Skip to main content

Endings and New Beginnings

We've made it to and past the final stretch! I've got some bitter-sweet pictures to share with y'all this month.

End of Year Party

We had our last big event of the year! The university offered to cater dinner, and the students spent time sharing how they've seen God working through individual people in our community this year. We also took some time to recognize our leaders and seniors, thanking them for all the effort they've poured into their peers.

Laurence, our campus director, is officially on leave with his new baby! He's the one with the artistic touch so that means Siena and I had to do our best. I think it turned out awesome after all!

Wholesome

Wholesome part 2

Our graduating seniors! We made them Christmas ornaments as a gift so they can have a yearly reminder of the ways God has blessed them through this community while they were in college! We asked each of them to say a prayer each year for the new students who will be following in their footsteps. Ruth, Abs, Abby, Jacquelyn, and David, congratulations on completing your degrees at SMU!

A closer look at one of the extras that got a little toasted
Teams!

Here's our leader team from 2022-23! We had very quirky and endearing leaders this year. It was a blast getting introduced to the SMU community largely through these people.

Finally, we have our 2022-2023 ministers team! Jacob is a volunteer with us, while he works on his PhD at SMU.

Next year will look a little different! Laurence just had his second child, Oliver, so he is transferring to a campus closer to home (UTD). But nonetheless, our minister team is growing!

Garrett is one of our longest standing campus ministers with FOCUS! He helped start it back in the day at UTD and will be joining SMU's team, filling Laurence's role! We've already started meeting 1 on 1 and I can tell I'm going to learn so much from him.

Meet Renee! I actually don't know her very well! But I'm excited to get to work with her. I've heard great things about her over the years! She's a fellow UTA alum and worked as a professional dancer for several years before joining FOCUS staff as an apprentice last year alongside me and the rest of our cohort!


You'll surely see more about these 2 as the summer unfolds and ultimately, the next year of campus ministry! Thank you all so much for your support, making this happen. The many stories our students shared at our banquet would not exist if not for your generosity.


Please be praying for our annual campus ministry conference! It's hosted up in Washington state and we'll attend each year with our students who show leadership potential. This year, we're bringing 4 students from SMU! We'll be flying out next week!

Your brother,
Taylor

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

She's here!

Hi everyone, As expected, May was a very eventful month. We wrapped our final programming at SMU for the semester, sent off 100+ students from Dallas/Fort-Worth to SICM, and most importantly, Audrey was born! (Not biased at all) Get ready for the biggest photo dump of my career. Baby Last pic before becoming parents! Fresh out the oven Meeting dad Meeting grandparents Meeting grandparents Ready for the world Leaving the hospital Leaving the hospital (fit check) Dog approved Happy mode Angry mode Silly goofy mode Comfy cozy Camera shy First photo shoot First photo shoot First photo shoot Being a baby is exhausting My favorite SICM You've seen me write about SICM the last few months, and it's finally come! Tons of students from our ministries in Dallas / Fort Worth flew up to Washington for a campus ministry leadership conference. Here are a few pics of the whole group! SMU's team of students being prayed over Back to Dallas Thank you all very much for your support. If you w...
Post a Comment
Read more

Summer FOCUS

It's been a slower month on the ministry front. We've got a few new students transferring into SMU this fall who have already gotten connected. Besides that, most of my time has been spent raising support, meeting our local SMU students, and getting acclimated to being a father. Summer FOCUS We've still been having a weekly fellowship night, and it's been great! This is the ad we put up around SMU for Summer term students to see We've had a great turnout from our campuses around DFW! Probably around 200 students who drive out to Richardson on a weekly basis Students I've talked to have been feeling impacted by the messages, and touched by the worship. Baby Audrey's now been here for a month! Here are some recent highlights. First big smile! Honk shoo 🤨 Loves affection 🍵 Not too much to report this month, but once August and especially September rolls in, things will get crazy and I'll have lots of stories to share! I hope you enjoyed some pics of baby ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Over 600 students!!

Wow, the first month of 2025 has already wrapped up! I hope the new year has been going well for each of you so far. It's yet to be seen how this year with treat our ministry at SMU, but so far it's been very encouraging! Winter Retreat We just finished up our biggest event of the year! At Winter Retreat, over 600 students (possibly even 700) from across Dallas / Fort Worth drove out to spend the weekend in Glen Rose to praise God and grow in their faith. This was the most lively group we've ever brought. There were several occasions where we finished our worship session, but the students just kept singing and forced the band to pick the song back up! lol unfortunate for them, but what an incredible problem to have. We also had our largest group from SMU attend!  A total of 22 came out. That's about half our ministry! Now that more SMU students are experiencing winter retreat, they will get to share how great of an experience it was to their peers when it rolls back aro...
Post a Comment
Read more