April updates

Another month has come and gone, and we're almost finished with the school year! It's crazy to me how fast it's flown by. This month, I wanted to ask you to pray for some of the girls in my core. I won't share their names, but I would love it if you could take the time to pray for them individually.

The first girl has been a consistent figure in our core all year. She is super friendly and has made an effort to get a lot more involved in the broader FOCUS community this year. Unfortunately, she's really been struggling with depression and anxiety and at times, it's really hindered her ability to be involved. I'd love prayer that God just completely takes away that burden from her.

The second one is studying Focus on Jesus (our one-on-one Bible study) with me. She asks great questions and is amazingly teachable, and we're almost finished with the study! She has also been super faithful in coming to core, but is learning how to balance spending time with the community and spending time with her family. I'd love it if you could just pray that she keeps growing the way she has been and that God uses her to bless everyone around her.

The last girl I'd love you to pray for is actually pretty new to core. She has wanted to get involved in a campus ministry for a while, but only recently found us. She has not loved being at UTD, which is super understandable, because there isn't much social life. So, she's considering transferring next semester. If that's ultimately what God wants her to do, it would be great if you could pray for a Christian ministry for her at that new school. If he doesn't want her to transfer, I'd love it if God made her time at UTD more enjoyable and that she'd find (hopefully in our community) some wonderful, loving friendships.

Nathalie, Kyla, Ada and me: some of our core after a joint core hangout 
(all of the cores that met on Tuesday night got together for one big event.)

In addition to wrapping up core, we've also been pioneering a new outreach, and I'm super excited so I'd love it if you could pray for these people and the ones we reach out to the rest of the month. If you've ever heard of Humans of New York, we're doing Humans of UTD. Basically, we take a picture of people and ask them some deep questions and write down their story. Here are a few people we reached out to yesterday along with their stories.

"My biggest fear is being alone. As you get older I think your circle becomes smaller. All my friends are getting married and I have a fear of coming home alone to an empty house. So that's my biggest fear."

"I think I struggle with commitment, like with reading the Bible every day. I keep saying I'll do it another time or I'll start tomorrow. I have a friend that I talk to. We send each other scripture. I say 'God give me strength' and I keep saying it over and over."

"The thing is that I stutter. Its genetic and I can't get rid of it. There's not much I can do at the moment. When I'm stressed or nervous it gets completely worse. I'm fine now, I'm more talking about presentations. It affects me because sometimes I can't get my point across. Sometimes I try to start a conversation with girls and it just goes downhill. Sometimes I have to speak over the phone and people undermine me. They think I'm slow or special. I'm not afraid to talk to people because I have to try so much harder to attempt to be normal. The funny thing is one of my old professors told me 'You stutter but you keep going with the presentation and you show no fear. Other kids don't stutter but are terrified.'"

"I'm afraid that all the hard work I put in is not gonna get me anywhere. I'm biochem and I want to do pre-law. I'm not sure if I worked hard enough. I've always been interested in science and chemistry. I was that kid that wanted to read science books and learn learn about I could when I was seven. I always kept that interest so that's why I picked biochem. I'm really interested in bio-ethic law and I'm passionate enough to fight for the human rights in that area."

"I'm afraid of losing sight of myself. I help others before helping myself and it affects my personality and how I see life. I don't want to lose who I've always been but I don't know if I'm becoming someone better. I always used to think my plans were the best but now I'm holding back and listening to others. I'm in mechanical engineering and I used to be set on design plans and hanging out plans but now I'm a lot more accepting of what other people want. I think it changed when one time I went bike riding with a friend and he got injured so I started rethinking if my plans were the best."


After getting their stories, I'd usually ask if I could pray for them. It was a really neat experience and I'm so excited to do it again later this month. If you want to see the rest of the stories, check them out here! 

Finally, a quick promotion for our fundraiser this Saturday! Every year in May and June, we send a ton of students to Washington state to be trained as spiritual leaders. But of course, it costs money to get there. To help offset that cost, we are hosting Spring Showcase, an annual benefit concert that FOCUS organizes each year. This year the show is on April 6th at Bent Tree Fellowship Church in Carrollton. Performances are at 2:30 and 6:30. There’s an art sale between the shows at 5:30. If you want to buy tickets, they're $20 and can be found here. If you can't make it, but would like to contribute, that can be done here. Thank you so much! 


Thank you for your prayers and support! 

Comments

  1. Hey Abbie! Definitely saying a prayer for your girls. I love the Humans of UTD outreach idea. I think it's a neat way to get people engaged; after all, who doesn't want to talk about themselves? And of course it's a great opportunity to pray with people and start deep conversations. So cool! Keep it up!

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