August

Hello all!

Thanks so much for reading and keeping up with the blog. Your prayers and support have gone a long way - this quick season has brought so much encouragement and discovery. I have met so many women ready to encounter Jesus, gotten to know our staff better, and I've enjoyed the riches of God's grace and love through the process of integrating myself into a new community. God has proven Himself faithful and I'm grateful that I get to continue exploring how He wants to work in the lives of these students at Collin.

Students gathered together on Friday night for our Spring Creek campus volleyball night.

On Wednesday, students answered the question, "What is one thing you wish people knew about you?" A lot of answers looked like this: people yearning to talk, expressing their shyness, and wanting to know people.

Last week, we began our typical Welcome Week events, but before we went out, a group of students and I went out to pray for all of our Collin campuses. We prayed that we could have eyes and ears open to meet our new students, encourage freshman, and bring people to know Jesus. We prayed for courage, persistence, and the will to keep pushing through the year with that mentality. And man, did God deliver.

Our campus prayer team took a lunch break, and the Chick-fil-a workers gave us free ice cream when they heard we spent the day praying for Collin. How sweet! (Literally)

Our students in FOCUS hit the ground running. We spent our days planting seeds with thoughtful conversation, playing games outside, and inviting students to our large fellowship meeting and small groups. It was so clear that our students have caught the vision - they were so active in showing up, meeting new people, and bringing students into community with them. I was blown away by the courage and boldness of these disciples that I get to know.

Last Friday, I visited UTD FOCUS and caught a glimpse of God's work on their campus. They had about 300 students show up to their first night! My boyfriend Daniel wanted to get in on the picture.

This past week, I got to get together with Raven, my friend I'm leading small group with. We get together weekly to pray for the girls in our small group, plan out the next week, and deepen our relationship. Once again, we got to enjoy the fruit of God's work in our lives - so many ladies joined us for small group this week! We are the only women leading small group at Collin Preston Ridge and we are so excited to see where God goes with this!

Nothing like a good cup of tea and cinnamon rolls with a friend like Raven.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey of following God and serving our students. I can’t believe I get to do work like this and I get to do this because of people like you. Please be praying for our students as we continue building relationships and learning how to do ministry together!

Love,

Sam