Holidays and Entering Winter Time
UTD Christmas Event Staff Picture
December has been a month full of giving and time with family and friends! I have not fully celebrated Christmas before until 2025! It was truly a blessing to have both my family and my fiance’s family come together to celebrate.
It has been hard to digest that this marks the halfway completion to the apprenticeship. It has been a journey full of of growth, tension, vulnerability, friendship, and gratitude towards God’s persistence toward us.
Recharging Over The Break
Over the break, I got an amazing opportunity to go to Tyler to speak to a group of people about my testimony to expand my network to reach the fundraising goal! I am so grateful for one of my core-girl, Julie’s, mom for inviting me over to spend time with her family!
It was out of my normal to speak to a group and to be vulnerable; however, I love how God really worked through the situation! I am grateful to be prayed over and to have a group of people who are willing to show what it means to enrich one another in faith and to keep the mustard seed!
Christmas Core!
Fun Times
The girls’ personalities are really shining through! I am grateful to see how much these girls are willing to implement the lessons we learn each week!
White Elephant Exchange
Our last core of 2025 ended with a white elephant gift exchange! It has been amazing to see the girls’ growth in faith and friendship!
FOJ - Focus On Jesus
Finishing Bible Study
This is the first FOJ I started last year and I am grateful to say that we completed the lesson! It is amazing to see how much I can learn from the students’ insights no matter how many times I have read it before!
Lessons Learned
Lessons
Life is a Marathon: Sometimes I am so quick to see potential and yearn for the best outcome possible that I do not live in the present moment where I am immature and still growing. This perfection of a person I am seeking cannot come to fruition because no one is a perfect human expect Christ. I am not going to do things perfectly and that’s what makes me human and that is perfectly alright! It is honestly a pleasant relief to not have the responsibility to carry that burden of perfection.
Seasonal Changes: It has been hard to understand why some times are easier than others. How… similar circumstances seem far more difficult. It is important to realize that as we grow in Christ, our ability to feel is deeper. The sorrow you feel for someone who doesn’t know Him is deeper when you have been forgiven for so much! It is not that you have been set back to your starting point; instead, you understand a depth beyond how you felt before.
Prayers
Prayers:
In a couple of weeks, FOCUS is having a winter retreat where students from all across the DFW campuses come together to rejoice in Jesus before classes start! We would love prayers for deeper faith and a revival in our generation!
Breaks sometimes bring people back to the cycles they avoided! Prayers would be great for further fervor and drive to pursue God’s calling in the students’ lives!
I would also love prayers as I pray on where I am headed after the apprenticeship.
Thank you so much for your support!
Until next time,
Shree Shankar