August: New Students and All the Firsts

Wow, what a month! The beginning of the school year often feels like a whole new year, complete with new goals, a new schedule, and new friends. This month mainly centered around welcoming new and returning students to the campuses. Here's some of the stuff we did!

We first welcomed some FOCUS students who transferred from Collin College by having a pool party!

Then, our whole corefa (small group leader) team got together for Corefa Prep. These students dedicated a whole day to getting ready for the year by planning for core, talking about welcome week, and worshipping God together. We ended the night by spending some time praying together. Each person shared the vision they felt God had for their campus and what a powerful vision it is. I'm so excited to see how God works at UNT and TWU after this night!

And then we got to work! Staff and students were on campus constantly, meeting students and playing endless rounds of Uno and Pit.

We hung out in dorm lobbies and met a lot of students!

Our big outreach event during welcome week is Capture the Flag! We play late night games of capture the flag, board games, and lawn games. What a fun (and exhausting) time!

My friend Taylor and I talked to one girl for quite a while and we each got to share about our experience growing up in church. It was so fun seeing how we grew up in different areas and churches but we each see the need for genuine community. I'm excited to see if that student sticks around and finds community here!


We ended the first week back with our first Thursday Night Fellowship! What a good night talking about the man, Jesus (that's what our sermon series is about right now).

A few days ago, Crystal and I had our first core! We can already tell this group of girls is gonna be so fun to be friends with! I'll keep y'all updated as the semester with them unfolds.

Overall, what a great month! God has been answering our prayers and preparing hearts for his work to bring people closer to Him. Thank you for joining me in prayer!

Love y'all so much!
- Reagann Smith