Psalm 46

Psalm 46

1 God is our refuge and strength,

    an ever-present help in trouble.

2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way

    and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

3 though its waters roar and foam

    and the mountains quake with their surging.[c]

4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,

    the holy place where the Most High dwells.

5 God is within her, she will not fall;

    God will help her at break of day.

6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;

    he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

7 The Lord Almighty is with us;

    the God of Jacob is our fortress.

8 Come and see what the Lord has done,

    the desolations he has brought on the earth.

9 He makes wars cease

    to the ends of the earth.

He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;

    he burns the shields[d] with fire.

10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;

    I will be exalted among the nations,

    I will be exalted in the earth.”

11 The Lord Almighty is with us;

    the God of Jacob is our fortress.

You know, I love the way God has used ministry to gently teach me, correct me and make me more aware of my need for Jesus. 

The first 3 weeks of school are some of the most vital weeks in ministry however I have a tendency to overwork and deny rest. I remember taking those first 3 weeks of school, what we call our "Welcome Week" to the extreme. I was focused so much on "doing" all these things, meeting with students Monday through Sunday back to back, carpooling to church, doing outreach, texting students, inviting them into community, starting various focus on Jesus studies etc.

This may seem like a great quality but more often then not its my greatest weakness. I fixate so much in "doing" which transitions into worrying so much, working myself to the ground, falling into this lie,"If I don't then who will?" and so I loose sight of God, I forget why I do what I do, my purpose and who here is God. 

31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 32 Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God— 33 even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved. 1 Corinthians 10:31-33

Four months in and this continues to be a lesson I need to be reminded of -spoiler. I am fortunate to be surrounded by a supportive team, friends and specifically people like Garrett, Sandra, Dani who have continually helped me snap out of this obsession for control. The neat thing has been how I've been able to share much of what God has been teaching me here with our students. 

So, What has God been teaching you? shoot me a text, id love to hear from ya!

Here are some glimpses of what God has been doing at Collin this far. Buckle up,

After years of meeting outside the cafeteria for TNF which was always distracting and hard to focus for our students we now meet in a lecture classroom which has been a game changer!

This was our first Thursday Night Fellowship of this school year.

This is Laiya, I am tearing up writing about this girl. She has a big heart for God, a very passionate and at times hard headed girl haha! I identify a lot with her but its been neat to get weekly time with her and see her openness and willingness to change for God. One of my favorite things is to bake or cook for people so here she is enjoying some of my chicken fajitas, probably laughing at me.

Our 2021-2022 leader team

This is Austin, he is also part of the Collin pastoral team. We were both sent to the Frisco Campus and its been a huge blessing to get to work with such patient and thoughtful brother.

Some of our corefas and Ale (in the middle) a girl that I met during welcome week has been sticking around our community and I am excited to see what God does there!

This is Sophie, I love this girl. Her and I co-lead our small group. She she is so thoughtful, intelligent, consistent, and a total fool for God. Through her God has reminded me to not take myself so serious.

Fall Camp 2021

We had our first Fall Camp after not having one last year and it was a good one. There was so much that happened but a couple of highlights,

• Couple of students who didn't get involved at the beginning of the school year showed up hungry for community and Jesus.
• There are a couple of students that aren't believers who came to Fall Camp and expressed how much it meant that our ministry wasn't exclusive of non-believers.
• We had the opportunity to explore worship in Spanish as a way of being inclusive of our growing LatinX community.

Some of the girls from my core that came to Fall Camp. L to R: Catherine, Kaylyn, Sharon, Me, Murphie, Megan, Isabella. Bottom L to R: Sabrina, Sophie (the student I co-lead with).

Every Fall Camp we try and have a worship night. This year I partnered with our Denton team who had fall camp the same weekend as our Collin team. In planning for worship I thought of one of my sweetest memories of Fall Camp as a student which was a worship night where we gathered in a circle for worship. The goal was to be reminded that worship is not this individualistic thing but rather a community that comes together and worships God. Fall Camp felt like the right opportunity to explore worship differently from what we typically do so I invited two of our students Andrea and Laiya to lead us through worship in Spanish and gospel songs.

Things to pray about:

• We are wrapping up our sermon series "Life to the Full" which is inspired by John10:10. Through this sermon series our pastoral team has had the opportunity to invite our students to reflect on the way they perceive life and allow them to wrestle with the importance of identifying sin, salvation, repentance, maturity, purpose and eventually be led to a heart change. Pray for open hearts and for them to experience Godly sorrow. Pray our pastoral team has wisdom as we prepare to minister to our students.
• I have lost a large group of my support team and praise God I am getting back to my goal. I have moved from a $1,000/month deficit to $300/month deficit. Pray that I will encounter people who are excited about joining what God is doing here in our ministry!

Invitation:

Every semester our pastoral team hosts "Pizza Theology" it's a talk where we get to explore theology and wrestle with questions of how to think about blank. This semester the theme is "How to think like a Christian" we are exploring how to think, how to evaluate, how to respond to certain issues and topics that many of us are facing today in this world. One of my favorite things is getting to eat pizza in the middle of the session and engage with our students over highlights of the talk so far. I hope you can join us!