End of the Year Ministry Update

    Hey there! 

I hope you're all doing well, and are getting ready to celebrate Christmas and the New Year with family and friends. Thank you for taking the time to read my ministry update. I want to start by sharing a story with you about one of our alumni! We have a student who graduated this past year and now attends the University of Alabama. During her time at CTF she was on our Student Committee, our worship team, and helped start a Bible study on her dance team. A week or so ago she sent Brianna a copy of the final paper she wrote for her English class. I wanted to share an excerpt from that paper with you all.

    "Before coming into college, I was so hopeless and fearful that my faith would waver and that I wouldn’t find community. However, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Ever since rush week and choosing my sorority solely based on the faith-based conversations I had in Alpha Chi, I’ve been actively seeking out community and the Lord has been faithful. Although, I will be honest and a hundred percent transparent; back at home, I have the best group of friends and the best church community, so leaving that was still so hard. I think that it is important, though, to realize that we are comparing our friends in Alabama that we have only known for a few months to the friendships back home that took years to grow and form. I would say that I probably still don’t have my set “friend group” like my one at home yet, and I’m not sure I’m going to find something exactly like them, but after meeting the friends that I do have now, I can see that what I had at home was just a little corner of His kingdom. If we are actively seeking out our faith and community, the Lord is not going to withhold something like that from us. It is imperative to trust his timing and be patient; his timing is perfect and when I realized this, I learned that I can be content, no matter the circumstance."

One of the scariest and most difficult things about youth ministry is when our students graduate and move off to college. So much of the work that we do is laying a spiritual foundation and planting seeds. As youth ministers, we often don't get to see the fruit of our labor in the short term. But one of the sweetest gifts and blessings is getting to see God's faithfulness in the way that he continues to pursue, provide for, and grow the faith of our students after their time in CTF. This is just one story of how your support and prayer is impacting the lives of our students and the Kingdom of God! I hope it's as encouraging to you as it is to me! 

Let me fill you in on what we've been up to!

Friendsgiving

    The week before Thanksgiving, we had a CTF Friendsgiving! It was such a sweet night where we all got to gather together, share a meal, and talk about all the blessings from God that we're thankful for. 


A few of our students at Friendsgiving

Wylie East

    In my last blog I asked you all to be praying about the Bible studies that I would be starting with the baseball and football teams at Wylie East HS. Thank you so much for your prayers! Both of those studies have been going so well. It has been such a blessing getting to be back in the public schools studying the Bible with students. We've been reading and discussing stories of Jesus from the Gospels, and our conversations have been amazing. Earlier today, I met up with the two student leaders who have been leading the football team's study. They shared with me that out of all four years this has been the best Bible study that they've been a part of! I'm so excited to pick it back up in the Spring semester and see how God uses this in these guys' lives. Please keep praying for these studies.

 Wylie East football team's Bible study

Christmas Party!

    We ended our semester this week with an absolute blast of a Christmas party. We had hot cocoa, cookies, decorated gingerbread houses, sang carols, gave gifts away, and had some friendly competition. It was the perfect way to end the semester!






Reflections on the Year

    As 2021 comes to a close, I've been reflecting on this last year of ministry and I'd love to share some of those thoughts with you all. The first thing that comes to mind is that our God is overwhelmingly good and extremely faithful. This year has had ups and downs, and many challenges. God has always provided, He has always been with us, and He has worked powerfully in the lives of our students. The beginning of 2021 was pretty tough. We graduated our biggest senior class ever the year before, and had to try and rebuild a ministry during one of the most challenging years to do ministry ever. Heading into the summer, we were praying really hard that God would sustain us, give us a great summer of ministry, and that we would be heading into the school year with new life and renewed energy. He answered all of those prayers. We had three summer interns who did a phenomenal job, had one of the best camps ever in New Mexico, rebuilt our youth leader team with some of the best volunteers we could ask for, and added a staff member. All of that happened between May and August, and it set us up for a really good fall semester. 
    Our year has not been perfect by any means, but God has been abundantly good to us! Youth ministry can be really really challenging, but it is so worth it. I could write a lot more about what God has done, and all the specific ways He's proven his faithfulness to us. But instead, I want to encourage you with this:"Do not be anxious about anything, but in all things by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." -Philippians 4:6-7. I know for a lot of you this has been a challenging year. I'm sure some of you are begging God in prayer for certain things to happen or for things to change. Keep praying, keep knocking, and keep asking. God is faithful, He is good, and He cares for you. 
    

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

    I sincerely love you all and hope you have an excellent Christmas and a Happy New Year! I pray that these holidays we be restful for you. I hope you get to enjoy time with your family, friends, and loved ones. I hope you'll take some time to reflect on the Good News that Jesus humbled himself, came to this earth, lived, died, and was raised for us. I pray that we'll live our lives in faithful response to His goodness! 

    As always, I greatly look forward to hearing from you all! Please reach out with any questions, comments, updates, prayer requests, or just to catch up. I want you all to know that I'm truly thankful for each of you, your hearts for God, your generosity, and your friendship. 

Merry Christmas!

William Royal

william@ctfwylie.org

972-979-6722


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