Fall Retreat! (September Update)

Our ministry at Fall Retreat!

Hello! I hope you’ve had a great month! 

All is going pretty well over here at UTD!

We’ve been settling in to our schedules post Welcome Week craziness. I am leading a Core (small group) this year for the first time since my internship with FOCUS 3 years ago! I led Core for 3 years as a student, my Sophomore, Junior, and Senior year. We call them “cores” because we believe these small groups are the core of our ministry. So much meaningful ministry and deep friendship can happen in a smaller setting, and that’s what we aim for with our cores! You might remember from my last post, but we call these small group leaders “Corefas” because they facilitate the discussion and connection within the cores. So this year, I am a Corefa! It has been an adjustment since I haven’t done it in a while. However, I am really enjoying it so far. We have had an average of 8 girls the last three cores we have had, and they are all so sweet and friendly! I will be studying the Bible with a couple of them which I’m so excited for. 

This past weekend we had our FALL RETREAT!

Every year, we do a 24 hour retreat from Saturday at noon to Sunday at noon. We go to a retreat center about 45 minutes from campus and stay overnight. We had about 130 students this year!

On Saturday, we start with student testimonies, where students are prompted to share decisions they’ve made to have a richer, more meaningful relationship with God. These are always very meaningful, and we hope that they encourage the students to hear from their own peers in the same season of life as them! We then do walk-and-talks, pairing up people from the same core to walk around for 30 minutes and answer what from the testimonies was impactful to them and how their camp is going so far. We then have a few hours of free time! There are outdoor games, as well as board games and wood/ornament painting and bracelet making. Mandy made us dinner this year which was meatball subs, chips, and salad… it was delicious! Our evening session is a time of worship and communion with one another. We end off the night with a dance party! 

Sunday morning we wake up, have breakfast, and do one more session of worship and another round of student testimonies. The Sunday morning prompt for the students sharing is for them to reflect on decisions they’ve made to have richer, more meaningful relationships with friends in community. We do one more walk and talk after that and head home! 

It’s a quick period of time, but so much community building happens. We always tell them going into it that 24 hours seems fast and like not a lot of time, but it’s more hours spent together than them going to core for the whole semester combined! So it really is a great time to form those deeper connections.

Here are some videos to capture some of what it’s like!

                                                        Footloose line dance! A Texas favorite

Kickball during free time!

Gaga ball during free time!

Dinner! Featuring me at the end :)

Worship from our evening session!

Worship pt 2

Sunday morning worship!

We’ve been doing a sermon series called, “Listening Carefully to Jesus” at our Friday Night Fellowship every week that’s been really impactful. We are continuing to meet students who are in desperate need of Jesus and His words, for life, hope, peace, comfort, etc! Please continue to pray that we would keep reaching our campus for His Kingdom.

Thank you so much for all of your support!

Much love!

Kylie Sanchez