The Freshmen are Here. Time to Pray!

The past three days freshmen have been moving in at UTD, and I think we have the most excited, bold, bought-in team of student leaders ever! They are killing it. Please be praying for these students every day through next Friday. These are the most important days of our year in some ways. If we sow generously now, there can be a great harvest in the year to come. Many of the opportunities we miss are unlikely to come back around. We have many events planned in the coming days, but here are a few pictures from freshmen move-in days.

We set up each evening between two of the residence halls and the dining hall with all sorts of games and activities. This area gets a lot of foot traffic.

Spike ball is always popular. We had 5 sets out and people are constantly using them. It's great when you get to be partners with a new student.

A lot of the young women enjoy simply sitting around and talking. We have craft materials if they want to make something.

We go until well after dark. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but we have had hundreds of new students come through and participate. Peter estimated that we met at least 250 new students one night.

I love this image. We've been reaching out to new students on Instagram. In this case, we missed his question because the event had already started, but he came and our students were shining with the love of Christ! It's my prayer that every new student gets loved on their move in day.

Please pray for the Lord to connect us with students who are seeking him, for boldness in forming spiritual friendships, and that we can be a blessing in every way for these young people at such a critical time in their lives.

Other Updates

We had an amazing group of students in town for the summer. We got together every Thursday in June and July, generously hosted by Care Church in Richardson.

These are the 2024-25 FOCUS Missionaries. What an amazing team impacting so many campuses across DFW, including our new mission officially launching at TCU this week!

I got to travel to New Jersey to officiate an alumnus' wedding a couple weeks ago. Jonathan Rao (second from the left) found an amazing, godly bride in Sharon. Josh Wallace (left) and his wife Mandi did their pre-engagement counseling. I remember going to Bible studies in Josh's apartment my freshman year in FOCUS, so it was so special to do some ministry together!

Alumna Testimony

Once a year, we have one of our amazing alumni share about the longer term impact of our mission in their life. Elise's story is so encouraging to me!