R e j o i c e

My friends. WHAT IS UP!!!!!!!!

Recently I've been reflecting on the Lord's faithfulness which has led me to a couple of convictions and realizations. In a nutshell, God is good and I need him, but let me expand. Not sure if you can relate but it's so tempting to give in to the hardships and worries we face. It's in those moments where I lack faith. I forget to pray. I forget to rejoice. Philippians 4,

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

I was relistening to The Role of Faith in Prayer by Dallas Willard who points out it's not prayer that is the problem but the faith that we have behind prayer and God. Willard says, 

"Faith is not magic. Faith is a confidence that leads you to interactive reality in such a way that a result comes. When I have faith and go turn on the switch to get the lights on. The lights don't come on because I have this wonderful thing called faith, the lights come on because my faith led me to act, and my action tightens into a system of reality. And that brought a result." 

Oof. It's in those chaotic and crippling moments where Jesus invites us to stop being Marthas and be like Mary, at his feet. A lesson the Lord gently continues to remind me. This week the Spirit invited me to step into this posture of thankfulness and here are some of those things,

SSI (Spring Student Impact):

This is the first year, after COVID, where our ministry was able to partner once again with our good friends up in CCF Bellingham for SSI week. We had a group of students and pastors come down during their spring break to join us in doing outreach on our campus, talking and befriending students and faculty. Our CCF friends were a huge encouragement to our Collin pastors and students. Please pray for that team of pastors and students as they return to Western Washington University and continue to reach students on their campus.

It's been a week since SSI and there continues to be an overwhelming wave of good news. I think of Averleigh who is getting plugged into our ministry because of SSI, because Sadie, Kayci (two students from CCF), and I invited her to play UNO. During our time together when Averleigh found out we were a college ministry she got to share how she had just been praying the day before about finding community. This and many stories are a testament of God's faithfulness.

These are a few of our CCF friends.

Outreach:

Every Tuesday my bud Austin Bailey and I show up on campus to intentionally reach out to students at the Frisco campus along with some of the students in our core. Through SSI the Lord lit a fire within us to get over our insecurities and lean on God and the Great Commission that calls us to reach people. This past Tuesday Austin and I prepared a "Take a break and doodle with us" outreach event. Before heading to outreach we gathered with our students to pray. Right after our students took it upon themselves to partner up and go to different buildings on campus to invite students to our activity. We started with an empty table and in less than an hour we had 2 tables filled with over 15 students, chatting and excited to hang with us. 

Here I met Mala, who was thrilled to come across us. We shared our testimonies where I learned she stepped away from faith due to negative experiences but has been thinking and praying of pursuing God again. Mala is checking out our ministry next week. I am not sure if Mala will stick around or not but this once again was a reminder for me of the value of pursuing students on campus. This took me back to the reason why I even decided to commit to campus ministry! Pray for Mala, pray for our students as we continue to find boldness within the Lord to reach the students on our campuses.

The first image is a screenshot from our outreach Frisco student chat where I think was another sweet reminder of how the Lord is getting our students fired up for outreach. The second image is the doodle I was working on when I met Mala which sparked conversation. 

TNF (Thursday Night Fellowship):

TNF's keep getting better and better. There are new students getting plugged in. Last night Jackson, this guy I met at our Central Park Campus during SSI showed up to TNF (Thursday Night Fellowship). Every TNF we have a prompt for community sharing, an opportunity for our students to share with our community. The prompt was "How have you seen or experienced God's grace?" and Jackson shared about how good and gracious the Lord has been by providing him with the opportunity to gain friends through our community who have already been so intentional and shown how much they care about him. 

Thank you, friends. Thank you for believing in what the Lord is doing here at Collin in the lives of students and allowing me to partake in this enriching journey! 

For the Kingdom!