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Most SICM Students in History!

Hi everyone!

I hope you all stayed safe during the storms this last week. A bunch of trees got knocked down near us but luckily we didn't suffer any damage. Erin's summer did start a week early due to power-outages so I guess that's a silver lining!

SICM

If you've been following FOCUS's ministry for several years, the name SICM may ring a bell. SICM is an annual campus ministry leadership conference up in Bellingham WA. Each spring, we'll invite a handful of students who show a lot of promise and have demonstrated a love for God and for people to a week-long conference where they learn how to lead their classmates and make disciples on the college campus. This year, we had the largest group to date (in 25 years)! We brought about 150 college students across DFW! SMU's ministry also had our largest group we've ever sent, with 8 students!

From left to right, we have Zaria, Toby, Luke, Benji, Joy, Sharon-Sue, Sierra, and Sofia. This was a REALLY solid group. They had a ton of fun and got way closer during the trip. I'm personally so excited to see how several of them work together as a leader team next year.

You may remember Toby from past updates. He just came to know Jesus this year, and said that SICM was "probably the best experience [he's] ever had." Benji, on the right, has been involved with FOCUS for several years, having done his Associate's at Dallas College. When he transferred to SMU though, he had some trouble in his faith and became distanced from the community. 2 years later though, he's gotten back involved and is as passionate about Jesus as ever, and was excited to learn how to disciple his peers before starting his senior year!

Even more baptisms!

Joy was one of the students who just got back from SICM! Right before she left, she said she wanted to get baptized.

Siena has been discipling and studying the Bible with her all year. I don't know Joy very well yet, but I'm excited to hear more of her story this coming school year!

Noelle has been a part of our community for 2 years and when hearing that Joy was being baptized, she mustered up the courage to do it, herself! She's been following Jesus for several years but had waited to take this step. Siena has also mentored her over those years!

We had a couple dozen focus students and family members come take part in the dual-baptism, and we got to pray over them as a community. Special times!

Lastly, another of our students who went to SICM, Luke, just got baptized last week once he got home to Corpus Christi for the summer. He told me that he had been waiting to get baptized until he felt that he owned his faith for himself, rather than it just being a part of his family's culture. After this year of being involved in FOCUS and Cru (another great campus ministry at SMU), and having gone to SICM, he said he was ready to take that step for himself!

SMU is a very dark place where the enemy is at work. They want to sow hatred and division between college students, and teach them to place their trust in wealth and social prowess. These students shown above are joining with our Lord to push back against these forces of darkness and to create a light on campus! A spring of living water where SMU students can drink and finally be satisfied. 

I'm so grateful to get to watch God work in their lives first-hand. Thank you all so much for your support. You are having a deep and profound impact on college students, and they would not be the same without you. May the very same God who's saving these college students and redeeming the college campus work through you and your workplace, your neighborhood, and your family. I love each of you.

Your brother,
Taylor

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