Filled Up to Pour Out

 SPRING IS HERE!!

     With that in mind, I'd love to encourage you guys to go check out one of my favorite worship songs- Springtime by Chris Renzema. Give it a listen! It points me towards God in the small things like sunshine and flowers during this time of year.

    I've been sharing a lot in my blogs about the growth that is happening internally in our ministry- how the girls in my core are growing, learning, and maturing- but it's been really powerful watching the external effects that come along with that.

    About a week or 2 ago we had an entire week devoted to outreach at UTA. It’s so easy to get tunnel vision mid-year and forget that there’s still people all around our campus that God wants to meet and bring into his kingdom. Maybe it’s easy to feel like that in your workplace or school too. For that reason, I’m so glad one of our pastors at UTA, Emily, proposed that we spend a week focused on reaching new people.

     We had a display propped up by the dining hall with the question, “What do you think God is like and why?” People passed by and some had no interest whatsoever, but some were willing to stop for a conversation! Sometimes it seems like not much comes from something like this, but I don’t doubt that God used multiple conversations by these boards to plant seeds. Some people we’ve even gotten to invite into our cores and fellowship times too! Beyond reaching new students, it was a neat opportunity for our current students to practice evangelism and boldly make new friends. I was so thrilled to watch some of my girls step out of their comfort zones and engage in conversations with people they didn't know. Often, it was weird and awkward, but I don’t think God needs people with expert social skills or eloquent words to do something significant.  

     During our core time on Tuesday night that week, instead of having our usual discussion/worship, we went on campus and invited new people who passed by to play games with us like volleyball, Uno, and corn hole. 4 girls came by and played volleyball with us for a while. Their names were Laura, Janae, Allie, and Aubrey. They all expressed difficulty making friends this year and were so shocked to see something happening on campus. I was able to get their numbers to stay in contact- please pray for the spirit to place desire in their hearts for God and/or for community! Another guy named Scott came too. Scott doesn’t believe in God, but he seemed to enjoy his time spent with us that night (and again on Wednesday night when he hung out with another core while they were eating on campus). Please pray for him also!

    Pouring out was good and fruitful work, but I’m so thankful we had the chance to fill up before hand. My core took a weekend trip to Stillwater, Oklahoma! It was such a fun time and I genuinely believe God used it to deepen relationships in our core so that the girls have more freedom to be vulnerable with one another and experience community to a fuller extent. 

Prayer:

• For your own outreach- ask God to put someone or a group of people on your heart/mind in your office or break room, your neighborhood, or wherever else you find yourself often, to reach out to; invite someone new into your life that you can reflect God’s love to
• For the people we met at outreach this past week
• For our last month with students to be impactful!