Hello again, my friends!
Fall Camp!
I bring more good news. The second month of ministry at UTD was just as successful as the first! Thank you so much for your prayers as we prepared for Fall Camp. In the end, we had 125 students make the drive out to Mount Lebanon on a Saturday, which they could have spent any number of different ways! Instead, they all decided to invest their time to deepen their faiths, play games, share meals, and listen to student-testimonies/stories from their brothers and sisters in Christ. We also had several students come who don't consider themselves Christians and they expressed having an awesome time making friends and breaking down some misconceptions they had about how much Christians can love them and one another.
Here are 4 of the guys from my weekly small group who came to Fall Camp! From left to right, we have Jared, Nhala, Solomon, and Sion. This is Solomon's first year in college and while he was reluctant to come to Fall camp at first, he said that he seriously had such a great time and was grateful that he made it happen.
Apprenticeship Classes!
The classes the apprentices have been taking together has also been so meaningful! One of my favorite things I've learned is how different aspects of Yahweh's character are revealed throughout the overarching narrative of scripture. Three that stand out are God as being one who Creates, Redeems, and makes Covenants. I've heard these things before in passing, but seeing how much repetition there is and how centralized these themes are in both the Old and New Testaments together has been eye-opening to me and the other apprentices!
Here we have about half of the apprentices! We met up to do some of our assigned Old Testament reading together aloud. Moments after this pic, Cole (bottom) and Becca (bottom-right) read what's referred to as the "Song of Moses" recorded in Deuteronomy, by actually singing it together on the fly. They did this to add more life to the text and further immerse us into it. Please ask me for the recording I took of it. I think it's hilarious.
1-on-1 Bible Study!
Remember Solomon from earlier? I invited him to study the bible with me 1-on-1 and he said yes! We're doing a 10-week study put together by several of the pastors in Focus, and we call it "Focus on Jesus" (FOJ). We just started and we've both loved it! Solomon grew up in a Christian home and so has been exposed to Jesus all his life. What he hopes to get out of our study is to have a better understanding for himself of what the Bible actually says and means. And after a few weeks, he's already had his mind blown several times, and we're only in Genesis!
Without your support, Solomon and many others may have never had the opportunity to study the bible 1-on-1 with a friend, or even had a loving community to grow in. I thank you, and I thank Jesus.
We've already become good friends, and I'm so excited to see where our friendship leads this year.
What a genuinely beautiful thing it is to delight in the Word of the Lord together. I'll leave you with the intro to this Psalm.
Psalm 1 (v. 1-3) (NIV)
Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
but whose delight is in the law of the LORD,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by steams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither --
whatever they do prospers.
Your brother,
Taylor
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