Exciting News!!

Hey friends and family!  It has been a while since my last update and I have a lot to tell you about!  Ministry and my personal life have been quite busy lately! So let me jump right in!

Ministry!

First I want to update you about my job and what God is doing at UTD!  This past month a lot of what work week has consisted of is preparing to send our potential leaders to the Student Institute of Campus Ministry!  This is a week long conference in May where students who have potential leadership qualities go and learn how to be ministers on their campuses. I went five years ago as a student and it was truly life changing.  For the first time I got to see and learn the benefit of campus ministry and how I could make an impact for God on my campus as a student! It made my time in college so much more meaningful! I am so excited for our UTD students to get to go and learn how to minister to their peers.  This trip is not cheap though, each student pays about 800 dollars to go, so we have been throwing a lot of fundraisers to try and lessen the cost of their trip. That has been so fun and sweet to get to see the community come together and support their peers and it has also been so fun to get to throw those fundraisers for the community.  

This month I have also enjoyed getting to study the bible with different students.  It is fun to watch them grow and experience God! I study the bible with four different students throughout the week and I love each of them so much!  They are a constant encouragement to me! 

This is Helen and Alayna! Two girls that I get to spend consistent time with!

Marriage!

As most of you know I got married this past February!  My new husband Jason and I moved into a cute little one bedroom apartment and we love it!  Marriage has definitely been fun. Jason is very patient, sweet, funny and serves me well. As sweet as marriage has been, it has been a huge transition that we are both trying to figure out.  We are working now to figure out good communication, conflict resolution and how to put each other's needs above our own. It has been difficult at times and we have gotten wrong already but he has been so kind and loving in the midst of us figuring out marriage.  He truly is my biggest fan and supports me so well. We also have great friends and a community that has been very helpful in helping us learn how to serve one another! I am excited and so thankful to spend my life with him. We have already been helping each other grow as disciples and he continually points me to God through our relationship. Here are some sweet pictures from the wedding!

My Dad and I walking down the aisle!

The best bridal party around! These sweet pals of ours made our wedding so much fun and exciting!

Celebrating on the dance floor!

Personal News! 

I wanted to let everyone know that after my apprenticeship is over in may, I committed to another year on FOCUS staff, and I will be moving from UTD to Collin College!! I am very excited and feel great about this decision!  I found God and got involved with FOCUS as a student at Collin so it is a very special place to me!

Working for FOCUS has richly blessed my life! I have gotten to experience God at a whole new level and have grown as a disciple in ways that will stick with me for the rest of my life. I am humbled and so thankful that I get to be a missionary on the campus another year!  I want to ask you guys to pray about continuing to partner with me in ministry! Your generosity has made this possible for me and many students and myself have been immensely blessed by it! I will be reaching out to your guys soon to see if this would be something you are interested in continuing and to catch up and share specifics of how I have seen God work through my time as a campus minister! 

This was the group of students I went to SICM with back in the day at Collin College!  I am so excited to go back as a missionary!

Ways to pray!

For the students that they have a restful and safe spring break and they can come back full of energy!

For Jason and I as we navigate the transition of marriage and continue to serve each other well

Fundraising season is starting in full force! Please be praying that our staff gets the funds they need in order to continue serving on campus full time!

I love you guys and am very thankful for you!

Until next time, 

Erin Cavanaugh!