April Update

I know that I say this every school year, but I cannot believe that this school year is wrapping up already.  We have already wrapped up our leader meetings, our students are having their last core meetings and we are getting ready for our end of year banquet.  Summer is almost here and we have some great things planned for the students that stay here.  I will wait until next month to tell you about that! With the year wrapping up, I have been thinking back on the school year and all of the things that God has done in and through our ministry.  It is so exciting to think about.  You need to know, that we could not have done it without your financial support and more importantly, your prayers.  God is answering our prayers to change lives at UTD.

With that said, I have a huge prayer request I want to put before you.  I think that I have already mentioned this but, we have selected 9 interns for next year who all have to raise their own support.  Each of them has started fundraising now so please be in prayer that they can raise the budget they need to do the internship.  Some of them have a smaller number of people to ask for support and really do need your prayers.  The FOCUS internship has become such an important part of what we do.  The internship teaches them leadership skills, biblical knowledge, and other ministry skills that will help them the rest of their lives.  We have more and more students who want to do this when they graduate.

I have been so proud of our interns this year.  Courtney preached her first sermon a couple of weeks ago on Friday night.  She did such a great job!  She posted a link to her sermon on her blog.  If you have a chance to listen to it, you should.  At the beginning of the year she was terrified to speak in front of FOCUS and now just 9 months later, she is preaching.  Katy Jordan also preached her first Friday night sermon the week after Courtney.  She did great too!  She challenged the community on unity and made some great points.

Our last Friday night FOCUS is this week.  We are going to have the students get up and share what God has done in their life this year.  I will try to take some videos of that and share them with you.  I can’t wait to hear what they will say.

Thank you again for everything!