August 2025

 Hello everyone!

The students are back and school has started! Hopefully I can share a lot of photos in this post for you to give a glimpse of what has been going on this month, especially the last two weeks as students have arrived at
UTD.

Photo from our staff retreat in early August. As we are growing to new campuses like NCTC and TCC, our staff is growing too. 

The first week of August, we had our first of two staff retreats during the year. I always really look forward to this time because it is after a long summer of everyone being in and out of town on different schedules. We spend this time building relationships with each other and refocusing our hearts on the mission at our college campuses. 

I feel like I have met hundreds of freshmen at this point. This was at one of our many field nights outside the Res Halls. I love these nights because only the freshmen are on campus the first week, and the school does not host many events to welcome them. That is where we step in!

Catch me back in the dining hall. Notice the energy drink in front of me. I will drink those only for this month then I swear I'll slow down on them.

We planned a "UTD Olympics" with just silly but competitive games. We had no idea how many people to expect, but this room was packed by the end of the night.

The Sunday before classes start, we host a worship and prayer night on campus. Love to see it.

For the entire first week of class, we hand out free coffee in the morning from 10AM - 12PM and tea/lemonade from 12PM - 2PM. It is a great place to meet new people.
I wanted to include this sweet message from one of our student leaders, Gavin. I met him when he was a freshman, and now he is a JUNIOR. I have gotten to be in core (what we call our small groups) with him and now watch him grow as a leader among his peers. Love this guy.

One of our most popular events is our "Paint n Sip" event where we serve mocktails as people paint. We estimated 600 students came this night based on the servings of mocktails given :0


'The Grove' is a fellowship night we host on Fridays throughout the semester. We had our opening night this past week and saw over 330 people there! This is over 100 more students than our opening night last year...AND it was a holiday weekend. So much of this is because of our student leaders. They are so loving and invitational this year to so many people. For the sermon at the Grove this semester, we want to do expository teachings right from things Jesus said, either parables, stories, or interactions with people. This Friday, Brandon Worsham kicked it off talking out of Mark 8 when Jesus asks His disciples, "Who do you say that I am"?
BAPTISMS!! One of our students who entered our ministry last year made the choice this past Friday to get baptized after the Grove. Praise God!

Me and Felipe (far right) with some students we have met this week!

More students at the grove!
 
This is the apartment this year for our small group core. It is on campus, but so far we have almost 30 people saying they will come to core this year. We will see what that number turns out to be this Wednesday, but please be praying for relationships to form as we live out John 13:34 - 35.

We had so many more events than what was shown above, it was hard to get photos at all of them. I am so excited for core to start this week. Felipe (shown above) and I have been given the opportunity to lead together again for this year. However, with a few of our guys from core last year now leading their own, our group was still split apart some as people join new small groups. There are a few sophomores who were in our core last year that will join us again, and I have been so encouraged with how they are using their friendship to include new students. There's always room for one more!

This month, please be praying for the start of the school year as students take new classes and meet new people. Pray for the start of our small groups and bible studies as students accept the invitation to join them. But most importantly, just pray that we stay waiting and listening for God to move so our steps stay led by Him at UTD. 

Thank you so much for supporting me this year on campus at UTD. I feel excited and already encouraged by what God is doing. I hope you are able to see a glimpse of this past month in this email, but please reach out to me if you want to hear more. I love talking about it.


With love,
Paul M



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