Happy New Year!

Hey friends and family! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season!  I'm sure that the holidays probably

looked a little different for a lot of you, but I hope you were able to find joy in this season. For me, the

holidays were spent with my immediate family.  I found joy through getting to see my sweet little nephews

open their gifts and be so excited and thankful for their new toys, sharing laughs with my family, watching

Hamilton (for the first time!) with girls in my small group, catching up with old friends and getting to spend

extra time with my husband.  This was a sweet break and I am eagerly awaiting a new semester to start

at Collin!  

One of our students and good friend of mine, Addie, helping me get in the 
Christmas spirit with an Elvis Presley cassette tape. 

The new semester doesn’t start back until late January, but our staff got back to work after New Years Day.

Our first assignment was to read a book called, “Money and Power.”  It was a book exploring how a

disciple should use money and what relationships with money should be.  Some of the many questions

that were discussed were, how much should I be saving? What should giving look like in our lives?

How do I help the poor? What does scripture say about money? This was a really good and timely topic

for us.  A lot our staff is fairly young and are just starting to think about money more critically.  One of my

favorite things about being on this staff is the energy that goes into developing young ministers in all

areas of our lives to live as disciples.  We are so blessed to learn about things that will carry into the rest

of our lives.  

 

For the next couple weeks we are going to be planning for a new semester.  I, with two of my

co-workers, are put in charge trying to foster a sense of togetherness in our community at Collin. 

Before the pandemic, we would have larger group services, game nights, movie nights and so much

more.  We were hanging out all of the time.  Having fun together is crucial for our ministry. 

It helps our students feel a sense of belonging and that they have people who want to be their friend

outside of small group.  These times of just “hanging out” helps foster real relationships. 

People I met and befriended at games nights when I was a student are still some of my very closest

friends who minister to me as well.  So our job is to try and plan events that still foster this togetherness,

with the challenge of social distancing and doing everything mainly outdoors.  We already have some

ideas going and have been getting real creative, so I am excited to update you in the coming months with

how they go!  Please be praying for us in this area!

Me and some of our student leaders making ornaments together.  

As always, thank you for your prayers and support for our ministry.  We could not do what we do without

you! If you ever want to meet up or need anything, reach out any time, I would love to hear from you! I am

praying for each of you as we start this new year! If you would like me to pray about anything specific,

please let me know!

With love, 

Erin Cavanaugh