Answered prayers

Sup homies! Indeed, summer has come to an end and the downer is that just this month I got the hang of things! The beginning of this summer was challenging. I felt at a loss of what my role as a campus missionary should look like. Ministry looked completely different and although I am thankful for technology it was challenging to engage and connect with our staff, students, my community, and you guys. I've never had more affirmation than this summer to realize that I'm not a home body but given the circumstances I had to adjust! I remember finding motivation by telling myself "soon this will be over and a vaccine will exist and everything will go back to the way things were!" rather than waiting and choosing to find hope and endurance in the Lord. Two months ago I started running consistently every morning at 7am. I started off by repeating the Lords Prayer because I wasn't sure where to even start praying but eventually I started praying for specific people in our community and asking God to give me eyes to see his goodness past these unclear times. And guys he answered those prayers! Let's jump!

• Although I was thrilled about staying on staff another year I was also facing a wave of irrational fear and an overwhelming feeling. I chose to surrender all of that junk and rather take advantage of this strange summer to get closer to my team, specially Garrett. Somehow authority and male guys intimidate me haha (which disclaimer Garret has never proven to be a man I should be afraid of). Garrett is our Collin Director and this year he will be my supervisor but supervisor sounds so business oriented. My supervisor time with Garrett is a time where he gets to be my friend, speak truth into my life, guide me and point me to the cross and vise versa. Well, this summer has been an advantageous time time for me to bring down my guard and rather get to know Garrett through our staff meeting, book club, and girls club (all of our female staff plus Garrett). I've learned that Garrett has the best interest in each member of our team, he's a goofball, he's very smart, he's quick to own up to things when he's in the wrong, he loves the Lord and loves his wife and kids very deeply. Praise God for giving me this summer to get to know my team and get to work with a great mentor, friend like Garrett!
• Dani is my friend and co-worker, she's also a new mom to her precious daughter Eliana. Dani has had to manage being a mom, a wife and yet at the same time jump back into being a campus minister which has been challenging but has also been so encouraging to my ministry. I can't even imagine giving birth to a child and less jumping back into ministry, all at the same time but she does it so well! Dani recently ended her maternity leave and has jumped back into the swing of things, pouring into each of our female staff, she's gotten time with our students, has guided our team into making decisions for our upcoming school year, has attended our staff meetings and picked up some of our slack (because we are not perfect), all of this as she feeds and attends little Eliana. Dani is by no means perfect but I am encouraged by her choice in remaining faithful to God!
• This summer I have gotten the opportunity to meet individually with Bella, Andrea, Angela, Olivia, Jordan and Jessica whether social distancing at a park or coffee shop, or via face time. My time with these girls has always been great but I did fall under the trap of checking in, asking some questions, giving advise and moving on to the next thing I have to do. God snapped me out of that legalistic approach pretty quickly. I then encouraged my girls to come to our time with questions or something they had been pondering upon whether through scripture, spirit etc. I approached our time with less of a legalistic, checklist and rather started sharing more about my life, week, ups and downs and that made a switch. These girls started becoming comfortable, we started joking with eachother, tearing up about the good and hard things. God answered my prayer and allowed me to see past another 1:1 and rather see the transformative power that was and is occurring in the lives of these girls.
• We had our last Thursday Night Fellowship but this time it was in person with all of our DFW campuses and man was it impactful to our staff and student body! Don't worry we were stern about social distancing and students wearing masks. We also offered a virtual online version for our students that weren't comfortable with the in person service. Sarah Worsham lead us into a convicting message that left our community with something to chew on as we approach the upcoming school year. Something that stood out to me and some of our students was this quote, "Are you going to just get by, stand by or are YOU going to be on the lookout for God". Sarah's message until this day has been brought up multiple times in conversation with our staff, students and even with some of my friends. Our last TNF was overall encouraging to see faces and see everyone come together to worship.

• My abuelito has been hospitalized for a month due to COVID fighting for his lungs through a ventilator. This has been something really hard for my family and for me as well. Initially I thought I was dealing with this well haha but really I was just avoiding coming to God about it. Couple of weeks ago I woke up around 4 am sobbing at the thought and fear of loosing my sweet abuelito. It was in that moment that I had to avoid confronting God about this pain I was carrying. I found myself with no physical friend to lean on other than my Abba, my sweet Father. I started talking to God and let me preface that majority of the times when I talk to God I don't necessarily hear something specific from him, its usually just a sense of peace but this time he was asking me to surrender myself to surrender my desire to soon see my abuelito out of that hospital looking 100% but rather to trust in his faithfulness even if that means loosing such a sweet man. And so I cried even more haha but after unloading all of those tears I got up and kept resining the Lords Prayer. My family isn't a devoted Christian but through this season they have devoted themselves to God, they have gathered with a group of friends and family and prayed every night at 8pm. I have been able to speak truth into my moms life, reminding her of how our God gifted her with an amazing Father and grandfather for 72 years and at the same time I have been able to gently encourage her to trust that God will gift her with peace and comfort whether we loose or keep my abuelito. My abuelito has not made any progress and  currently my family is deciding whether they choose to disconnect him or keep him goin through this ventilator that could be use for another patient. Despite all of that God answered the prayer I pray every morning which is to see his goodness despite the unclarity. My family is leaning on God and getting to know him during this hard time and that is worth praising.

I want to wrap up and leave you with this song someone showed me today. I've had it on repeat as I write to you guys a summary of this month and the end of this summer. It talks about how God's love is better than this life, how the only sufficient thing even through our worst day is his love.

Thankful for you guys in this season!

For the Kingdom,

Adriana