Ramping Up

 July as a whole was very end heavy in terms of where most of the ministry work was happening. As a UTD team, we used our time getting ready for the Weeks of Welcome. Fast approaching, starting August 16th, we will be meeting most of the new members of our community that week and the next. Please be praying for that, it is the hardest we work all year, so please pray for our ministers as you pray for the people we meet! Now, a few highlights of July!

Through the end of the month, we kept meeting for Summer FOCUS, and we finished our series teaching our Focus on Jesus bible study. Having the whole community together was very encouraging! With so many students from so many church backgrounds worshipping together, there would be groups of students doing all sorts of different things in worship, but it was so encouraging to see them together professing and praising the same God! One sad thing is that our community won't be meeting together until August 26th. Please be praying that our students maintain their zeal as they wait a month for the school year to pick up. 

 

We also, at the very end of July, had another baptism! My friend and brother in Christ Xamin committed his life to the Lord! Xamin has been my friend for the last few years, first being in my small group, and then working with me on our leader team for the last 2 school years! His story is one that is so special! Being a convert from Islam, choosing Christ is seen as a betrayal of his family, but even through that, he was able to be so encouraging in how he shared about the provision and joy of being with the Father. I am seriously so happy for Xamin! With Xamin, my friend Ben was also baptized that day. Ben was a student I met during COVID who was actually in Xamin's small group. At the end of the 20-21 school year, I started to hear from Xamin and his co-leader Landry that Ben was beginning to grow a lot. Going into the last school year, Ben was someone who I started to invest more in, and he was among one of our invites to the Student Institute of Campus ministry this year that we did back in May. He communicated this summer that he wanted to get baptized, and his friend and mentor Aiden baptized him at the same event! 

That is all I really have to share on for July. A lot is coming up that we have been working on, and I look forward to seeing it pay off! I also want to say thank you and welcome to everyone who has joined my support team this summer! This was the first year I made it to my fundraising goal, and that is because of the generosity of you all! I am so extremely grateful for all of you and I look forward to sharing with you about what we accomplish this year!