Senior Night 2023

>> Hey, welcome to RUF. My name is Wei Rutherford. I'm the RUF campus minister and we are glad, as always, we're glad that you're here with us tonight. And this is our last RUF semester. And it is a -- and our tradition now for the handful of years, a special RUF. RUF, we'd like to celebrate our seniors, those who are leaving us. And so tonight, we get to hear from a handful of our seniors and from Olivia that are moving on. So we've asked our -- these handful of seniors that are willing to speak. We've asked them to just share just a little bit about what -- about how God has been working their lives over the lab -- over their town at Bayland. And so they're going to come up and one by one and share a little bit of that. And it is always an encouraging time. And I hope that you find it to be so. And then Olivia is going to end our time by doing the same. So thanks to those of you that are speaking tonight. And, yeah, we're going to start my car. [ Applause ] >> As we stand, I'm standing in the tunnel. And I really love that last line of that song and really this song in general. But I love that line into the piece of my job, very well, because while Bayland is many wonderful, wonderful things, I'm not sure if I can do that, but it has not often been useful. For me, it is not part of college often to find peace. And that really was the case for me in the first days of my freshman year. I couldn't even tell you today what was so hard about those first days, but I just felt a longing to be home. And coming to our U.S. that first Wednesday was a very peaceful place. And I felt like home because I believe it was because what Bayland was saying was the Lord said through Bay was exactly what I named to hear. And I've heard that said by other people in our youth. That is just such a blessing to see the ways that the Lord speaks into each and every one of our lives through Bay and through each other. Another example of that that will always be with me is the service areas plus this mess. Because there's a good reminder that I am a mess. And it's very much true. Sometimes I don't think it's true. And to give a reminder that we can be a mess here. And to everyone that the Lord continues to process. I would say one of the best things about our youth, one of those peaceful things about our youth is the people and how genuine the people are here and the people that I found. And I would say along those lines that the really joyful thing about this place is that you don't have to be in that. I've ever asked at least in my life I have to be something or someone. And when I come to how are you at? I have the joy of being your president. But I also, it doesn't mean that I'm necessarily the most consistent or the most attentional. It just means that the Lord is giving this role to serve you and will go to somebody else as well. And I think that's what I would say most about our youth is that it's a resource in the hands of the Lord for your life and for mine. The fact that you're here now means that it's a resource for you. And that is a place of peace if you let me. And I hope you do. [APPLAUSE] [INAUDIBLE] I think about my time of May, I will stand down with the most I think is that I really feel like a different person than what was the first or the first one. There's more superficial changes maybe that you could see over the years. I haven't been here now. I mostly know what insurance is at this point. And let's just say the text to you that I got from here to the bar doesn't really fit me anymore. But there also changed the pattern or in movie that my not this obvious. But I consider those to be a more important. I've seen how the Lord has helped me grow to trust him more, understand my faith deeply and love of this better. But that being said, I think if you look to my heart and really got to know me as closely as intimately as Jesus does, you'd say that maybe things haven't changed all that much in the last few years. That I've been here in Baylor. I'm still tempted by pride and selfishness and laziness and lust and jealousy every day. And it's often I give in to those temptations. But there's another thing that hasn't changed during the five years that I've been in Baylor, which is far more important. And that's the love and faithfulness of Jesus. What stands out to me in a final back over these years is how many good things I received that I didn't deserve and how many times God stuck with me and then I turned my back on him. I reminded of something that him right around pastor John Newton, some of him, he had worked. Said this he was getting older. Although my memory is fading, I remember two things very clearly. I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior. And the way this connects to what I want to say tonight is that I want to recognize the fact that this faithfulness and commitment to truth and care that God has to me has also been modeled really well about our life. Seeing Olivia's consistent cheerfulness and the way she cares for the people around her, that spirit of certain hardness that Justin and the other turns you served, are you as well have been here, have shown in ways consistently insightful advice and gospel center reaching have been a really huge blessing to me the last five years. Not to mention the opportunity to just slow down and get to worship with the other one's demands. So for all that I want to say thank you to Way, to Olivia, to Justin and to everyone else who makes our you have possible, don't truly have, especially some of her. Thank you. [APPLAUSE] Hello, I really need to open my teeth. I think I need it. Yeah. No. Yes. Okay. Okay. Okay. I will power for that. My name is Kiley. I'm the senior and I have been coming to R.A.F. since my freshman year. And honestly, did not know what to expect from the beginning, but everyone at home was telling me that this was a place to be. So I was like, okay, I'll give it a shot. And I came here in immediately do that those before right and this was in fact the place that I wanted to be, especially because I felt so sought out and known from everyone around me in like especially Olivia from the beginning. Like that was a game changer for me. And I have no idea what kind of blessing the R.A.F.B. to my college experience and how that I would meet some kind of very very best friends here. But that is exactly what happened. And not only that, I've learned so much about my fame over these last four years. And I obviously owe a lot of that to Wade and his awesome messages every week, but also to the many other people that I've been able to have some really real and awesome authentic conversations with. Because I feel like that's really where a lot of the growing happens. And just from those conversations from Wade's messages, my main takeaway that I think will stick with me forever is that I'm secure in Jesus forever and that has nothing to do with anything that I've ever done, but has everything to do with everything that he's done for me. And it really is a very bitter sweet goodbye for me to be looming such an awesome community, but I am forever grateful for these last four years. Now, R.U.F. and I encourage you guys, if you do have any more years left here, to really lean into the community because these are actually the best people out there and you will find anything better. Thank you. [APPLAUSE] Hey, all. My name is Chase. I've been going to R.U.F. for the past four years. I've got here in 2019. I came from North Carolina. And it was sold. It's going to be best. Some people from North Carolina are here. And it's been great Texans and people from all over. But R.U.F. has been a former lifeer of A.L.R. as a consistent thing for the last four years. And it's been here when things have been good. And it's been here when things have been bad. And I've learned some things. I'm not a professor of the process. That was a little boy. But I learned some things here that really shook my world and really formed me as a Christian. I learned that the gospel is good news, not just for new converts, but it's good for Christians. And we, in fact, need to hear it again and again and again because we're sinners too. Christians sin. And that was like a big realization. I learned that sanctification and growing grace is often painful. Sometimes it looks like it looks like God showing you more of your sin and how messed up you are. But the good news is the cross gets that much bigger and I'm sure a way to show me that chart. It hasn't asked him to because it's very important. It's like, yeah, it's really good stuff. I learned that the Christian life is meant to be lived in community and I have found great community here. But the guys Bible study and the folks just over the years, I've been blessed with two guys interns and they're just like great friends and brothers and have them in toward me in the faith. And I just can't thank everybody enough for being what you are to me for the last four years. Thanks so much. [Applause] Alright guys, I'm going to get the short this week. I'm going to get back over the last four years if my time here at Baylor are you up as remain constant in my life. I've met my best friends walking through the doors of Elisabeth and Chapel and I have been challenged spiritually and have been challenged in my spiritual growth each Wednesday night. Are you up as a place where I felt spiritually incurred? It is a place where I can ask tough questions that still feel safe. I'm confident that what Baylor has helped and still in me will help my transition into grad school. Christ is all sufficient and I'm just beginning to understand what all that means. Thank you for investing in me and loving me. I just prayed God continue grace and this message to me. And I think all of y'all for pouring yourselves into me outside of what I grew up. I have felt loved and cared for every time I walk into this room. Even outside this room I begin some wonderful friendships that will last a lot of time. So I think I'll so much. [Applause] Okay, you got it. I'm Grace Miller to some, if not most. So I'm from Jackson, Mississippi, which kind of sometimes feels like the area of the capital of the world, but that's okay. And so coming into college I knew that I would go to RUF. It was something that I always kind of expected to go. RUF ministers came to my group and spoke. And I knew it to the point where when I came for orientation I got lunch with way in the lift up. Like just to meet them. So it's really sweet with them. Almost four years ago. My first year I came here to the Maritra, which I would say and I was so excited to be plugged in into a community. I was a semester at the service area, I was at DTR to find the relationship. So that was just a really good topic for me to get started on. Coming into college it was really, really impactful. Just reassessing how I view relationships like with my parents or my relationship with my friends with myself. It was really, really encouraging. And then I thought to go to fall conference that year and we had to come to hang out like a whole time. It was so much fun. I'm pretty sure I just like talked about boys all the time. And I remember one, I went to that semester. I went to RUF lunch on a Friday and they're like, hey, we're going to go see peanut butter falcon tonight. Like do you want to come with us? And I was like, I've never heard of this movie. All of these people who are going there seniors who have never met. But sure. And I've really been wanting to try roses. And my friend and tap her and was like, oh, well, you and I would go to roses and like, from then on. RUF had to spend like encouraging me and always like encourage me. Like here to start ideas, always saying yes. And that's just been really, really appreciated. So this morning I was asked two questions. What's something I'm really, really grateful for about college and then how have I changed most? And for the first question I said, I'm just so grateful for the communities that I've been given at Baylor. I've gotten a chance to be involved. And a lot of really, really cool things are applied. And I'm just really, really grateful for the people that I've met, especially in RUF. RUF is so inclusive. And I just really appreciate how I started every sermon in ways that's like, RUF is for everybody. Like it doesn't matter where you're coming from. This place is for you. And I felt that so much through RUF and felt so encouraged that my gifts got into help out with the social media a little bit, which has been so much fun. And then as for how I get changed most, I think I've really been encouraged throughout college to think critically and ask hard questions of myself. And I think it's really been a space for me to ask those hard questions, be asked hard questions to, and challenge really grown. And I just want to leave with a verse that really, really reminds me of the way that when Olivia had really led me and cared for me. It's first that's learnings to aid, which says having so fond and affection for you, we were well pleased to impart to you, not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become very, very dear to us. And as I have hoped for you, I'm very dear to RUF and the people here have become very dear to me. Thank you. [APPLAUSE] All right, I feel happy to be on my name is Tyler, Zach's actually my brother, so I'm Tyler Ulus. And I'll start off by just saying I'm super thankful for RUF. It's been a huge blessing of my time at Baylor. And honestly, I've been around a little bit less this semester, but it would be a total mistake to say that my time at Baylor has not been super affected by RUF. It's an important part of my Baylor experience. And so if you guys know how it gets me to do a way, it tends to start interested in me with the story. So I'll try to follow that a little bit. So my sophomore year was really challenging me. It was also when COVID started, or it was in full swing, things were a lot different from me than my freshman year. And honestly, I've really struggled with a lot of isolation, feeling a lot of anxiety over kind of what my life was like. I just was here an isolated example of how are you, plus the related times, using a number of ways of reaching. I think it was from COVID-19 4, or at least you referred to COVID-19 4. And he talked about the first 4, 15, which you might hear quoted a lot. I can do all things through crisis, or anything that's neat. But I remember so clearly that I understood for the first time that I was really talking about how we can be content in every situation. And that the reason that Paul can say that is because he knows that he has the words of "cressants" with me. And I remember going home so encouraging and excited that I could use those promises of God's presence with me, and that truth to come back as a tough season I could go through. And so that's just one isolated example of the ways that our UF has been just a huge blessing to me. There's so much more that I really could say, but thanks, way, and with you, Justin and Grant, for all the ways that you have cared for me, and asked me questions and forwarded to me. And I'll just say kind of as a part of the word that probably the best thing that our UF did for me was remind me of the God's will ever week. That's something that way always doesn't end the journey. Your mind is that ultimately every word in the Bible is pointing towards Christ, pointing towards the sacrifice that we made for us. And so I'm encouraging not to take that for granted, and to realize that that is a great way to do it. the most important news that you hear in Takiwaka here. And whether you believe it or not, it's good news. And it truly can change your life. It has changed the mind. So thank you so much. [APPLAUSE] Hey everybody. [APPLAUSE] Glad to see you guys. I look like I'm not the preacher servant. This isn't all the fun. No, it's the nuts. It hasn't been all night. I don't know that voice, but you're going to use it anyway. [MUSIC PLAYING] It's hard to sum up set here with the ministry that has shaped who I am. But I'm confident of this. I love Jesus more now than I did when I started working for our youth. And no more deeply of his love for me and for his people. Which is good news. When I was a freshman at Lawton State, go near his baby. Go near your straight beard, because that's what he said. 11 years ago, which is hard to believe, I was so stressed about which ministry to be a part of. I remember talking to the Ariom intern there, Jen Wayne Scott about my dilemma. So she told me I had the freedom to choose. I could go to the woman that I wanted to go to. And I wanted to go to Ariom. So sweet and hilarious that that was such a huge dilemma in my mind. The songs were weird, but the sermons were like giving. They were good news to my worn out age, to your own soul. And that's what drew me in that first one, saying I am my freshman year. We always started our Wednesday night gatherings with a student giving announcements and saying, you're never so bad that you're beyond the reach of God's grace, but you're never so good that you're not in need of that same grace. And that really pierced my soul. Throughout my next four years there, I've reminded you of standing in peace and grace. I started to see more clearly the depths of my sin and how it was way more simple than I thought that I was. I was pretty good at it. (audience laughs) Or so I could. And yet in that, I saw more of my name for a savior. I learned through RULF that faith is dependent weakness. And then Jesus is the most dependent person who has ever lived. Being weak is not bad or wrong. Rather a place to know and to find Jesus. I met my best friends through RULF. Anna, Audrey, and Glenn, our three of God's greatest gifts to me. I was loved by my interns and campus minister, Chris Foreman. I experienced deep friendship and connection as we've learned and grew together throughout our time there. We want a freaking blast all the way. I attended so many conferences. Bible studies, weekly hard groups. I was like, on this side of things, it's a lyric. I was like, the ideal student, like a little two and a half, it was kind of embarrassing. (audience laughs) Where I've heard more and more about Jesus in the scriptures that the Bible is a redemption story, a story of God rescuing his people. Jesus is the point of every story. It all points to him, but what he has done, we get to rest in that. I understand our recent conference on idolatry, glorification, covenant theology, and prayer. All of which don't shake my understanding of scripture. This learning and growing only continued when I became an Aryan Ben Turnier, and then staffed two years later. God has helped me raise so much money in the past seven years, which has allowed me to be on campus and do what I do. I was ever doubting that God had me a bailer. I would just look at my caronny account and see generous people giving me their own money. I still can't believe it. I wouldn't be here without the faithful and generous giving it my supporters, some of whom are in this room. Starting as an intern, I continue to know how to staff. I want to comment around on some more times that I can count. Sat in the sub, which I still don't like because it doesn't have windows. Walk to the bear trail a million times, I went to sing every year I could, and I'm still gonna go to sing every year that I live in the lake. I've really grown to love this place. I sat in your cry center teaching every single week, met with way, and received pastoral care, and attended trainings and conferences full of fellowship and learning. I've also seen, known, and understood in our UF. I've been interviewing myself, awards and all. I've been in like, rapies. I've been doing, so many of you have gotten my car and it's like a rap song, and the next song is like a phrase song, so. And I've been back with gentleness, understanding, and love. I've been able to admit that I don't love Jesus most days like I should, and that the Christian life is a struggle. I've been able to rest in the sure fact that my salvation is secure, because of what Jesus did on the cross, not because of how big or strong my faith in that is. I can be honest with myself with other people, through before God, about who I am, and how much I struggle. I have been free to fulfill, and to lack it myself. I've treated and loved, back to life, through this ministry. There are online for a minute, and we look back and see God's gentle and steady care for me. I did not want to go to college, I've watched it stay. But by his grace and mercy, I ended up there, plugged in our youth, and now I live in like, your Texas. What a privilege to be able to look back, and see his guidance and care, as I am a chapter with our youth. So now to my students, you always be my students. It has been the greatest privilege to know you, and to be a partner of lives. Thank you for your vulnerability. Thank you for letting me in. We start across from each other countless times, as we process family relationships, roommate issues, and faith. It has been such a privilege to know you, and to spend time with you, and to pray for you. We've laughed so much, and we have a lot of fun. You have made my life richer by being more of it. You have blessed me, encouraged me, and made my life as a r.o. staff, so beautiful. What I want to leave you in this, rest in Jesus. Be honest with him, and process your emotions through prayer. And gentle and lovely, if you haven't read it, you need to. Daniel Orman tells us to go to Jesus, and let him love you. So go to Jesus, and let him love you back to you. Now the way. Thank you so much for being on the night. You have become one of my very best friends. You have worn the hats of boss, pastor, and friend, so well. You have loved me, listened to me, given me wisdom. I've been such a stunning presence at BNML. I'm not going to look at you as a r.o. We have laughed so much. I know I can tell you anything, and I feel safe and OK to do so. It's really hard for me to trust that people love me. But I've grown interesting that you really do. You listen to me process for hours about my family, boys, friendships, and basically everything in between. You have been happy for me. So thank you for loving me. You and your family have become like family to me. Thank you for taking me in when I first moved here and for making wake up home. I'll always cherish all of our dinners in the many, many games and nerds on the limited floor. And it still makes me mad that way wins every single day. You thought it said so, do I? I'm so thankful for wake up and that this place is now home. My friends here become family. I'm so grateful to stay in a city, a church that I love so much. I love this ministry. My life wouldn't be the same without it. I love paperwork. I'm a valiant man now. I love all of them. [LAUGHTER] And I am more sure that God delighted me and his people because of you and my time here. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. For seven years. And I'm so thankful to Lord for 11 years in this ministry. So thanks. [APPLAUSE] So most of you must have been-- I'm expect-- [BLANK_AUDIO] Most of you know, you've been here before and you know that I'm probably the biggest cryer in this room, so I'm not going to say a whole lot because it's going to take it long enough. But actually, I'm not going to say much anything. I'm sort of speechless. You've done such faithful work and such a good friend to everyone in this room. And we are grateful. We are grateful to God for you and for your time here. We're glad you're not leaving. And we have a gift for you. That's right. Yes, it is. Because we commissioned. Oh, that's so good. Is it a bit short? That's a bit short. I really stand in front of our song. Thank you.