Ministry March Updates

 Hello friends! I am so excited to share some ministry updates with you! March felt like it flew by but it was so jammed packed with so many awesome things that it made it worth it.

Spring break was this month and Siena, one of our apprentices at SMU, organized a girls trip to Austin with some of our SMU student leaders. It was so so much fun and I got to watch even just over a few days, our girls bond with one another in such a deeper way. Probably the biggest trip highlight was baptizing Ruth, one of our SMU leaders in Barton Creek in Austin! For some context, she had been wanting to be baptized since her freshman year after a lot of prayer. However with COVID, it got put off for a while. While we were sitting on the bank of the river, we started talking about baptism and she goes, "What if I got baptized right now?" We prayed about it, and ultimately decided that just like in Acts 8 when the eunuch said to Phillip, “Look, here is water! What is there to prevent me from being baptized?", what was keeping us from baptizing Ruth? So we felt led in the Spirit to do just that! It was SUCH a beautiful testimony to the work God has done in Ruth's life and how He has also used her to be a light and proclaimer of the Good News in the life of so many on campus. We were all beaming and song worship songs all the way back home! There were so many more things that happed but I will leave it for the photos to summarize!

Us watching a crazy Thumil Indian drama and everyone's reactions!

So many other exciting things happened in March, but probably my second highlight was our Week of Student Outreach at SMU! Our goal during this week was to engage in spiritual conversations and make relational connections with students on campus, and God totally showed up in powerful ways! We started Monday with a three hour prayer session, where our students led prayer prompts and shared scriptures and pastoral thoughts on different needs of our campus to pray for. Then for the next three days, we did campus conversations from 11-1pm in various spots on campus. We put up boards that had different spiritual questions that students could come up, write an answer to on a notecard and if they had time and were open, talk about their answer with us. The questions ranged from "If you could ask God one question what would it be?" to "What happens when we die?" There were so many amazing conversations with students that were all over the map in their faith walks and people that were also pre-Christian as well. Then Friday we played volleyball on campus and invited students to join us! The fruit of this time has yet to be seen in a lot of ways, but I know that with the seeds we planted, God in His faithfulness will continue to water them in His own time! We also have had a few students come to small group and our Thursday worship nights from that time! Praise God! 

Lastly, it was so encouraging to see how our students really took this time seriously. From the prayer night Monday to the daily campus conversations, our students really stepped out of their comfort zone to engage and love their campus on a deeper level! How encouraging! 

There are so many other ways I have seen God move this month, but if I tried to write them all down you guys would be reading for hours! Thank you as always for your vision and excitement in campus ministry. It is through your investment that things like this can happen on campus! I pray that you all had a restful weekend with constant reminders of God's goodness! Happy early Easter!