Taylor's Ministry Updates! (2021-2025)

Hi everyone, I hope you've been staying cool in the heat, and staying safe if you live along the coast. If anyone suffered any damage and there's anything I can do or people I can connect you with, please don't hesitate to reach out! Praying for y'all. Summer Growth Just because students are taking a break doesn't mean that God has been! He's still been moving and maturing them as disciples, getting them ready for this coming school year! Two students in particular come to mind. I've gotten to keep up with Jaden and Luke over the summer. Luke is in town taking summer classes, and Jaden and I have been Facetiming from California to Texas, continuing to study the Bible together where we left off in May. You may remember Jaden - I shared a bit of his story and his coming to know Jesus this semester in a ministry update a few months ago! A wise man once said, "If you make your life about climbing the ladder, you'll pass Jesus on his way down." Jad...

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...

Hey everyone! I hope you enjoyed my very creative and original title to this month's update. I'm excited to share some of the final things we've done this semester before students embark on finals week and start their summer breaks. While they've all been slowing down, God certainly hasn't! The Eclipse I hope you get to enjoy the eclipse last month! Whether you saw it in person or not, enjoy some pictures of SMU Focus watching it together alongside thousands of other students on campus. One of our seniors, David, got some incredible pictures with his professional camera! Note just how many people showed up to watch. Several thousand! Upon seeing it, Garrett voiced the good hope that that's only a fraction of the people who will soon join together in unity from every nation to praise our Lord! EOY Banquet We had our end of year formal last week, which went great! We spent time honoring our student leaders, our graduating seniors, all over a nacho bar donated by C...

Hi everyone! I hope the last month has treated you all well and that you've been enjoying all the beautiful weather lately. (At least for my friends in Texas) I've got a lot of exciting news to share this week, as I'm sure you gathered from the title of this month's update. So, let's dive in! Jaden's Baptism Let me introduce you to Jaden! He and I have been meeting up weekly to study the Bible, since August when we met at a FOCUS Welcome Week event. Jaden grew up around church, and both of his parents are committed disciples. However, in High School he lost interest in faith and started having doubts and questions come up with regard to whether it made logical sense to believe in the existence of a God, let alone Jesus. I told him since we first started meeting that no question is ever off-limits, and that God is big enough to handle every one of his doubts! And that I'd do my best to help him process through each one and point him to what scripture has to s...

Hi everyone! I hope you've been able to enjoy the warmer weather recently. Thank you for taking the time to read about what God has been doing on SMU's campus this month! Toby Speaking of warmer weather, ministry has also been heating up this month! I want to introduce you to my friend, Toby! He has a great story! He and I have been studying the Bible since the fall. Last year, a FOCUS student invited him to check out an event, but since Toby had grown up around Christians and never had much interest in God or faith, he turned the student down. After the summer, he decided to reach back out and ask about checking out a FOCUS event just to see what it's all about. He checked out my small group, and has since become a consistent part of the community! His interest in Jesus has absolutely blossomed and he has become the most enthusiastic member of the group! (Ironically, I think he had just left for soccer practice right before we took this picture) He's started hanging ou...