Fall Recap & Ministry Update!

    Hello friends and supporters! I hope you are all doing well! I wanted to share a recap of CTF's Fall Semester, and some of the things we have going on right now. God has been so faithful and working in so many ways, and I can't wait to tell you more about it. 

    The longer I do youth ministry, the more I cling to the image that we get in Scripture of planting, watering, and growing seeds. 1 Corinthians 3 talks about how we as servants are responsible for planting seeds of faith in people, as well as helping to water those seeds. Verses 7-8 say "So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor." Ministry can really be boiled down to two simple things: planting and watering. As ministers of the Gospel we plant new seeds of faith in people, and we try to water the seeds of faith that have already been planted in hopes that God grows faith in people. In youth ministry specifically, there is a lot of planting and watering, but sometimes the growth can be slow. It is a beautiful reminder that God is faithful to bring to completion the work that He starts in us. That being said, we've done a lot of planting, a lot of watering, and we've gotten to see some really cool growth all in this last semester! I wanted to share just a handful of cool little stories with you all that help encompass what God has been doing through our ministry recently. 

-Our CTF staff launched a new FCS (Fellowship of Christian Students) group at McMillen JH here in Wylie last semester. We meet every Thursday on campus to study the Bible and pray together. For the first 2-3 weeks we were having about five 7th graders come on average, and then one week it just exploded! We now have somewhere between 20-30 7th graders come to FCS every week! 

-During a normal CTF night last semester, we had a time of open sharing where we let some of the students share what God has been doing in their lives. A student who has only been coming to CTF since mid-summer shared that she has been homeschooled her whole life, and "has never had any friends". She said that CTF has completely changed her life. Now she comes to CTF every week and has an entire community of friends who love and support her in her relationship with God, as well as an adult mentor who meets with her weekly. How cool is that?

-We have two CTF Alumni who went on mission trips overseas during winter break. One of them went to spread the Gospel in the Middle East, and the other went to serve and minister in Zambia, Africa. It's so cool to see how God continues to work through our students once they graduate, and to get to watch them serve Him in different ways. 

-One of our 7th grade boys has been reaching out to some of his friends at school, and has consistently been bringing two other boys to CTF every week. Neither of these boys have been raised in a Christian home, or attend church regularly. They both have loved coming to CTF, and are interested in learning more about Jesus and what it means to follow Him. I hope you're encouraged by our student's boldness to reach out to his friends! 

-I was at the Kroger here in Wylie the other day when a young man who worked there came up to me and said hello. I said hi and asked him if we had met before. He told me that I had come to speak to his football team last year, and that my messages were really impactful to him. He said he'd been trying to take his faith more seriously and grow more in his relationship with God. Pretty cool!

-A student that I meet with regularly recently reached out to me, told me that he hadn't been telling me the truth about some of the things he'd been struggling with, confessed his sin, and told me "as of today, I've made the decision to quit my vices to pursue God and spread His message". We read 1 John 1:5-10 together, and talked about the gift of confession and how God uses it to purify us of all unrighteousness. It was such a blessing to get to be a part of such a pivotal moment for him.   

  I hope these little stories are encouraging to you. God is working in CTF and in these young people's lives. We don't always get to see the "big moments" all the time, but if we keep our eyes and ears open, we get to see and hear some pretty amazing things. He is always working, and these stories are just a few examples of what He's doing over here. I'm blessed to get to plant and water seeds, and humbled when I get to see how God makes them grow! 

Here's our crew on a Wednesday night!

Leading the Cooper JH 8th Basketball team in a devotional.

7th Grade FCS meeting

Plans for This Semester!

    We have some exciting news! Starting next week, we've decided to switch the location and the date/time for CTF going forward. We've been so blessed to have been able to meet in the building that we're in right now for almost 6 years. However, the city of Wylie owns this building, and have finally decided to do something else with it. Long story short, we found another church that will let us use their building for our CTF Nights, and we decided to switch to Monday nights! Our hope and prayer is that this will allow some of the students that we reach out to in the schools to begin to attend CTF nights even if they're attending a different church's youth nights on Wednesdays. Please pray for us as we make these changes here pretty soon, and that God will use this move to reach new students.

    We're still very active in our school outreach and ministry. As I mentioned earlier, we launched an FCS group this school year at McMillan JH that has been going so well. In addition to that, I still lead a Bible study with the Wylie East Baseball team every week, as well as help support an FCS group at Cooper JH. This also includes a great opportunity to go and speak to these schools' sports teams throughout the school year, which has been such a cool deal. Please pray that our school ministry is fruitful, and that we will reach students in the schools who otherwise wouldn't know Jesus. 

    As always, the heartbeat of our ministry is one on one discipleship. This year I've been blessed to get to meet weekly with guys of all different ages: 7th grade, 8th grade, 10th grade, and 12th grade. It's really helped me grow in my ability to minister and work with guys at different maturity levels. I currently meet weekly and study the Bible with guys named Austin, Liam, Carter, Trent, and Huntyr. Please pray for them as they grow in their relationships with the Lord. 

    It has already been a great semester, but I have a feeling God is about to do something new and exciting with our ministry. As always, your support, prayers, and donations are such a blessing. Thank you so much for your partnership in my ministry! I love and appreciate you all. Please let me know how I can be praying for and supporting you too. 

-William Royal