October update!

                 Hi friends and family! I hope you are all well and having a great Halloween season! 

The more established we get into the school year, the more I get excited about what God is doing on campus! We get to experience closer relationships to one another, and see more of our students choose to be more consistent within our community. We also get to see our students committing to follow God in deeper ways than they have previously in their life which is a huge gift to see, and is a huge thanks to you and your support towards me in this ministry!

Halloween fun with our core!

      After small group a few weeks ago, Murphie who I lead with this year (on the very back left in the dark grey), and I took a trip to the Denton square, which is our downtown where they have different decorations displayed around the town to check out for Halloween! It's always so much fun getting to have fellowship with our girls, and get the chance to know them more outside of our regular small group time!
                                                    

                                                                      Hispanic Heritage night!                                                                                                

               One of the most exciting things to me that happened this month was that some of the students in our ministry put on a night of worship for Hispanic Heritage month! The most exciting thing about this was that it was the first ever event that our Denton ministry has done for people of hispanic background specifically. I've mentioned previously that there has been a shift that I've seen in growing in diversity. This is a huge way that I see God moving in our ministry, so this night was super meaningful for me and I'm sure much more for those who share this background. Throughout the night, they had different students come up to share about what the next song we would sing meant to them growing up in their various church background. They also included photos of them as a child in their sharing which was such a sweet and personal way to feel connected to the songs by knowing what it meant for them and how they viewed God growing up. After the worship night, they had people over at one of the ministry houses for different hispanic snacks like elote and horchata as well as dancing!                                                                                                                                                                               

                                                                       Fall Retreat 2024!

                           

Fall retreat is something we do every year where we have just a 24 hour period for students to getaway from the business of their semester, to get spiritually and socially refreshed! This was the biggest group of students that our ministry has ever had which was a huge blessing to see how God is working in big ways across the campuses of Denton, and the eagerness of God's people to know him more. This year's takeaway theme was moving our community from Me to We. The idea here is that we would have our students think more deeply on different areas of their life that they can start to grow in becoming others-minded and not solely focused on themselves and their own lives. Rather, to have a perspective shift onto things that God is concerned with, which is often a focus on making disciples which can only happen if we are challenging ourselves to seek other people around us, and not just the agendas of our own life. We had Ronnie who was the one that started FOCUS come share with our students which is always a blessing for them to hear from someone who has done ministry for 50 years to come and encourage them. We also had student sharing where we ask three different students in our ministry interview-style questions which gave our students a chance to relate to people in their same stage of life, and how they have devoted themselves to God and community.                  

This year and last year we tried something new called the "Camp Cup" which is where we pair up a guy and girl small group to meet up the week before retreat to have a combined small group to get to know one another, and to get our team materials together! Our combined core was a lot of fun getting to play games together, and answer different faith questions. I loved getting to see our core girls interact with new people and start feeling more connected within our ministry as they got to know more people! Within our small group this year, and within studying the bible with several of the girls in my small group, I've sensed an eagerness to really grow and know God more deeply which really excites me about the possible leaders our girls might become in our ministry next year or in the next few years, or even later down the road as they really start prioritizing their life after God!

                                                             UNT & TWU Corefa hangout!

                 Over the weekend, One of the leaders in our ministry Diana (in black in the very front) hosted a ice cream bar hangout with the girl leaders of our ministry! Since we have almost a 60 person leader team, we don't always get a chance to know people on a personal level. So putting on this event was a really thoughtful way to bridge the gap of helping people to feel more connected to one another. It wasn't just a hangout either, Diana was super intentional with how the night went. It was a speed-friending activity where on one side was the TWU leaders and on the other side was the UNT leaders so that the girls from different campuses could interact with people they don't see as much. Diana wrote out intentional and personal questions to go over with the person you were with during the activity. It was so nice to have such sweet conversations with people I don't always get a lot of time to talk with. At the end of the night, we drew from a cup, the name of someone we were supposed to hangout with sometime in the next few weeks, and you also had to share something you learned from the person that you drew. All of these things were such an intentional way to get know people that you're doing ministry life with more, and went above and beyond just a typical hangout which I really appreciated the thought behind it.

                                                                 Community Snapshots!

Something I wanted to highlight is something new we started announcing every week at our large group gatherings. They're called Community Snapshots and its where I have students text me whatever hangouts they do with other people outside of our regular ministry affiliated events. This has been such an encouragement to me, and makes me smile when I get a text from a student excited to share something they did with other people in ministry. Some things they've sent me are: celebrating birthdays, supporting people at sports games, game nights etc. I wanted to share a few events that have really stood out to me that will hopefully encourage you. One of our students hosts consistent times where he goes to the denton square to outreach and share his faith with random people, and he invites other people who have never learned to evangelize before to come be bold, and start learning how to have those conversations. This to me is huge because as much as I love the fun side about our ministry, these types of things are a direct impact for God's kingdom. This is a pic of a good amount of students that came to learn to evangelize, many of them it was their first time!

        Another event that has stood out to me is a group of our students wanted to start learning how to cook, so they got together and all learned how to make Pad Thai, and then went around to our different ministry houses and shared the food with them. This looks so much like the hospitality and family-like community that God calls us to which I think is so beautiful! Another event that was not pictured was one of our girl ministry houses recently made dinner to thank those who helped them move into their home at the beginning of the year, and I just think this is such a great way to live out a way to bless others who have blessed you. I hope these things are encouraging to you as you're able to see the way that God is working through these students. I also hope it encourages you to personally think of ways that you can  bless others in your own life that maybe you have not yet considered!

Student testimony!

Thank you so much for your continued support towards my ministry! I am so thankful for generous people of faith like you!

Blessings and peace,

Keanna