April 2025 Ministry Update

 

Arianna’s April Ministry Update Racing to the Finish Line! Hello friends! Thank YOU for reading this update! The month of April is over and I can’t wait to update you all on what has been happening this month! There is less than two weeks left of the spring semester, so April has been full of celebrations, wrapping up the year, and spending time with students before they leave to go home/ start internships/ graduate and move on. It has been so sweet spending time with all the students in my ministry. Intramural soccer games started this month, and our students have a co-ed team, so I try to make every game. It’s so sweet to see students come and support the team and make them feel loved. Even in something as little as an intramural soccer game, you can tell that our students are doing their best to represent Jesus and love others the way that He does. This month William (my pastoral supervisor, Peter and his wife Emily’s son) turned one! It was so special to celebrate William and his parents, and really made me appreciate the uniqueness of working with people who love me and love Jesus so much. When your coworkers are also your brothers and sisters in Christ, you get to do fun things like be a part of their son’s life! My core got the chance to go to Feed My Starving Children in Richardson and help package meals that will be distributed across the globe to children in need. It was humbling to reflect on all the blessings that God has given us living in North Texas, and an honor to package meals and get to be generous and serve people in a small way. Easter was also this month! What a great reminder of the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross for us. To celebrate Easter, UTD FOCUS puts on a event called “Rez Fair” where we invite other campus ministries and churches in the area to celebrate the resurrection with us. This event was held in the middle of campus and hundreds of students walking by got to hear the gospel, be prayed over, and be invited to church! I got to have lots of conversations with international students who don’t really know who Jesus is, and with students who are curious about Jesus, but hesitant to actually visit a church building. It’s days like this that I am reminded of the calling of campus missionaries- to bring the gospel to the campus, where students are hungry and seeking. This month I also had the privilege of preaching twice! We were in a series titles “False Gospels” which were addressing the false gospels that we have replaced the actual gospel with. Each of the sermons in this series addressed a different false gospel, and I preached on the false gospel of the good life and the false gospel of self care. It was really impactful for me to think through the ways that these false gospels have infiltrated my own thinking and to recenter myself of Jesus Christ alone. If you’d like to listen to either, I linked them below! The Good Life Sermon (Spotify) The Good Life Sermon (Apple)

It’s been a sweet month! We also got to celebrate Renae (the student I lead core with) for her birthday, as well as attend a choir concert that a lot of students were in. I’m feeling filled up but also tired from the pace of this semester, but I couldn’t wish for it any other way. Thank you so much for your continued financial support and your prayers for me and these students. I love you all dearly! Love, Arianna