Skip to main content

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

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

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

That's a wrap!

This month has been so fun (and also stressful). Fun because the semester is wrapping up, which means we've been having lots of special events! Stressful because our baby tried to come early, a week into April, so Erin has been stuck on bedrest. Praise the Lord, we just reached full-term on Saturday so now Erin is free to walk, squat, lunge, or whatever. (All of which she has been doing incessantly to try and get the baby out.) We still have 2-3 weeks until our due-date so for Erin's sake, I hope she comes sooner than later! Spring Formal Our last formal FOCUS event of the year, appropriately, is a formal. We had a great turnout with around 40-50 students A handful of guys from my and Luke's small group Wholesome Fire alarm works! Some extroversion is finally working its way into our community 🙌 Lots of lasts As I mentioned earlier, one of the fun things about this time of year is finishing everything with a bang.  We finished up our weekly fellowship nights by inviting a ...
Post a Comment
Read more