We made it through another Welcome Week! Which is actually Welcome WeekS--14 days in a row when we put on 1-3 events every single day with the ultimate goal of spreading our nets wide to meet, befriend, and ultimately bless some of the 32,000 students who showed back up for college this fall at UT Dallas. We did all sorts of things! We hosted game nights outside the residence halls every day that the freshmen were moving in. We had field nights with lots of sports. We played "Zombie Tag" in one of the classroom buildings. Lindsey and I taught a college-level class on the book of Jude for more students who were curious about the Bible. We had special events for black, Hispanic, and Asian-American students. And so much more!
Thank you for supporting me to be present on campus during this key time!
Just a few snapshots below:
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| This year's "Black People Meet and Greet" had nearly 150 students show up! Only about 5% of UTD students are black, so this is an underserved group. |
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| At our Asian-American social, students made friends, drank boba tea, and did trivia games. One of these little rounds told me they became such good friends that night that they took a group picture and set up a GroupMe to stay in touch! |
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| We worked together with the Baptist Student Ministry staff to host a lunch for all of the Christian campus ministers at UTD a few weeks ago. It was our biggest turnout since before the pandemic! At our table are ministers from FOCUS, from ICF--the main international student ministry, and also from...FOCUS--Fellowship of CATHOLIC University Students. Ha! We love our fellow FOCUS ministers! They are truly such great partners in the gospel. |
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| We had tables like this one out on campus for a few hours a day for nearly 2 weeks. We gave out many gallons of cold brew coffee, sooo many bottles of water, campus maps and tours, church fans with our event information on them, and the opportunity to sign up to be in a FOCUS core group. |
God Goes Ahead
As the year approached, I was praying for the returning student leaders that I work with. For one of them, I had a sense that God wanted to upend some of his well laid plans for the year, but a bit of trepidation about saying that to him! But I wrote him this message and quickly got a response. It's a great reminder that I don't initiate God's work--He just lets me take part sometimes.
Fun Trips
