April Ministry Update

 


Happy April!

    Time just seems to be flying! I have less than 2 months left in the apprenticeship and I still can't seem to wrap my head around that. I want to thank you for being on my support team these past 8 months. All of this would not be possible without you and your support. In this month's update, I will share about some of my classes, what I have been learning, and how ministry at Richland has been going overall.

    As always, feel free to send me prayer requests and any questions you might have.

Classes and Takeaways

    During the month of March, two more classes were added to my schedule of three consistent classes (New Testament Foundations, Questions with Ronnie, and Maturing with Mandy/Spiritual Leadership with Brandon). Feel free to ask questions about any of the classes I mention, if you would like to know more! I would love to talk more about what I have been learning throughout the apprenticeship.

    One of the new classes was Body Stewardship and it ran for 5-weeks. I was super excited about this class when I saw it on the schedule earlier in the semester. Each week, we had some pre-work questions that we reflected on and then discussed together when we meet up on Tuesdays. We covered many topics, for example, habits and thought patterns, why should we care for our bodies and minds, and emotions and how it affects how we care for our bodies. 

    One week a professional nutritionist from our church family came to our class and let us ask any questions we had. It was helpful to have someone that specialized in nutrition that loves the Lord come and speak to us. It made me realize that I knew a lot more about how to best take care of my body. Another takeaway was from when we talked about habits. We watched a podcast on habits for homework and it was fascinating! Habits go so much deeper than I realized to the point that asking someone to change a habit, be it healthy or not, is like asking them to leave their 'tribe'/people group. Give it a listen: Atomic Habits

    The other new class was Eschatology and it ran for 6-weeks. Something I learned right off the bat was eschatology is the study of the last things written in the Bible/the farthest things the Bible talks about. The main theme of the class is to learn and help us think through one of the most important, oftentimes confusing, and controversial topics of faith. 

My biggest takeaway is that 'Ideas have consequences.' Whatever idea someone decides to believe, it can/will affect how one lives their life. I loved learning about the different schools of thought on the end-times and then in turn starting to wrestle through what I believe. 

Ministry at Richland



 

 Throughout the school year restrictions have slowly been lifted but still about half of the student body is taking online classes. I feel I haven't yet experienced full student life at Richland because of the pandemic. That's why I am excited to stay on and hopeful this next school year, the campus will start to come back to life.

    I am in charge of doing outreach every Wednesday with Joey, a fellow FOCUS campus pastor. It has been slow to build momentum at the beginning of the year but we have tried many different things and experimented with how to reach students. This Spring semester Joey and I have been getting the hang of it! We have made many friends and some have been coming to FOCUS events. Outreach is hard! But I am thankful for the opportunity in stretching my people skills and bringing light and life to the campus. 

    It's bittersweet that many of our students are transferring this coming Fall to 4-year universities. I am so excited for them to continue their college journey but I will miss them dearly! It feels like this school year has just blown past me. 

    Please be praying for our Richland staff team as we start to plan for this next school year and for the students transferring and staying. Also, for this coming school year, pray for the new students coming to the Richland campus. 

    I am so excited to be staying at the Richland campus for 3 more years!

In Christ,

Claire Umstead




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