Embracing Change

Hello Friends and Family!  

I hope that the summer is treating you well! As the summer has been going by, I have

spent a large part of my work week fundraising and preparing for the next school year. 

I have quite a few new ministry partners, so for some of you this is the first post that you are reading. 

Welcome and thank you!! I write a blog post to you about once a month to keep you updated on our ministry

and what God is doing on the campuses throughout the year!

For those of you who have been on my support team last year and continuing, thank you

for choosing to stay with me and believing in what we do on the campus. 

Here is the highlights of my last month!

Changes 

I think one of the many reasons that I like campus ministry so much was the consistency. 

We had a very specific model of ministry. For the last seven years I have served this ministry as a leader

in some capacity, so I always have been very involved in all the events and meetings that are put on. 

Every monday night you could find me at leader meeting or peer team.  Where the small group leaders

got together and where taught how to be a spiritual leader on campus and to our peers.

Tuesdays nights I would be in core (our gender specific small groups). 

Thursday nights at 7:30 I always knew I would be at TNF (Thursday Night Fellowship)

where the entire community gets together for worship and a sermon by a staff member. 

Though, this year is vastly different.  COVID-19 has made some of our events impossible to do in a

safe way.  We are dedicated to meeting together but we also want to keep the safety of our staff and

students to the absolute best of our ability.  So that means no more leader meetings, TNF, fall camp

and basically anything indoors or meetings above about 6 people.  COVID has forced our ministry

model to change and while that can be nerve racking, I really am so excited for next year! 

We have done things the same way for so long, perhaps changes could bring a better way we

wouldn’t have thought of on our own.  We definitely were comfortable as a ministry and in our model

and as they say, you never grow when you are comfortable.  So, we as a staff are embracing the

changes and hope whenever we do get to some form of normality, we might have a new and improved

way of ministry! 

The New Plan

We have spent much of June working together to think of how we are going to make this year work. 

As of right now the plan is to have everyone in our ministry be in a gender specific small groups of

maximum 6 people and have their weekly meetings outside, socially distanced and with masks to

virtually eliminate as much risk as possible.  Throughout the week one of the staff members will record

a sermon and send it to the students and that is what their small group discussions will be centered on. 

The idea is to still give students pastoral messages and give them the opportunity to foster intimate

relationships with each other.  One on one meetings will still be implemented in an outdoor, distanced

way as well.  While it is sad to not get to experience some of my favorite events I am looking forward

to the relationships that will be built.  Also students are more open than ever to join a group, meet with

people and learn about God.  One worry that we have is that with limited access to our campuses we

will not be able to meet students and invite them to our ministry.  However, I have a hunch that

students will seek us out this year more than ever.  People are craving interaction and positivity

during this time and with being the only campus ministry on the collin campuses, I still foresee some

growth to our ministry and that is exciting! If any positive thing could come from the last few months,

it is that we are learning not to take people or events for granted.  It is such a gift from God to have

a community and friendships and I think students and staff are seeing that now more than ever!.  

Cool story! 

I have been meeting with a lot of our Collin students the past month and it has been a joy to get to

know them! They are so sweet.  I am very excited to see how God works in them and through them for

our upcoming year.  One of the girls I meet with works in childcare and her facility chose to close due

to COVID.  Now without a job, she had a ton of extra time and realized that she was wasting a lot of it

with hours of netflix and entertainment. So, she decided to host bible studies via zoom three times a

week for anyone in our community to join and be in scripture and grow closer together. 

She wanted to make a good use of her extra time and I honestly couldn’t think of a better way! 

This is just one of the many stories in how our students look out for one another and try to seek God. 

I am very proud of her and looking forward to working with her throughout the year! 

Prayer request

• Pray for our students and their mental and spiritual health as things are uncertain for a lot of them regarding school and future plans.  
• Pray for our staff that we continuing planning for next year and try to make the most of the time that we are in
• Pray for our fundraising and that we are reminded to trust in God through that process.  I am getting very close to my goal and only have about 300 a month to raise! 

That was my month in ministry in a nutshell!  Sorry for the lack of pictures, as I do most of my meetups and work in my living room or new office as I like to call it, there is not as much opportunity! Though, I hope this post was encouraging to you in some way! I look forward to talking to each of you throughout the semester and updating you on all the cool things that are to come! 

With love, 

Erin Cavanaugh