Oh, what a sweet month!

Hey y'all! Oh, what a sweet month of ministry it has been! It has been full of sweet surprises in seeing how God is working! But first I would like to thank you guys for supporting me and what God is doing at Collin! 

 We had a Latin X outreach event this month to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month! This was really sweet getting to students who are also Hispanic light up whenever they saw our event! We taught dances such as cumbia and bachata. We also had Hispanic candies! Getting to go the cultural events as a student was always so special to me! It made me feel even more seen and I loved getting to hang out with people in sharing my culture! Some of the students we met came and checked out our other FOCUS events!

This is a picture of us practicing cumbia at the Latin X outreach event!

CORE (our small groups) has been so sweet and encouraging this past month! Me and my coleader Jamie's core started out with two people but now it has grown to around ten people! I know it isn't about how many people are in our CORE but it is encouraging to see how God has brought people randomly to our group from places that I didn't expect! Most of my CORE is new believers which has been so awesome to see! They are all on fire for God and it is so cool to see how they accepted Jesus and now are here. Me and my core have been exploring what it means to make our heart Christs' home! 

This is me and my core at the state fair! It was sweet getting to see them outside of core and be able to bond!

This is Alex! She joined CORE about three weeks ago! I study Focus on Jesus with her which is a ten week bible study on different topics such as "What's Jesus Like?" or "Faith, Love, and Obedience". Getting to study FOJ with Alex has been so sweet! She always has questions and loves getting to learn about the Lord. She accepted Jesus a couple months ago and is eager to learn as much as she can about Jesus! Her enthusiasm for wanting to know more about the Lord is so encouraging!

This is Alex! I have loved getting to study the bible with her these past three weeks!

Fall retreat was this past weekend! It was SO fruitful and life-giving for the whole community. Fall retreat is a twenty-four-hour retreat at Mount Lebanon camp. Having Fall retreat every year is essential because it helps bond people in core and also the whole community. We have a couple of sessions throughout the retreat. On Saturday night we had a worship night that was planned by two of our students. The worship night was one of my favorite parts of the retreat! There were different worship stations and these seemed to be very meaningful for students. The worship stations included praise, lament, and thankfulness! Some of the guys during the worship started dancing in a circle and hugging each other. This was really sweet! It showed how much they wanted to be there and praise God together! 

Here is a picture of me and the girls from my core who came to Fall Retreat! I love getting to do life with them!

Here's a picture of the worship night we had at Fall Retreat!

One final thing, I have loved getting to be in the apprenticeship classes! We just finished getting to read over the Psalms. For our Old Testament class, we listen to lectures, read a textbook, and read our bible. While we were studying Psalms I learned that over half the Psalms are about lament and eventually progress to praise which is so cool! I found this very interesting because it shows that it is okay to lament and bring the things we are struggling with to God. Another interesting thing I learned about Psalms is that Psalm 119 is an acrostic Psalm which is so cool! 

This month was full of such sweet moments! I am so thankful that I get to do this. Thank you all for your support and prayers! All Glory to God! 

Prayer Requests

• Please pray for our Pizza Theology event coming up! It is on Nov. 5th! This is an event we host every semester where spend a couple of hours learning about a certain topic. This semester's topic is "What does it mean to be human?". Please pray that students will be excited to come and learn!
• Please pray for the girls in my core as they keep seeking Jesus! Pray that they would always seek him and put him first. 
• Pray for our Keep Focus Growing fundraiser on Nov. 28th and that people would give if they feel led to! 

In Christ,

Carolina