Sweet reminders

Hola amigos!

Recently I have been reflecting on 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 and I encourage you to read it! No. Don't keep scrolling. Stop. Read, read it twice or three times. 

26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus,who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness,holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.

Got it? Alright I trust you. Now, if God chooses the foolish things of this world to make great things then what do you think it says about us aiming to be this perfect version of ourselves? Exactly it crushes that and rather lifts this pressure we put on ourselves. This month I've been constantly reminded that its not about how good, smart or perfect I am because God isn't concerned with that and we find that to be true through the individuals he chooses throughout scripture and we are affirmed of that truth within this verse.  This month God has made sure to remind me of this truth right when I am at the edge of forgetting haha so let's talk about those instances!

Peer team on Monday nights one of the things I look forward to the most! These girls are not just corefas, volunteers or students but they are my sisters! Many of them are new and have gotten comfortable with each other so quickly that it blows my mind! Just this past Monday we answered a question that many of our staff and corefas tend to dread, "How are you really doing?" but man was it a neat time for us to get to know each other deeper and pray for one another, if anything that night we grew even closer!

After a discouraging week of outreach, I found this note left by my co-leader at the parking lot of CPC on my car. It read, "Hey you're cute. So happy to have you at CPC love you and love seeing God work through you and in you.-Jessica". That day I had finished doing some outreach at CPC. I experienced a group of students laughing and poking fun at my sign that read "Need Prayer? I'm a pastor. I got you!!". I felt God saying, "Hey! I see you. People like Jessica see you and your faithfulness. Don't worry about these silly guys, just keep being faithful.". And so I cried haha. I praised God for revealing himself and woke up early the next morning and came back to CPC.

This is Sophie and she has been such a huge encouragement to my ministry. Sophie loves Lilo and Stitch and here she is 10 minutes early to Core like always, with some sort of snack for the girls in our core. Sophie has been taking huge precautions because her mom has this neurological disorder that makes her more prone to COVID but though she may not do any social interactions she makes sure to make it to one thing and that is core! She has been a reminder of what faithfulness, courage and boldness look like in this season. 

2 Timothy 3:16-17 "All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." Recently, during our devotional time our Collin Staff spent some time going over this verse. Much of the conversation was bringing awareness to our staff about the importance of knowing scripture, spending time in scripture, and using it as the primary source in our ministry as we lead people to Jesus. I've realized that if I struggle using scripture as my primary source within my ministry then so do the girls in my peer team therefore I started reading through the minor prophets with the girls in my peer team. This is Bella one of the girls I spend time with weekly and she's also been an encouragement in how excited and eager she's been in diving into scripture. Last time we met (picture above) she came with notes of questions and things she came across through reading commentaries or reading the book of Hosea. 

OUTREACH:

Outreach has led our team to think outside of the box and this is one of them! These are a couple of ads we have been posting on our media or really any application where we can potentially meet students or parents that may have students interested in getting plugged in our ministry. We made an add and started joining Facebook groups of parents within the area. I joined Next Door and posted the yellow ad. On instagram we paid to advertise the second add where we reached out to college age students and through that some of our students have gotten plugged in!

Outreach is something that all of our staff is constantly figuring out and learning from during this season! I want to invite you to continue to pray for our team and students. Pray that we find courage despite the outcome of outreach, pray God continues to give us eyes of ways to reach out to students, pray for creativity in how to approach outreach, pray, pray, pray, pray, there is so much power in prayer and I hope you can join me in that way!

Currently we are wrapping up our second part of Pizza Theology, our theme is "In it, not of it. How to think like a Christian in society?" and I was asked to talk about immigration, my experience and how God has been transforming my thinking through that subject. I ask that you pray for those of us preparing to speak this Sunday evening! I'd invite you to join us if you can, we will be streaming it via twitch, https://www.twitch.tv/utdfocus