From Panama to Dallas

Hi everyone, and happy March! I hope you're well. Ministry at SMU has been more encouraging than ever. Last semester felt like a grind trying to help students catch a vision of developing deep, vibrant community with one another. This semester, they've started catching it and have been taking it into their own hands!

Juan-Pablo

One such student is Juan Pablo! He's a freshman from Panama. He might not look like it but he has a DEEP Panamanian accent which is always fun to hear. What's even more fun is watching new people's reactions when they hear him speak for the first time.

He and I have been studying the bible since October. He grew up around Christianity, and both of his parents are committed disciples. However since coming to college, he's been owning his faith for the first time. He has been growing exponentially each month and we recently invited him to a leadership conference which is coming up in May! He told me he feels honored to receive an invitation and has been feeling a renewed eagerness to grow as a leader.

It's clear to me that God has brought him to America, Dallas, and SMU in specific for a reason.

Pizza Theology

You've probably seen me share about this event in past semesters. FOCUS hosts a multi-campus event twice a year where we invite any student to come explore a deep-dive into a particular theological (often controversial) topic. This semester we discussed money and how God teaches us to use and relate to it all throughout the scriptures.

We had a couple dozen students from SMU give up 5 hours on a Sunday to learn. In total we had 400 students from across Dallas/Fort Worth!

Community Group growing

God has been continuing to bring new people to our Bible study on campus! We moved into this room after outgrowing Luke's dorm, and now we're having to consider whether we need to move to an even bigger room!

This was our group a couple weeks ago, and that's with several key members missing! We're considering inviting several of these guys to lead next year, and it's been so exciting watching them mature in their faiths!

Please be praying for these students as we send out invitations to our annual leadership conference near Seattle, WA. Pray that God will inspire a passion in their hearts to build his kingdom on campus, and lead many of their peers into a deeper relationship with Jesus.

Thank you so much for your support. Generation after generation of college students are graduating and bringing what they found in Jesus in college back to the rest of the world.

Your brother,

Taylor

Comments

Baby Bass!

Hi everyone, I hope you and your families had a fun Halloween and are looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas! As you could see in the title, Erin and I have huge news!! We're expecting our first baby this May, 2025! We will hopefully find out the gender later this month, so there's a good chance I'll get to share that by the next ministry update. We've been thinking and praying about having a child since getting married in 2022, and are overjoyed to have one on the way. Please pray for Erin's safety as pregnancy progresses, and that our baby grows strong and finds a life waiting for them filled abundantly with love, and a passion for the Lord. Shoutout to our old friends from UTA FOCUS, Nathan and Parker, who did a FREE photo shoot for us! Check out some of our favorite reactions from family and friends Update with Jaden! Our baby isn't the only encouraging thing to share this month! October has also been really exciting with regard to SMU and ministry! Y...

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...

Boulevard Debut

Hi everyone, happy October! I can't wait for the temperatures to drop, and for all the holidays to start rolling around. Ministry on campus has been so encouraging this month! I'll share more throughout this update but in summary, lots of guys are getting involved and diving deep into faith and community. Tim Meet Tim! He's from NJ and started his freshman year this semester. He's in the process of joining a Christian fraternity called BYX, and has been coming around FOCUS as well. We started a weekly 1-on-1 bible study a couple weeks ago called Focus on Jesus, and it's already been a blast. He has a hunger to grow in his faith, and is inquisitive and driven. I'm so excited to watch how God uses him to impact BYX, Focus, and the rest of SMU over the next several years. Since there are so many guys getting involved, I'm thinking I'll share about 1 or 2 specific students each week and share a little about them. I have a feeling you'll be hearing more a...

Taylor's Ministry Updates! (2021-2025)

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