Can't believe it's already April

Here is a pic from our last leader meeting and this is my peer team
doing show and tell of an object that reminds them of their cofa. 

I wanted to share a poem I wrote based on a reflection of Genesis 22:1-18. I would love it if you took some time to read both the passage and the poem! I pray that God uses it to speak to you.

Poem Based on Genesis 22:

What can we give the Lord?

What does He desire? All of us

God calls and we answer, "Here I am"

Rather than hide ours faces, we reveal ourselves

What can we give the Lord?

He provides the sacrifice, provides the lamb

God asks that we give up our son, our golden calves, our security, the things we desire

There is nothing he wouldn’t ask

What can we give the Lord?

What can we give that He didn’t give up already?

Because of obedience, the nations will be blessed

God shows up

He provides His son

His son is broken, bloody, and bruised

What can we give the Lord?

Everything is so small in comparison to His gift

March has gone by so fast! For a lot of our students, we only have a couple weeks left of school. I feel much more mentally aware of things this semester, so it feels like I haven’t had a lot of time with my students. I am beginning to be a bit sad about the end of the year. God has done so much in my life and the lives of the girls I meet with, he has taught them about themselves and how they interact with others. God has reminded them of what is true about them and affirmed their work in ministry.

Spending time in prayer, despite the business of this season. 

We rescued some kittens during one of my 1:1s

I am looking forward to what this new year brings. With covid vaccines on the rise, it looks like we will be going back to more normal in the fall. I am excited for the life that is going to come from that. I have noticed that people really are longing for community and belonging and I believe that is something that we can offer them this next year.

Shayla and I read the book Loveology with our peer teams and
this is from one of the nights we were discussing it!

We have started to have conversations about our leaders for next year and it has filled me with excitement about this upcoming year. I am really excited to send our student leaders to SICM(Student Institute of Campus Ministry) this year. Because of covid, we weren’t able to send our students to Bellingham for the conference. We are hosting our own SICM in South Texas at a place called Camp Eagle. We will be having classes on Evangelism, discipleship, small groups, real-life mentoring, and spiritual friendship. It is going to be so sweet to be reunited with the body again! Be praying about this!

Our future apprentice Becca and I praying over NCTC!
We are trying to start a new campus at the NCTC downtown location next year

We did a couple neat things in March that I want to share with yall! We met together as a large leader team and talked about friendship and community building. We also did a panel on social justice in response to a couple of comments we have been getting from the sermon series we finished about a month ago. We brought in some sociologists from our community, some pastors, and a social worker. It was neat to see our students try and process through things as Christians and not just be easily swayed by the culture. If you are interested in hearing that, let me know and I can send you the rough recording(it was pretty windy).

Praying for you and yours this season. I hope spring brings life, love, and joy!