Hello Ministry Partner!
The end of the semester is here! It's hard to believe that I'm halfway through my apprenticeship. It has been so enriching. During this semester I have been able to study the Bible with five different women and watch as they learn more of who Jesus is and decide to follow Him. I have gotten to facilitate a women's small group, and I was able to read the entire Old Testament in three months! I learned a lot from that.
It is such an honor to get to do full time ministry and dedicate so much time to reading scripture, learning. and ministering to students. I am so thankful to the FOCUS staff who have directed the apprenticeship and taught the classes, to my supervisor Shayla for meeting with me each week and encouraging me to grow as a disciple, and I am thankful to each one of you who has supported me financially and through prayer. It has been truly amazing and I am looking forward to all the work God will do that I will be able to participate in next semester.
Here's some fun things in campus ministry this past month!
Friendsgiving
Our Tuesday small groups combined for a Friendsgiving. A lot of the girls from my small group showed up and were able to make more connections with people in the ministry. It can sometimes be difficult to get small group members to be a part of the larger community. It's beneficial for them to know the other members of the community and not just the few who are in small group with them so they can see a bigger picture of God's people and of what God is doing on the campuses. So it was encouraging that they came.
We had our last small group of the semester. We asked how each of them had seen God work in their lives this semester. These girls have been so sweet to disciple. Most of them are in a place where they are learning who Jesus is and deciding to take Him seriously for the first time in their lives.
In a one on one Bible study a month ago, Hailey told me that she wasn't quite ready to call herself a Christian but she was ready to be a believer. That was really cool to hear her say that. Getting to be a part of their lives is so special!
A typical Thursday night fellowship meeting. I'm looking forward to coming back next semester and reconnecting with everyone.
What I'm learning
For one of our classes we were given the prompt to worship God with some form of art. I am usually not a painter and express myself more through music, but decided to get out of my comfort zone and paint. I made this piece based off of the story of Zacchaeus in Luke who climbs up the sycamore tree to see Jesus. Zacchaeus was an outsider in Israelites society. He was employed by the Roman government to collect taxes from his own people. But He wanted to see Jesus who was passing through the crowd. So he climbed up a tree to see Jesus tree to see him and Jesus said to him, "I'm coming to eat dinner at your house tonight because I came to seek and to save what is lost". Even though no one else would accept Zacchaeus, Jesus did.
The left side of the painting contains darker colors that represent life without Jesus. The tree on the right side represents when we decide we want to see Jesus and we rise above the anything that is keeping us from Him. On the other side is life with Jesus represented by the light colors.
Making a painting for God was a meaningful experience because I did not have to worry about what anyone else thought of it, just Him.
Our favorite staff member, Jude! And Reagann, another favorite staff member :)
Our local church hosted an ladies ornament exchange and some of our college students came. These are two of our small group leaders Kailey, my roommate, and our next door neighbor, Hannah. Kailey just graduated this December, woohoo!
Student Testimony
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