September Reflections!

Another month has gone!! Lots of good stuff happened in September. 

Ministry has been going so, so well. God has constantly been reminding me of His faithfulness in this season. At the beginning of the school year, I had a lot of worries and concerns about how things would go. Would people come to events if they are primarily online? Would the student leaders on my team have people interested in their small groups? I had so many questions. But over the month, I've been reminded so many times of the One who walks ahead of me. He's showed up again and again, and I can't wait to tell you guys about what He's been doing! 

Deep Dive

With COVID, we decided to restructure our typical Friday night service to be more of a teaching time. It's called, "Deep Dive", as we are "diving deeper" into scripture. Right now, we are going through the book of Mark! It has been so neat to teach our students how to engage Scripture at a deeper level than they have before. I have also been learning so much from the material that Rhett prepares. Our students have been hosting in-person watch parties on the Northeast Church lawn. They put up a projector with speakers, wear masks, and watch together! I think that has been such a benefit for them to still have some sense of community even though we all can't gather in person. Our Deep Dive service is Friday nights at 7pm CST, at twitch.tv/utdfocus. All of the talks are recorded on there as well, so if you ever want to check it out, follow that link! 

Worship Night

A regular large-group service for us would include worship. However, we haven't been doing worship in those services since we stream online and restructured things. So, we decided to host worship nights once a month out on the lawn of Northeast Church. We require masks, and distance chairs to comply with the CDC regulations. We had our first one this month, and WOW! I did not realize how much I missed worshiping corporately with my brothers and sisters. We sang worship songs, did some prayer and reflection activities, and took communion together. It was much needed, and a great reminder that we are united as one body!

Pizza Theology

Twice a year, we bring all 11 of our ministries from different campuses together for a night of fellowship, discussing theological topics, and pizza! (Hence the name!) This semester, because of COVID, we can't come all together the way we normally do. So we streamed Pizza Theology this year, with the topic of "How to Think Like a  Christian in Society." With all of the things that have happened this year and the election coming up, we had staff from a couple different campuses share about topics such as the Black Lives Matter movement, voting, abortion, etc. It went great! It was so insightful to hear all of the material that they prepared, and left me with a lot of convicting thoughts and questions to reflect on. Those recorded streams are available at "twitch.tv/utdfocus" for any of you who would be interested in watching! 

Here's some more personal photos from the month :)

My little brother Kole started his football season. I love being his biggest fan!

This is my new pup, Moose!

Sweetest, sleepy boy :)

Max, Lindsey, and I experienced our first Trader Joe's Kringle. Pumpkin flavor... almost as sweet as these friends :)

Lastly, I'd like to pray for you! If you have anything going on that you'd like some prayer for, please comment on this post!

I appreciate all of you reading about my ministry, and for supporting me so I can help God with the kingdom work He has to do here.

Love y'all!