Union, you can click here! We've got so many new students involved in cores, and many new friendships started up. One day we set up a table near the residence halls and offered to help new students find their classrooms. As I walked one freshman around campus, he shared that he hadn't been in church much and had never read the Bible, but was interested in getting a copy and reading in "cover to cover." I offered to study the Bible with him and he immediately agreed! Scheduling with him has been a challenge so far (I think he's overwhelmed by all the transitions!) but he's been very responsive to keeping in touch. It was a reminder that the harvest is indeed plentiful and there are many students eager to ask their spiritual questions but unclear on where it's safe to do so.
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| This was on the back of campus maps we gave out to students at our table and will give you an idea of what we did to create opportunities for students to start new friendships. We actually had 7 more events that were either before these or that were by personal invitation only, so we were busy! I got to co-teach the class on Jonah with Lindsey Royal, and we had 80 people show up, about half of them brand new! |
Focus On Jesus Studies
One of our biggest challenges (and a big thing for you to pray for!) moving forward is getting our Focus On Jesus studies started. On top of the fact that most of our leader team are students who came in during the pandemic and didn't have a normal FOCUS experience to begin with, we have switched back to a revised version of our older FOJ study that none of them have been through! (You can check it out here!) Now that we have people in cores, we have a lot to do to ramp up these one-on-one Bible studies that are so central to our ministry. So please pray for us!
Student Testimony
