Vast. Boundless. Unmeasured. Free.
Friends, we just finished month 3 of the apprenticeship. This was a month building upon what was started in September. Campus ministry is unique in the sense that the areas of growth present themselves differently. I will share a little of what God is doing!
God has shown Himself to be faithful in this month of ministry. Despite my imperfections and shortfalls, He is still doing wonders in my life and in the lives of those around me. During one of the sermons in the month of October, Tom Miller, a minister with CRU, shared about God's love. He shared some older hymns that I had never heard of, but the lyrics of one of the hymns stood out to me.
"Oh the deep, deep love of Jesus
Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free
Rolling as a mighty ocean
In its fullness over me"
This is something that has stood out to me as I think about what God has been teaching me this month. God's love is rolling in fullness over me. God's love is vast, boundless, unmeasured and free. I am so thankful for His love working in you and in the students at Richland. God has been teaching me to notice Him in the stillness. He is pushing me to notice Him in the quiet. He is teaching me to slow down and rest in His Presence. Below is a clip of a concert I went to. During this time, God was ministering to me and loving on me by pointing out how I need to rest in Him and only He can provide true rest.
CORE
I am continuously encouraged by the students that show up to core. We have a mix of high school students all the way up to older adults. I am encouraged by their willingness to participate in discussions and talk about deeply personal things. We covered body image and talked about our perceptions on our bodies and purity. I am studying the Bible with a student and I am just blown away with how engaged he is. He reads the sections he has for prework and watches the clips associated to those passages in the Read Scripture App created by The Bible Project.
CAMPUS CONNECT
This month, we have tried volleyball and picnics as our tools for evangelism. There was a week we were really pulling in a lot of students. I was so excited by how many people we were meeting. Getting students that are not involved in the ministry to come to events outside of campus connect has proven to be difficult. Also an area of growth of our students in the ministry is to grow in evangelism/outreach. This month, I was in an evangelism class and I was encouraged to try new and different things to reach out. So, as I look into November, I am trying to find new ways to heat up this value in my life and the life of the students around me. HOWEVER, God is bringing in students and I know it is a God deal.
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| This is Elson wrapped in toilet paper. He is one of those students that God just brought in. Elson found our information online and just showed up. I am glad I get to spend time with him and be his friend! |
PREACHING LAB WITH KELLIE
Sirak taught a class in early October teaching us how to preach. We did a full day of that culminating in 5 min sermonettes. The task after that was to prepare a 20 minute sermon from an Old Testament passage assigned by Sirak. We were split up into two groups. I was part of the first group. We drove out to Wichita Falls to do this lab with Kellie Cannedy. She worked for a campus ministry in Bellingham, Washington. Preparing sermons is always a daunting task for me and so I worked on writing the sermon and just asked God to help speak. My passage was over Genesis 4. The experience was great. I got to hear the other apprentices give their sermons and we provided feedback to each other. Kellie had some really good things to point out. It was a great experience.
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| This is just a funny picture I saw while driving in Wichita Falls. Just thought y'all would appreciate it |
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| This is a blurry picture of the first group that went to the lab. |
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| Feat. Cort Thomas, an apprentice at UTD |
BROOKHAVEN COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Earlier in October, the Richland team decided to go check Brookhaven out. I think we are always thinking through what it would look like to start a ministry at another campus. Although nothing is in the works, we just thought we would check out the campus. Sirak connected with the only registered group on campus. We managed to spend some time with this group during the meeting. I met Rauhl at this meeting. He is the club president and he is such a great guy. I have spent time with him and he has attended a couple of our TNT services. I thank God for this connection He has created. I know this relationship with Rauhl will be a blessing.
THE STATE FAIR OF TEXAS
The great State Fair of Texas began its run and I went a handful of times. I owe that to one of my friends! She gave me a handful of entrance tickets! These are just some pictures of some good times! I am just thankful for having good people in my life. In the bottom picture, I took a picture with some people that have been really life-giving.
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| Dallas Staff |
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| Save a horse. Ride a cowboy. Or something like that. Feat. Sirak |
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| This is Evan and Valentin. These are some cool guys in my life! |
THURSDAY NIGHT THUNDER
These are just a couple of pictures from TNT and our after-events.
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PRAYER REQUESTS:
There is so much more I could talk about. Always feel free to ask me questions if you want to know more about something. As we look forward, please join me in prayer:
- Pray for my one-on-one bible studies! Pray that more students would open their hearts and minds to studying scripture deeply.
- Pray for our KFG campaign! Keep FOCUS Growing is a fundraiser that covers administrative staff salaries, administrative costs, outreach, and helps prepare for new opportunities that are in development over the year. Keep your eyes out for more info coming soon!
- Pray for out TNT meetings! We want to build connections with as many students across our small groups and this is one of the tools we use to do that!
- Pray for my personal studies as I continue working on projects and assignments.
- Pray for my own physical, emotional, and mental well-being.
Thank you so much for supporting me in prayer and with financial support. I really do try to imagine all of you are with me when I am on campus. You help me do God's work on this college campus. Thank you so much for investing into this. Y'all are a blessing in my life. Remember that by helping me do the work on Richland, you are helping this vision of Heaven from Revelation 7 a reality:
9 After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice:
“Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.”
Blessings,
Josh
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