Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone! I hope you all had a Merry Christmas!  

The end of the semester ended on a good note for Richland and we had a Christmas service for our students. This moment was encouraging as some students shared what Christmas meant to them and how special it was to learn about this. Here are some pictures from the Christmas party. 

The rest of December was filled mainly with our Holy Spirit class. This class was interesting as it is the first time that I had a session that talked so much about the Spirit and we did this class together with a book called “Paul, The Spirit and the People of God” by Gordon Fee. The book itself was pretty complex and most of the things said in there went over my head, but one of the things that I like that he emphasized was how the Spirit is a being that works through community and not only on an individual level. 

The Apprentices with some friends at Six Flags 

At the end of each semester, the apprentices are tasked with a sermon. In the first semester, we do it over our gospel. This was difficult to do and figure out, but it turned out well. I was able to show myself and also think more deeply about what my relationship with God has been shaped over the years. Not only that, but I also got to learn more about the apprentices and how they have been shaped over the years as well and that was special to hear.  

Prayers 

Be praying for our students that are on break and are at home and for the upcoming semester, for it to be better and more Spirit led. 

Thank you for all your support! 

Bridgett

A Time of Thanksgiving

 Hi everyone! 

Celebrating a birthday together 

This month flew by so quickly! It was a good month that instilled a lot of growth for not just the students but also for myself. 

To start, we finished out or put on pause the majority of our classes. Financial stewardship was the one class that we finished as we headed on to learn how to start a budget, how different insurances work, investing in the stock market, and credit cards. A lot of what I learned in this class was helpful, but was and is, on a personal level, kind of hard to grasp. 

We put our Spiritual leadership and Maturing with Mandy classes on pause for the semester. However, we are still practicing our spiritual disciplines and learning about axiom (sayings in our community). 

The Spiritual discipline that I have been working on is iconography. Though I have had my skepticism of this, it is interesting to learn about how icons are meant to be a visual aid of worship. They are supposed to be our visual reminders of who Jesus is and there so much that goes into it as well. From the process of painting the icon to the finished product, everything has some kind of significant meaning. Personally, it is kind of hard to understand, but as I learn more about it, it is kind of starting to make sense. 

Richland Focus

This month Richland spent time in Deuteronomy 6:4-7, but more specifically in verse 5: Love the Lord you God with all your heart, with all soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. With this verse, we wanted to engage our students with scripture and think about what it means to love God with all these aspects of their being. Throughout the month we through each one, and with each one the students were receptive and it makes me hope for the next semester!. 

Prayers 

I ask that you pray for the students that are going on break soon and that they rest well, for our ministry that this next semester we continue to minister well to them. 

Special Thank You! 

I don't know how many you donated to our KFG fundraiser, but I wanted to say thank you for donating! Thanks to those of you that have donated we were able to raise this much and can continue doing the best we can for our students. We couldn't have gotten here without you and God! He is good! 

Also, thank you for being apart of my support team and continuing to support me! I look forward to telling you about the next few month of my ministry!