Fall Semester Beginning!

Hello friends and supporters! It feels like it was just yesterday that I was updating you on student leader selection and the coming of the school year. This time of year moves so fast in campus ministry!

Student leaders:
For those of you that are new to my blog, "corefa" stands for core facilitator and refers to our student leaders who study the Bible with other students and lead the small groups (core groups) that are so pivotal to our community. We have selected our corefas for the year and paired them up with a peer to lead their core with. It's an exciting time for us as we have 2 cores that will be at the Preston Ridge Campus, 8 at the Spring Creek Campus, and the Central Park Campus will have 1 core (our very first foray into this campus!) We love the student leaders we picked and as a staff we're looking forward to spending a lot of time with them. We'll get weekly one-on-one time with them discipling and training them in serving their peers. We have 22 student leaders at Collin this year and we'd love for you to be in prayer for them!

Back to school:
This Saturday we have our Corefa Prep Day. With the group mentioned above we'll spend the whole day together Saturday getting them ready for the school year. We introduce them to key aspects of doing campus ministry, and as they get excited about reaching the campus they also get to know one another and build the team dynamic. We'll have a few more training kind of days but this one is aimed at the all-important Welcome Week.

Welcome Week:
Campus ministers know the most important week of the year for a campus ministry is the first week of school. What we do and don't do that week will have lasting consequences on the whole year and years to come. Our Welcome Week is from August 28th to September 1st this year. We have events planned at all the campuses for every day of the week that are aimed at drawing new students in. Our staff runs the events so that we can give our existing students a chance to reach out to and befriend their peers. It's such an exciting week as we see a ton of new faces and people being invited into loving community and authentic friendships. I'd ask that you also be praying for this week and our students!

Jack:
As Welcome Week draws closer, so does the arrival of our newest family member, Jack. His due date is October 17th and we feel such a diversity of emotions, mostly excitement. As he is our first, we have very little idea what to expect. We simply know it will be will be a great joy and a great challenge. We ask that you be praying for us as we discover what ministry with a child can and should look like and we also welcome any advice you have to offer! I look forward to seeing my students love up on Jack and if I'm sure of anything I'm sure he won't lack many older brothers and sisters in the faith.


 I know I say it often, but I hope you don't think it's rote repetition on my part. I feel extremely blessed to be supported by you all; I'm greatly encouraged by your generosity and partnership with us on the campus. Your prayer, help, and financial support are pivotal to reaching the Collin College campus. I'm so grateful for you and pray for you often! Thank you!

In Christ,
Garrett