Photo: (Top) The weekend before Thanksgiving, 40 students and BSM staff filled our house for a Friendsgiving meal; (Left Bottom) Students prayed through serving on summer mission opportunities at our annual Missions Emphasis night; (Right bottom) International students attended a baby shower some friends hosted for us.
November was filled with some very sweet moments for us. For many years, we have dreamed of having a home big enough to host students and now we get to do that! The weekend before Thanksgiving, our staff and student leaders cooked up a lovely Thanksgiving dinner and invited the students we have been reaching out to this semester. We had 40 of us at the dinner, with 8 new students who hadn't come to any BSM gatherings to that point!
Also, we revealed the Spring break, May and Summer mission projects to students through an annual night of worship and prayer for Missions. It's always fun to get to challenge students to think big/dream big about joining God on mission not only on a daily basis on campus but also during the breaks from their classes.
To top it all off, some sweet Dallas friends threw us a baby shower this month, helping us prepare for Baby Warrington. Family came from West Texas to celebrate with us and we got to invite many of the international student ladies to the party. It was a sweet time where many of the international students got to meet our friends who love Jesus and see them pray for us and Baby Girl! I pray this is a step in them drawing near to Jesus.
Watch your mailbox in the next couple of weeks as we'll have our larger semester newsletter coming your way! We just want you to get a bigger picture of the ministry you have made possible at UTD and Collin College this semester!
Blessings to you!
- Mark and Kaitlin
Prayer Requests
- We hosted our student outreach on Saturday. We took international students to First Baptist Richardson's Christmas pageant and then went back to our house for Christmas cookies, games and a discussion about Christmas. Please pray that the international students will contemplate what they experienced and that their eyes will be opened to the truth of Christ.
- Students are in the midst of exams from now until Dec. 18. Please pray that they will rely on the Lord during this stressful time. And pray for the metal health of students too.
- God has laid on our hearts to make some big shifts in programing next Spring to be more evangelism focused. We will be meeting as a staff team next week and in early January to put the changes in place. Please pray for wisdom and intentionality as we do this. (More info to come on these exciting changes!).
We pray for you, our ministry partners, too, so feel free to email us your specific prayer requests!