Christmas Cheer and New Year News!

Hello friends and family! I hope that all of you had a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year celebrating with people you love! I am so thankful for each one of you and value each of you so so much! 

This past month has mainly consisted of wrapping up the fall semester, resting and preparing for the spring semester. 

We wrapped up the semester at SMU with our Christmas Party and our Late Night Study Session. Our Christmas Party was so special and so much fun. We shared dinner together, exchanged white elephant gifts, played games and decorated Christmas cookies together. I think what was most special  about this time was that it felt like a big family together. Just like any family, there are some quirks, but there is also so much love and laughter and people that are genuinely known by others. Praise God for building this sort of community at SMU! I think this looks a lot like the kingdom of God. 

At our late night study session, we got to open up the Canterbury chapel for students to study late during finals week. Of course there was the occasional study break with a game of Catan or just chatting with a friend. This event is always exciting to me because it is a great outreach event and an opportunity for our students to invite their classmates that wouldn’t otherwise come to a Christian event. Check out some pictures below!





Over the break, I have been able to spend a lot of time slowing down and reflecting on the semester with God. One of the things that God has been showing me is how God is faithful to work in people’s lives, regardless of how well I feel like I perform or measure up. I think so often I forget that God is the one who grows and I am just called to be faithful, not to be perfect. This is good news for all of us and I hope an encouragement to you. You don’t have to be perfect for God to use you and He often works most powerfully in our weaknesses.

In looking to next semester one of the things I know God is calling me into is a deeper intimacy in prayer. As a pastor, I can often believe the lie that my number one priority is to “do more things.” But when I think this, my priorities are confused. My first priority is to go to God in prayer and lift up all that I have to do in ministry first to God. I would invite you to join me this year in a deepening intimacy in prayer!

Another specific prayer request is that God would raise up leaders on our campus. I know that on my own, I will be pretty bad at picking leaders. But God can see people's hearts better than I can and He is who I want calling our leaders at SMU and TWU Dallas. Pray that we would have discernment and wisdom and that God would be working in student's hearts to respond to the call to be student leaders!



As January starts, we are getting ready to start a new semester! Some exciting things we have coming up are Winter Camp and Spring Showcase! Winter Camp is the January 17th-20th and is so important for building friendships among our students and for students to gain a bigger vision of the power of campus ministry. We also have Spring Showcase coming up on February 29th! Mark your calendars and please consider coming! All the proceeds from this show go towards sending our future student leaders to a week long training in Washington over the summer called SICM! More details to come, but stay tuned and get excited!

Thank you all again for your generous support. Knowing that I have a team behind me that is passionate about campus ministry and about what God is doing on our campuses encourages me so much when things get hard! I love you guys and am grateful for all of you!

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