With another month gone and the weather finally changing, it’s so hard to believe we’re already halfway done with the Fall semester. But what an amazing semester it’s been already Here’s this month’s look at what God’s been up to here at Resilient Church.

But first, we have to start off with Aleah’s story, a USD student who has recently come to faith in Jesus through Resilient’s ministry! This is why we do what we do. Let’s hear it from Aleah:

Aleah’s Story

“I started college without planning on joining anything religious. I went to church when I was very little but quickly fell out of it growing up. I had a negative environment and was surrounded by people who claimed to be Christians but did things that hurt others and themselves. I thought religion was what made people bad/hateful, but coming to USD, I’ve learned that it’s the total opposite.
Last semester (my freshman year), I was on the dance team, in a sorority, and loved every aspect of college. Then suddenly I had an injury with an unknown cause and was in constant pain. I was in a wheelchair almost all last semester; this all happened suddenly and I didn’t have an answer why. For so long I couldn’t get help I needed and I had countless tests that didn’t show anything. I started to lose hope. Thankfully I had a wonderful friend and teammate, Natalie, who introduced me to Resilient.

Soon after, I made so many other friends that encouraged me to take steps in my religion by being themselves and living for Christ. This made me realize that the church community (especially Resilient) is full of kind, caring, and vibrant people. When I started to truly want to grow in my faith and going to church, admitting it to myself, and opening up, my life changed. I started getting doctors who truly cared for me, I found a sense of peace, and I felt comfort in knowing I would be ok because God is always with me. At the start of this semester, I agreed to follow and live for Jesus.

It’s still the beginning and I have a lot to learn, but I’m happy where I’m at. I would not be where I am today if I hadn’t agreed to go to church in a Pizza Ranch one random Sunday morning!”

Sundays: Overcoming Mental Hell(th)

Our Sunday services have seen a ton of momentum. We see new guests every week, with more and more sticking around after service to soak up extra time with friends and community. Further, we went through our sermon series called Overcoming Mental Hell(th), where we addressed the topics of capturing our thoughts, anxiety, depression, addiction, and loneliness. It has been our most important sermon series we’ve done to date, and hearing our people’s reactions to it have been incredible. We just recently started a new series called You Need Friends, where we’re discussing how to have good, significant, God-honoring friendships.

For our first 5 weekends of the semester, we averaged between 100 and 120 people in attendance, and now averaging between 70 to 90 people on a given weekend. This is an amazing increase from this time last year when we were averaging between 30 to 50! We’ve also gotten to onboard new team members to our Guest Services, Kids, Worship, and Tech Teams. It has been a blast to see our church community continue to grow.

USD’s Counseling Services Partnership

As I mentioned in September’s update, Resilient is partnering with a different nonprofit or charity each month by giving them $1000 to support the amazing work they do to make Vermillion better, while highlight them to our church community during a Sunday service. In light of our mental health series, we chose to support USD’s student counseling services, as they do amazing work to support students in their mental health struggles, and are also in great need of resources to continue expanding their programs and services.

Resilient Students Ministries

Our college ministry continues to thrive! We had another worship night at the end of September, while also hosting a hangout at Clay County Park for students to grow in friendship. We have three small groups meeting with approximately 30 students and young adults involved across both groups!

D Days Tailgate Party

Dakota Days is USD’s homecoming week, and is arguably the busiest time of the year for Vermillion! Alumni from all across the country come back for this event, and it really is considered a holiday for our community. Resilient got to participate in the festivities a bit by hosting a tailgate party! We served free hot dogs and chips for about 40 to 50 people over the course of the event. We saw this as a wonderful way to participate in this huge community event, all while bringing our people together.