September Update!!

Swinging into September!

Hey friends and family!  Welcome to my second blog post!  This month has been spent with me getting into the swing of full time ministry.  It has been challenging to adjust from being a student to full time work, the irregular hours and figuring out how to adjust my life in order to serve the students.  Even though it has been challenging at time I am overwhelmed with gratitude.  I work with a staff who has immense patience, walks us through this job and deeply cares for us new ministers on a personal level.  The students at UTD have given us apprentices a warm welcome as we are trying to get to know the area and meet everyone.  They are truly the best!  I have also learned a lot about Jesus and his ministry which has already grown me as a person and influenced my life for the better.  For these things I cannot help but be grateful and excited to be at UTD.  I get to witness God work on this campus every day He has done some incredible things!  Lets dive in to this past month!

TNF 

TNF is Tuesday Night Fellowship.  These are our large group meetings on Tuesday night.  The meetings consist of worship, a sermon by one of our staff members, group discussion and a time afterward to hangout and meet new people.  Each year we have a theme for the sermons and to direct our community.  This year the theme is "Steadfast."  We are learning how to be steadfast with our relationship to each other and how God remains steadfast in pursuing us.  I am eager to see how theme plays out in the lives of our staff and students.  

This is our worship band.  Eric on the drum, Andrea singing and William on guitar.  They do an fantastic job every week leading our community in worship!  

These are some of our students at TNF!  Getting to be a part of planning TNF and being with the students every Tuesday is one of my favorite parts of the job!

Core

Cores are weekly gender specific small groups and they are the core of our ministry.  Intentional friendships are built through core.  We spend time exploring our faith, diving into scripture and genuinely getting to know each other.  I love core because it is a safe place for people to share about the highs and lows of there life and to freely ask any question about God.  I get to lead one of these groups with a student named Helen.  So far our core has already bonded and is very vulnerable with each other making it a great time every week!  These are the girls that I get to invest in all year!  They are so easy to be friends with and ministered to me in a lot of ways already!  I am very lucky! I can't wait to share how God works in some of their lives throughout the year.  A picture of them will come next month!

Ways you can pray

• Fall camp!  Fall camp is this upcoming weekend.  It is a weekend retreat where the all of the UTD community goes to cultivate friendship and to grow closer to God!  Pray for the students and staff that they grow closer to God and the FOCUS community.  
• Pray for the new students.  That they feel welcomed in our community and at UTD
• The staff as we lead the students.  Pray that we lead them to Jesus and not to ourselves.

Thank you for reading and for your partnership with me and FOCUS.  Without your generosity I would not be able to do what I do!  Your contributions make it possible to invest in these students and give them the opportunity to strengthen their faith and to be a light on the campus.  I have seen this ministry radically change lives year after year and you have a large part in that.  If there is anyway I could be praying for you please let me know!

With thankfulness, 

Erin Campbell