Hello! Welcome to April!
April is always a bittersweet month. It’s the last, normal month of the school year for our ministry since finals start at the beginning of May, and the students are out for summer by the middle of May! We always have a lot of fun things that go on to wrap up the end of the year.
One of my goals for the girls in my peer team this year was to really “abide” in God. To remain in Him. It’s one of the things I struggle with most when I’m living mundane, ordinary life. It’s easy to remember and remain in God when I’m going through something really hard, because then I become aware of my need for Him. I don’t have control, things aren’t going my way, and I NEED His help.
But what about when life if going good? When there are things going on but it feels like I can still maintain control? Typically I start to “coast” and honestly forget to remember God. There is some shame in admitting it, but it’s true! Growing up a pastor’s kid, life was great. I had (and still have) an amazing relationship with my family. There weren’t a lot of times that life felt unstable. So I was learning about Jesus but didn’t necessarily feel like I “needed” him, or at least I wasn’t aware of that need since life was pretty smooth. In college, I experienced a lot of independence and change. I had to make my faith my own separate from my parents, and really get to know Jesus. One of the things that I took away from that was that even when life was going really good with no snags, I still desperately needed Jesus.
All of that to say, it’s still something that I need to practice and remember. My goal for the small group leaders I met with this past year was for them to “abide” in Jesus, every moment of every day. Doing ministry and reading scripture and talking to people about Jesus is great and part of establishing a personal relationship with him, but it still isn’t going to HIM for life.
John 5:39-40 says, “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, get you refuse to come to me to have life.”
We see here that it’s possible to know God through reading scripture and still not actually know/experience Him. All year I encouraged my girls to not get so lost in the tasks of ministry that they lost sight of God. I would encourage you to think about that for your own life. Have you fallen into a rhythm in your scheduled quiet times or prayer times that has led you to neglect actually going to Jesus Himself for life? What does “abiding” in Him look like for you? What could a personal, rich relationship with Jesus look like in your every day life?
Just go and sit at His feet, and be with Him! I promise you won’t be disappointed.
I will finish this section off with the theme Scripture my girls and I would read to re-center on the importance of abiding in Him.
John 15:1-8: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”
Let’s jump into April!
Parking Lot Graduation
Every year since COVID we host an event called, “parking lot graduation”. We pick a parking lot on campus and invite our graduating Seniors to come walk! UTD limits graduates to about 5 people for the official ceremony, which can leave out a lot of important people. We figured this was a neat way for our seniors to be able to have our whole community there cheering them on and supporting them, and also invite anyone they want to be there! They go one by one and we announce their name and major, and essentially make a path for them on either side. These people go CRAZY! It was especially special this year cause my sister Jordy is graduating from UTD and got to participate! I love this event!!
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| My roomie Meg walking at parking lot grad! |
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| My grad sissy! |
We also had our last corefa leader meeting of the year! As a refresher, “corefas” are our small group leaders (small groups = core; corefa= core facilitator). I had 11 corefas in my peer team this year that I met with consistently. I love these girls and absolutely loved spending time with them all year!
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| My girls!! Top row L to R: Sarah, Meg, Rachel. Middle row L to R: Perri, Alex, Sarah W. Front row L to R: Jessica, Angela, me, Hannah, Erin. We were missing Elaine! :( |
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Our whole, silly leader team of students for the year! + Staff
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Our UTD team this year! Top row L to R: Sarah, Lindsey, me, Angela, Lailah, Andrea, Amy.
Bottom Row L to R: Michelle, Taylor, Cort, Brandon, Rhett, Peter, Mandy |
That was all the cool stuff that happened in April! See y’all next time for the last update for the 21-22 school year!
-Kylie Sanchez
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