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Christmas, COVID, and Comradery!

Hi friends!

I hope you enjoyed Christmas, New Years, and any other Holidays you celebrated last month!

Christmas Party!
Speaking of the holidays, I'd like to share a few pictures from UTD Focus's Christmas Party!

This is the sweet team of ministers I get to work with at UTD! They're such a blast. They all exemplify Jesus so well both to me and all the students we're blessed to shepherd.

Here are a few of the faces you've seen in most of my previous blogs! Not everyone from Core (our small group) could make it that night, but these 4 did! From left to right: Nhala, myself, Jared, Sion, and Sylvia!

And these are my roommates! I seriously love getting to live with them. They're all so goofy, fun, and full of Jesus's love. From left to right we have Ari, myself, Peter, Kyle, and Luke.

I couldn't leave out our sixth roommate, David! He couldn't make it to the Christmas party that night.
He's hidden in one of my previous blogs... bonus points if you can find him!


I got got.
I have good news and bad news... Bad news is COVID got me. Good news is today is my last day of quarantine! Thankfully I had a light case and my symptoms are no longer present. Just in time for students to start returning to town this and next week! My roommate still has it and is having a rougher time with his symptoms so please be praying for him!


Because of the recent spike in cases, our church elected to stream our service this week. It worked out for me, considering I happened to be one of those cases!
P.S. Peep the merch from UTA, my Alma Mater!

Also on a serious note, the mother of one of our FOCUS students passed away 4 days ago with a fatal case of COVID, so please pray for that family and for God to use us as a loving, therapeutic community for them to lean on in this difficult time.

Stian!
I'll finish off by introducing to you my friend Stian, one of our graduating seniors at UTD! He's an incredible leader and a mentor to many. We've been friends for a few years, bonding over our shared love of the game Spikeball, and now disc golf. It's been so sweet getting to do ministry with him after so long of only knowing him in the context of "one of the Dallas FOCUS guys." He's planning on doing the FOCUS apprenticeship next year, and I'm so excited to watch how God moves in him through that. It's already been such a blessing in my life and I know it will be in Stian's too.


Everyone says we look like brothers. We have both had moments of existential crisis this semester when we literally thought the other person was ourselves. Dead serious, lol


Thank you all so much again for your support! Like I say every week, it's your prayer and financial generosity that enables me to do this and build so many friendships with these students and fellow-minsters. I am so grateful to our good God for having you all on my team. :)


Your brother,
Taylor



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