We (Whoosh) You A Merry Christmas!

It's an inside joke at UTD to change the words from, "We wish you a Merry Christmas" to "We whoosh you a Merry Christmas", since "whoosh" is the saying used for our mascot (comets!).  December was such a good month, for many different reasons. Here's what went down:

End of Semester

School wrapped up for our students in the first week of December. For our last Core (small group) of the year, we went to dinner and shared fun conversations about highlights from the semester. It was so fun to look around the table and see all the girls that we have met and gotten to know this semester!
We got to celebrate the end of the semester with our whole ministry at our Christmas Party, which was SUPER festive and fun. We painted ornaments, did Christmas karaoke, and just celebrated together.

Turnout for the Christmas Party!

Sweet Cait.. in my Core :)

It's been so fun to get to know Taylor in Core!

CUTIE POP COFA, EM

Taylor and Zoe painting ornaments

We also had a staff Christmas party that was super fun. The FOCUS staff from all of our campuses got together to celebrate our semester. The picture below is of all the apprentices for this school year, and I love them!

Apprentices 2019-2020! From Left to Right:
Maria (UTD), Adriana (Collin), Mark (Collin), Me, Austin (Collin), Hannah D (UTD), Ashley (UTD), Hanna M (UTD), Josh (Richland), Cort (UTD), Erin (UTD), and Jacy (Collin).

Sermon

Each apprentice was tasked with giving a sermon for our end-of-semester assignment. The prompt was titled, "My Gospel". We had to deliver a three-point sermon and answer how the gospel has influenced our view of  God, ourselves, and others. It was pretty tough to think through that big of a topic. It was emotionally pretty taxing, but it was such a rewarding experience that I feel really brought me closer to God and the people who were able to hear it. (All of the FOCUS staff, family, friends, etc.)
If you would like me to send you my Word document that has my notes, I would love to do that! You can comment on this post or reply to the email if you are interested. :)

BREAK!

We then got two weeks off for Christmas break! I spent the first week here in the Dallas area, catching up with people and running some errands. Then on the 24th, my family flew out to San Diego to finish out the year. It was a super sweet and restful time!!

My sweet siblings!

Kole is getting so big... 16 years old and taller than me :(

So proud of this sweet sister!

Zach is a recent SMU grad!! So proud of him!!

Prayer Requests:
Students starting school
Our students start school on the 13th. Pray for them as they start new classes, and continue to reach out to classmates!
Winter Camp
This is a HUGE one! Every year, all of the ministries from our campuses come together for a weekend retreat. We have worship, sermons, and lots of free time. Pray for God to make a way for the students that He wants to be there. Our sermons for the weekend are all centered around the Psalms. Pray for the speakers giving the sermons to be able to have their material prepared, for any nerves they might have, and for the students' hearts to be open to whatever God wants them to hear.
I can't wait to post how God worked through Winter Camp in my next blog!!

Thanks for tuning in this month! I hope you had a Merry Christmas!