The Big Howdy begins (www.utabighowdy.com) as we students are getting picked up from the airport by the Big Howdy team of volunteers, churches and ministries, others have been shuttled to Walmart. Some will be given a warm welcome at orientation, others will receive furniture and other things from the student Garage sale, most will enjoy as big Texas welcome at the Big Howdy Party and finally some will receive a custom tour of the DFW area by local volunteers. The Big Howdy is a month of welcoming goodness for the new international students, where Jesus following volunteers can make a lot of noise for Him and hopefully some people of peace will reveal themselves. Even if not, God will use it to start working to touch their hearts. Here are some quick things to pray for.

Lisa started her new job at DBU. After around 10 years at the same school this is quite the change. She is excited that she can overtly make a lot of noise for Jesus and share her heart as she teached English to her new students.

Our family continues to meet for Discovery Bible study with another family, our dear friends from Tajikistan. Wednesday was the husband, Alex’s birthday but the Alex and Maria  insisted that we did Bible Discovery group before we celebrated with Alex for dinner. Praise the Lord for their excitement over studying together. Pray that as Wednesday church and other things start up again, we can find a day of the week that works for everyone to meet.

Continue to pray for UTA Friday night group(www.utaisi.org) as we transition to two separate locations at around the same time. This is not easy, to see our awesome and close team work in two groups but it seems necessary. Pray for discernment as we decide who goes with who in the two groups both with volunteers but also student leaders. And pray that the students take to one or other of the groups and don’t get lost in the wash.

Many students are going home after the summer long term. One student shared on Friday that she was “concerned” when she came here and was worried about not having anyone here. She shared she never would have thought that she would have found a place that felt like family like the Friday night group was to her.