Great is Your Faithfulness

Hi! February was a CRAZY month for me. It was full of busy weekends, an overload of classwork, big decisions, and just regular ministry! I needed many reminders that though I can feel overwhelmed, God can still use me for His purposes. His word always remains the same.

We had a couple of ministry wide things going on this month and first one and the first one was Pizza Theo! This is one of my favorite events, though I must admit it is not a highlight for many others because it is a is a LOT of learning. We have a 2 hour teaching time followed by pizza and 2 more hours of teaching. It can be kind of tiring, but is a great way to practice loving God with all of our minds! This year we learned about How To Think Like A Christian. It was really interesting!

I also had the opportunity to teach a class on the book of Daniel to our Denton leader team during our monthly meeting. It was really cool to read commentaries and learn in such depth about the book, and I loved getting to teach everyone too! I am learning that writing and speaking are some of my favorite parts of ministry and it was a great opportunity to exercise that part of my brain.

Finally, we have been working on SICM invites all semester! SICM stands for Student Institute of Campus Ministry and it is a college ministry leadership conference in Washington that we send most of our upcoming leaders to in the summer. I got to go several years ago and many of you helped me get there! I am so excited to be able to send 7 of the girls in my core this year. SICM invites are so fun because I get to encourage each one in how I see them being future leaders in our community. If you feel led to sponsor a trip for one of them, please reach out to me!

One of the girls that I got to invite is named Hailey. She is a freshman at UNT and wants to be an elementary school teacher after college. For a lot of this semester Hailey had been considering transferring to HSU to be closer to her younger sisters and boyfriend, and to student teach in a district she was familiar with. She and I got to talk about this decision and I asked her to think about staying at UNT to continue investing in the community that we are a part of, and to think about being a leader next year. I got to share with Hailey that she is compassionate, loving, and so bold which are only a few of the reasons I want her to stay. Now she has decided to commit to living in Denton! Would you be praying for Hailey to feel at home here as she further develops her friendships and to keep growing in her bravery and bold communication?

As I mentioned above, my classes have been difficult this semester. We have 8-10 hours of reading and listening to lectures each week that is challenging (in a good way). I have loved our Eschatology class because it stretches me to think in ways I never have before. For example, we did an exercise where we had to list all of the things in the Bible before Revelation that might affect how we read Revelation, and then take those things and look for how worship music expresses them. It turns out so much of our music is eschatological and I would never have even noticed.

Diversity has been the other class that is challenging for me. Growing up in Bandera where many of the people I was around were similar to me means that I don’t have much experience learning about other cultures. So, I got to write several letters to students that might be in the same place as I am, encouraging them to invest in friendships with people from other backgrounds. After all, the ground is level at the feet of Jesus, and the differences he gave us just make the body of Christ more whole.

My prayer this month has been that my heart would learn to trust the promises God made to his people. He is consistent and unwavering and I can lean on Him when it feels like I am in survival mode. I had 2 weddings, 1 bachelorette, church retreat, my sister in town for a weekend, and I have been thinking through what next year looks like for me. I am excited to share that I will be staying on staff full time with FOCUS! This has been something I felt God asking me to do since May of 2023 and it is relieving to make that commitment knowing that I can trust His plan for me.

I will be reaching out to each if you over the next few months to talk about how you can continue partnering with me in this, but if you have questions or want to talk sooner please contact me!

I couldn’t be where I am without each one of you, so thank you!

Love, Hannah