Vine vs Charger + School’s Out for SUMMER!!! (May Update)

 Heyo!! 

School is officially over for our students! They now have a break until about mid August. I try to encourage my students to take advantage of the slower rhythms of Summer to reflect and rest.

It got me thinking about how as an adult, we don’t get “Summer break”… our rest is limited to PTO/vacation ;) Then it got me thinking about if I take time to rest and reflect when I DO have slower seasons… and the answer is typically NO! I fall into the trap of constant busyness and my to-do list getting longer and longer. I convince myself I will dive deeper into the Word when I’m less busy… Like THAT’S gonna happen! I would encourage you in the midst of the busiest seasons to find time to rest with God. Carve out time to get to know Him through His Word, His Creation, and His people who fill you up. 

There are a lot of things that are restful and that God gives us to enjoy rest… but none will fill us up like direct time with Him!! One of the images God gave me was that of a phone charger. In John 15, He uses imagery of being connected to the vine for sustenance. “Apart from me, you can do nothing.” I often treat God like a charger rather than a vine. If you separate from the vine, you can’t connect again… it’s severed, and starts to die since it’s not connected to it’s source. But thinking of God like a charger is what I tend towards… I can wait til I’m at 1% before I go to fill up to 100% again, and can just keep doing that, relying on my own energy and strength, until I really need Him. I want to be connected and remain through every season of life, and realize my constant need for Him ALWAYS! So read John 15 if you need some encouragement, and do what you can do cultivate the kind of relationship with Him that resembles a vine, not a charger.

My Peer Team :)

I got to spend the year investing weekly time into 6 pairs of Core leaders! They filled my week with so much joy. These are all student volunteers ranging from Sophomore-Senior who dedicate 10-12 hours a week to leading Core, studying the Bible with their core members, and show the love of Jesus to their classmates. Pretty much all of my girls were Seniors this year. It’s bittersweet to send them out of our ministry, but I know they’re gonna do GREAT things for the Kingdom!!

Top Row L to R: Elaine, Rachel, Perri
Middle Row L to R: Olivia, Lailah, me, Zaili, Michelle
Bottom Row L to R: Nicole, Cathryn, Gracie, Kim, Ally
I LOVE THEM

Silly pic :)

EOY PARTY

Every year at the end of the semester we have an End of Year party for our students! We have each core (aka, our small groups) make a Core poster that includes every member of their core. They LOVE it and get so invested and creative! We also print “yearbooks” for them that have pictures from the school year and space for other people to sign them. They love participating in this as well :) We have a small service with a few songs, and then we honor all the teams of people who help us to have a successful year… Corefas (small group leaders), Worship team, AV team, Friday Night Fellowship team, etc. This year’s theme was a beach party, and it was so fun!!

The “yay” is spelled with pool noodles for our Summer theme… THE CREATIVITY!!!

We had about 140 people come to the party! Here’s a pic during the service

My friend, Paul!

SICM

I’m SO excited to talk about SICM. SICM stands for Student Institute of Campus Ministry. It’s a leadership conference in Bellingham, WA that we take a group of students to every year. We have a sister ministry called CCF (Associated with Chi Alpha) that runs the conference, and members of their church offer to host our students! I got to go this year and it was amazing. Developing relationships with the girls from UTD who were invited was so special, and seeing their hearts for God and the purpose of campus ministry grow over the week is so encouraging. It’s a 10 day trip (arrive Wednesday night, 2 full days exploring Seattle, 1 day getting to/exploring Bellingham, and then 6 days of conference before leaving on Saturday!) that proves so crucial to our school year. A lot of the students who go end up being Core leaders, so they take the knowledge and excitement from SICM into the following school year. Not to mention we had BEAUTIFUL weather (Sunny and 75 every day!).

One of my students Kaitlyn relaxing in the hammock at our host house! 

Pike Place!

One of my students/friends, Hannah :)

Kole got to go on this trip with Collin College which was so special!

Some of our UTD guys at Whatcom Falls!

Rhett and I looking exasperated as we found out we missed our connecting flight home :-)

Support Raising!

I spend a bulk of my time in the Summer building my team of ministry partners!! I am so blessed to have you all be part of the vision FOCUS has at UT Dallas for EVERY student to know and have a relationship with Jesus! I am so, so thankful for you and your heart for college students as well. If you know anyone that it would excite them to be part of this vision through partnering with me financially or through prayer and receiving these blogs, please let me know! I’m always excited to talk about what God is doing and invite people into that if they are passionate about it too :) 

Let me know if you have any prayer requests!! 

Love,

Kylie Sanchez <3