May 2022

 And that's a wrap! As of May 31st, I am no longer an apprentice with the Fellowship of Christian University Students. It has been an absolute honor being in this program, and I honestly believe that God changed my life for the better because of it. 

This was a month of "lasts": Last staff meeting of school year, last core hangout and Bible study, last class as an apprentice. Though it was bittersweet, I am so excited for what God continues to do. As you may remember, I was only 1 of 19 apprentices this year, and 14 of us are choosing to stay on staff with Focus! I am thankful to be able to keep on this journey, even when I didn't think this is what I would be doing a year ago. 

Throughout the year, I had a chance to learn how to write a sermon and give it. Sometimes this would be in front of my team in Arlington or in front of the student body at UTA. One of my last assignments for the 10 months was to write a sermon on my 3 biggest takeaways from the apprenticeship. If you want to listen to it yourself, I'll post the link, but here is a summary of what I wrote:

The overarching theme is: "It's Not About Me."

1. I learned how to love people better.
1. I discovered that I can be very selfish in how I love people (expecting something in return/only serving when I felt like it)
2. I was constantly pointed back to Christ and how utterly selfless He was in every interaction He had. Even when he wanted alone time to pray, He still cared for people because they needed Him. 
2. I'm not as unique as I once thought I was.
1. Since some personality quiz that everyone loves told me that I'm super unique, I started placing my identity in being different than other people
2. My identity should only be in Christ, because His opinion of me is the only one that matters. He is the one who defines me. 
3. Because of that, I don't have to be unique to be loved. I actually relate to a lot of people in my hobbies and personality traits, and that certainly helps this work in ministry. 
3. I learned how to read the Bible better.  
1. I love the Bible, and I love learning more about it. Going into this apprenticeship year, I wanted to learn more about the culture and significance of what I was reading WITHOUT a Western American point of view. And that's exactly what I got
2. We read a book while reading the New Testament called "The New Testament in it's World." This really helped me learned how significant it is to know who wrote it, where it was written, who the original audience was to, and why did it have to be written in the first place?
3. I can no longer think of myself first when I open scripture

So those are my biggest takeaways from this year! I hope to continue to dive deeper into what each of these mean in the coming years. 

I want to thank each of you for investing in me this year. When there were hard times in ministry, God reminded me that there are so many people being my cheerleader (I should get each of you pom poms 😂). In all seriousness, there were difficult moments. This program is HARD. Being stood up by students is hard, addressing conflict is hard, and denying what I "want" to do for the sake of others is hard. Yet through it all, God showed me how good all of it is. It is good that we have a God who cares for people like this and wants us to do the same. It is good that there are people in my life (You) who willingly and generously provide my income so that I can minister to these college girls. What God does is radical, and we're a part of that. So I thank each of you. Your generosity means more than you'll know. 

Prayer Requests:

• I'm about 70% fully fundraised for this upcoming year. Praise God! That's HUGE! Will you continue to pray that God will show me who to contact and that I can be an encouragement to them as well?
• If you can think of anyone at all (mother/father/daughter/son/sibling/coach/entire church/boss/boss' boss/your dentist) who would be interested in supporting me or simply be encouraged to hear about campus ministry, please send them my way!
• They don't have to be a Christian. A lot of supporters aren't actually.
• Praise! This month was pretty rough- mainly because I wrecked my car in an accident. There's so much room for praise here: nobody was hurt, friends gave me rides and let me drive their cars, my parents spent a ton of time car hunting with me, and now I finally have another car that I was able to pay for! This is a HUGE praise to God

Now that I've deprived you of photos, here's an entire gallery from this year!