Senior Night 2024

Hi, I'm Rob. Is this the placement of my mouth? Okay, it's really surreal to be here a lot of ways because some of you that know me know I've transferred three times. So I started out at William & Mary. I moved to University of Missouri St. Louis in the Tulsa, and then here. So I have about as much experience as a sophomore. I came to Baylor two and a half years ago. I knew three people, which is more than some freshman. But I've really just been amazed and inspired and so blessed by the community that has formed around me throughout years. I feel like I've seen God moving for just all the work that people have done here. I've made friendships that hopefully we've life longer. And so I just want to thank everybody who's made that experience possible. You know, from trivia, shout out Jack, barbecue program, I just shout out Phil. I'm a registered team, the ministry team. And yeah, just everybody else. And I would just want to take one moment to just encourage anybody here who, you know, if you're looking for community, if you don't know where you've been in Baylor, are you at this step-lapse? I've just, I've seen God moving in so many amazing ways through the community here. I've just encouraged all of the events. If you're looking for someone who can connect with you, here's where you should be. Thank you. [Applause] Hey guys, I'm Mary. I was nervous about speaking here because I knew it was going to cry. But then I realized that I made a tough move at the time. [Laughter] I've been here before, so I think you might have heard. I'm freaking out. There's so much I can say about RUF. Really I'm just an idiot to RUF. There's a lot of overlap in my community, but a huge comment thread. It is RUF. It's giving me literally all of my current roommates, who are some of the best people. For three years, I got free therapy for Olivia Shields. It just felt every week of my official processing my life. I'm just starting with my great advice. And everybody gets got to pause and focus on my teaching her way, which I'm just so thankful for. There's a few who have been in our, for a while, understand that there's a lot of evidence below the year. New people come and go, but it's always voted really dedicated and genuine questions, which I've always really appreciated. And the greatest gift that RUF has given to me is that through these people that I've come to know, so well, I've got to know the Lord so much better. You're seeing what these people prioritize. I've heard more about what God was and what supported them. And I'm leaving this really knowing so grateful for that community. And in fact, you've kept your five, so we don't know now. And God talks about how I was treated the life and it brings me to the lamp. And it says in the same way, what your life is trying to work with others so that they may see your good works and give more to your father who's in heaven. And I just really feel like I've been on the receiving end of that. For the past few years, it's just really encouraging to me. And so everyone who's not graduating, I just want to say that you're in it. College feels long, but when you're done, it gets really short. And so I just want to encourage you to press in and really make the most of the community that God is accessible to you here. I'm sure they will bring that. [APPLAUSE] Hello, we're good for my children, Conners. So my friend John, I'm going to be your client. He's on the scene also, so he asked me to read his speech for him. So I'm going to do that first and I'm going to talk about my experience. Finding RRF during my two years is one of the greatest stories from my home. Time here at the other. At a time when I was trying to grow my faith and find a church in Waco, the Lord is goodness brought me to His college in Manchuria. Through my time attending RRF, I met full of leaders, shouldn't have existing friendships and sought God-working lives of those I knew. Way to thank you for your faithful and vital man's street. I'm going to put away what we're going forward to have sat in your teaching, and thank you Lord for how he is used and continue to use you and to get back to your citizens. Just in the morning, thank you for a long time, spent pouring the life of students who serve. As I am sure many others will say to me, "I am thankful for the wisdom given and kindness shown from you both." Well, as it's not so much that I'm in photos of this instant stress from me, I've continued to see the Lord work in my own life and those of the people around me. As I look back on this spring, I'm grateful that my attempts was limited. By another RRF has made you better pursue and by the Christ, that the Lord has used it to identify and bless me. Thank you, John. [Applause] So, this is the answer to the question of what's known on me in the past four years. I came in a village, not a Christian. I love a Christian, so obviously I've changed. Yeah, so that's my question here. If I came in, RRF, my junior year, the former junior year, a word time on walk, I didn't really have a Christian for the last two years. I didn't really know what the Christian life was all about. I have all these questions, all of these questions I couldn't get answered. I came here and my question for you is the long story short. I basically have a greater image of the Christian life now. It's one of returning to the cross daily. It's not something you do. It's something that comes up. Grace comes from outside of us. We don't have to stir it up. We, it comes from, straight from the cross, straight from the cross, from Christ, who is still close. So, I want to recently close with the author friend of mine, who has become a good friend of me. And I want to thank all of us for coming to this. I believe in Christianity, as I believe, that the sun has risen. Not only because I see it, because I light it, I see everything else. And that everything else in life has life under the sun. The victories, the failures, the times of rest, the times of work. And I want to give it all to you. Because, come along, you have what to do, whatever you can do after. Marry Keith and get a going for like a join forever. I want to thank all of you all for good, for years. [APPLAUSE] Hey, everyone. I'm Winnington LL, not LLT, LB. Yeah, so I joined RUF, my freshman year. And, as other seniors know, that was COVID. So we were all really starved for community. And RUF instantly became the community for me. We met on Zoom, which was really weird. And then we met in intense, which were like 30 degrees below zero. But I kept coming back, and I think that was just the spirit of being in me, and talking to me about this with the community we're pouring in too. I, when I was thinking about what to say, and why don't we write something down, and I just didn't write something down. I was going for what I would say. But I was thinking over what I would say. I was reminded that Christ ministry was a ministry of constant presence, and faithfulness, and genuinely walking through every life of Keith, sat me with his disciples, he worked with them. And not to me is what life is. It's a faithful, just walking through life. It's nothing fancy. You don't have like flashing lines, or like a rock band up here. But people keep coming back. And to me, that just speaks to how genuine and real this place is. And everyone stays in their own crazy or chaotic life. You can come here, and you know, like, you'll get good worship, and you'll get good gospel, and you know, it'll be amongst the community in France. And that's me, so beautiful. And I think that, which is, you don't mind that everywhere. So, yeah, I'm just so grateful for RRF, and what it's been to me for my four years here, especially in my wish, when it's a whole year. And now, what I advise to people here is to really talk into this community, because it is really special to win, and to keep coming back. Even all that stays with me, like, don't feel like you're going to feel like there's kind of those two busy. I really would encourage you to make time for this. Thank you. [APPLAUSE] How's it going, RRF? I'm going to set the press in real quick. I wrote this like 30 minutes ago, so I'm going to have to send my leave and then I'm sorry. But I want to start reminding you all the time, not too long ago, where COVID-10s, dotted the grounds, highlighters, roamed, campus, yellow, couldn't mask back on me. I'm, of course, talking about COVID, which was my freshman year. Probably senior, senior, junior, sophomore, and high school. Obviously, for obvious reasons during that time, I was just a little bit unhappy. I think for a little bit of a cold. [LAUGHTER] Also during that time, due to different reasons, I had a little concern for God, and I had to run a park for him in high school. So coming here, you know, RUF is a place for me, and really turned that around for me. People here care, they're friendly. You'll always go to find community here. Way is amazing, and turns are amazing. And yeah, my faith has just become more real here over time. I want to, without a verse real quick, I'm sorry, I'm here. So where to or through your gathering line in there my mom I'd work to not say I am and manage to be my but I want to give it to remember that are you at this place for you. God is here in this community he's with you and he cares about you and if I was going to leave you with three things I would leave you with God is real God has a place for you and God has this me here. So thank you. Hi everyone my name is Lily so as I was reflecting over my years here in college I was kind of came to the realization that a lot of my time here I've been focused on trying to trust God more and how a lot of times I have struggled with that freshman year was pretty hard and I struggled with trusting God when things didn't necessarily go the way that I had planned or I had wanted and I would just kind of discontent and unsatisfied and I really see and I've been encouraged by how God has really changed me over the past few years and how things that I struggle to trust him in before it has become a lot easier to trust him and I'm at this time so much more joy now and trusting the Lord in his plan for my life and not being so stressed about him so it's been an encouragement to see how God has been working in my life in that way. Our UF has been a really important and one of the best part of my college experience, ways of working as a lawyer has had a huge influence on me and the way that I have viewed myself and you've got some of his like observancy research and observancy research I've done like judges or this semester on Genesis in the past has really influenced me helping to see God's love and mercy and his faithfulness for all the time and has been so encouraging and how his love is so much more than I sin and I knew it was such good news for all of us so really thankful to the way for making RUF such a great resource for some of these students. [Applause] So much to my children, my peers have stolen what I was thinking about saying, you know, Ellen talking about just RUF being a faithful place to go to every weekend and really just make friends with the Body of Christ and Jack, my good friend back there who, by the way, like 19 days is getting very successful. [Applause] I'm saying that that's quite exciting. [Laughter] I remember the very first day moving into the dorms in 2020 with the dreaded green shirts walking around yelling at you, this bald guy and the old Irish interquae came to visit Alex, the interesting person, and Jack was telling the RUF and I was like, you know, that sounds pretty cool, let's try it out. And so we went to Redeemer, Redeemer Wakeham the next Sunday and the next Wednesday we hopped on Zoom call and it's not like it was anything magical, but what's amazing about it is that like God really used it as a consistent, you know, a consistent time to spend time with the people of this church and to hear faithful preaching every Wednesday by a campus manager away, you know, great, great series about dating, sex, judges, you know, blessed is mess, all these great series, you know, getting very much with great interquests, you know, Justin and Grant in the past and Olivia, seeing that front here. So there's really just a bunch of, just, as I think of my time in RUF, it's really just a bunch of gratitude so I really just like to thank the people that's getting it possible and all my great friends and I've made it through it, so definitely very grateful for that. I just something I've definitely seen in life, how the greatest gift that God gives us and different seasons of life come to me and is expected. And in this case, I definitely didn't expect to room with Jack Ravens or to meet way or to attend Redeemer Wakeham. Now, as I wrap up, I'm going to acknowledge that 99% of you guys aren't going to remember anything that I said. So I guess the best thing I want to, I guess encourage you guys, hopefully you'll remember this, is just get invested in Kennedy's and a church that helps you load God more as you walk away. And that's been RUF, and that's going to do really good for me, where I really just show me just how amazing Christ is, how Christ goes before us, He goes up for us, and it's nothing we can do at all. So I think that's all I have to say. [Applause] I all have my name is Hannah, and I actually, it's been quite a while making notes for this, and turns out I don't actually need that. RUF has probably been the greatest blessing of my time here at Baylor. Growing up, we lived an hour away from our church, and so getting there Sunday, we were doing well to get there on Sunday morning. And all of a sudden we didn't feel like a chore, or just another thing to check off on list of these are things that Christ should be doing. And I remember after about a semester of attending RUF, attending Redeemer Wago, I remember being on the phone with my mom and saying, "I finally get it now. I finally understand why people want to go back to church, why if I tell us to go to church and be in community?" Because we lived so far away, I really experienced the community that had a common performance built among young adults. And that has been incredibly special about RUF. That's the first time that I know, "Oh, wow, what? You two, another CSL is quote." That was the first time that I remember meeting other people who were under the age of 50, who believed in reform of theology, and it was a living and real part of everyday life. And that's been something that I'm so grateful for. Having friends that can challenge me in my theology, and when I believe wanting things, having friends can challenge me as a Christian and help them grow as an incredible blessing that I have a credit for you left for. And the weeks are long, the semesters are rough, and somehow there's never enough time to do all things that you want to do. But I would challenge you and encourage you to invest in RUF even when you don't feel like you have the time to do so, because God uses that in the ways that you can all be imagined, that I don't. And really, my happiest, my favorite memories from college are from RUF. They involve where you are at events, and people, and I wish the same for H like y'all. Thank you. [APPLAUSE] So, everybody, some of you know me, many of you don't. I am Jay. I want to give a little bit of background to my story and to talk about the impact of RUF later on in my Christian journey. I originally called for media, it was born and raised over there, was raised as a Hindu. And growing up, I had everything that one could ask for, whether it be money, status, just all the good things in a country that really didn't have much to offer for everybody else. Yet life was tough, life was difficult, I grew up in a very abusive household, things were harsh. And I was questioning, well, if everything in the world tells me is good, then why is life so bad? Why am I struggling with these issues? Why don't I have any hope? So, I picked up the Hindu religion, and I moved to the States for college, I was in New Jersey, I dreaded New Jersey, at Rutgers University, and I practiced my faith, family over there, I joined a temple, I lived with monks, I took up the yoke of the law and tried my hardest, stay away from brisket for 19 years. Now, I'm so glad and grateful that I've Christianed it. And you see, I was just so trained, it was so tough to practice this path of faith, it was so difficult to live this Hindu faith, and this God that promised me love would condemn me whenever I couldn't make up this law, whatever I couldn't reach this goal. And that's when I decided to move out of the temple, and I wanted to figure out who Jesus was, because I had cousins who were Christian, and I wanted to convert yoke to Hinduism. That was my goal in my intent, yet jokes on me today. But I saw what true grace meant. You see, Christ really reached into my life and saved me from this, this year. because the old house play where he had brought me freedom. And I am so blessed to have seen that because I've experienced that by living the Hindu faith. So I moved to Bailer right after, because God called me here, and I thought everything for people was gonna be amazing. You know, life at Bailer, it's a Christian school, everybody's gonna be a Christian. And then I come here and I realized that there's so many different variations of what it means to be a Christian here. There are so many different hospitals, so many different versions of it. And it's so difficult to live the Christian faith out of here. And that's when our EO comes into the picture. I am so very grateful for my brother Justin and my brother Phil. If it weren't for them, I would not have really known the true Jesus of what the gospel is of what it means to live the Christian faith. I know a lot of you guys here are either skeptical, you're here for chapel. I'm not sure. But in all honesty, we are here gathering in the name of the Lord. And we are here gathering in love towards one another. And we proclaim a true God, a true Jesus who truly was raised from the dead. And in all honesty, if it wasn't for my brother Justin last semester, taken care of me in my harshest of mental health circumstances, I don't know if I'll be standing here, but that love, that love is true and is real. And as I leave, you know, going into ministry, because are you have chose to put me in an animal next year or being an intern? I wanna leave you guys with this one word. Jesus truly does love you. He truly does care for you. And he meets you where you're at no matter what. And I hope and pray that you wouldn't pursue that. And talk with anybody over here who wouldn't speak to you about me. 'Cause we really do care about you. This is not just scriptural words. This is the one true God and this is a God life. Thank you. (audience applauding) - Hey guys, my name is Katie. And yeah, I think at college from a Christian home, I had grown up my dad went to Ardua at the music college, sort of my school of sisters, my older brother, all at print schools. So when I came to Baylor, I lie, yeah, I wanna go check it out and just see what it's like. But I also came from a more legalistic context. And so when I got to Baylor, it was the first time I really remember finding a church and finding a skim from ministry where every single time that they opened the Bible, they talked about grace and they talked about Jesus and what the gospel truly meant. And I remember my freshman year having a conversation. I think that the Olivia who was on the staff at the time, and I had always struggled to believe that I have to have enough faith or I have to believe hard enough in order to be a Christian order to be saved. And something she said was, it doesn't matter how much faith I have, it matters who my faith is in. And when Jesus Christ is the object of my faith, like the point of the gospel is that he is enough and he does everything. And I can't do anything to add to that, to subtract from that. And that has been the most transformational thing that I've heard in college. And yeah, I just feel like coming to our youth and finding a church in Wake God that each time that they talk about scripture, they talk about how Christ is Jesus. And it's not just opening a passage from exodus and saying, okay, here's the 10 commandments here, is how we need to keep them and follow them. But here's the 10 commandments, here's how we can't keep them perfectly. And here's what we need to do this. And here's what he said. So thank you way, thank you Olivia, and all the end of the turns, just for always pointing me to Christ in the gospel. (audience applauding) - Hey guys, my name is Joe Gage. I think I know most of you here. Once more suddenly, you're not getting rid of me this early. I got six more months, but I am doing this with this year's senior class. So I'll be graduating in December, so I can't get rid of me yet. Over the last three years, the teaching and community of RUF has helped me grow freely in my faith. I came to Baylor really knowing no one, I was from Cincinnati, and which is around 1,500 miles away from Waco, Texas. So I knew no one had very little community, and RUF has been a place where I have made some of my closest friends and some lifelong friends. Through Ways, Breach and Long Conversations with these friends after church, after Wednesday nights, and with Phil Sargent at Pinewood Coffee, which I spent way too much of my time here over the last three years. God has really taught me that I am not the a factor of my own salvation, but he is, I am merely a passive participant in his active work in my life. No amount of ministry nights or by all nights or experiences will allow you to feel your way to God or to your own righteousness. Baylor will throw these opportunities actually and they're great, but ultimately, the only way to God is to sit back and let him slowly work in your life through your community, through his spirit, and through the Word. And this is ultimately a really reassuring cop in a world that's constantly stressful and full of anxiety. It's reassuring not to know that the most important part of your life, God has already taken care of. God will bring you closer to him and there's no way that you can feel your way to God, and there's no amount of work, there's no amount of practice that you can do to win your own salvation and to get closer to God. God has already planned that out for you and he will do his work in your life. And so I really wanna leave you with that. Don't stress or worry about your faith. Don't stress that you aren't close enough to God because God has a plan for your life and through ways preaching through the great friends I've had at RUF, he has really helped me realize that over the last several years. So always be thankful to RUF, to Way, to be in turns, into some of the close friends I've made for the work that God has done in my life. (audience applauding) - Hi, my name is Ella Thompson and I put my stuff down because I thought that it would be more efficient in reading this without emotion, but we'll see how that goes. Okay, so in high school, RUF was in my science, thanks to a friend of Olivia Shields, kind of because of RRM. I did several RRM circumstances at Lupin Beach as an annual at high school, it was my church in Louisiana. And hearing RUF students working at RRM explain their love for this college of history, sealed the deal. Since being a college, I have seen God continue to reach free. When I think about all I have learned in four years, virtually and in person, God knows COVID, I am overwhelmed by God's help for me. I will never forget learning that growth happens downwards too. I am a perfectionist, so digging into my faults and shortcomings is never at the top of my twoest. However, recognizing just how much I daily need the Lord's grace and forgiveness, truly refined mercy for me. Here I am, growth is seemingly beyond the care and yet God's hope for the world and me that he said is only son to die so that we might have the chance to become his righteousness. Are you guys talking so many truths and lessons about scripture, Christian community, the 10 commandments, relationships, we all know relationships? It is where I met so many friends and one friend that has turned into my future husband. It is where I learn how to pursue friendships, and to work people, be a good listener. I can't really think about what I would lose. Oh, okay. When I graduate for too long, because that's about into time. Clearly, I'm just as simple as I was in the fall of 2020, but today I am more aware of my need and more appreciative of God's grace, which is priceless growth. Well, maybe not priceless because failure is achieved, but it was free to me simply because I showed up and that is the beauty of the gospel and offer a paternity to all of us simply believe. Even if you don't have a community here at Baylor, I would urge you to lean in here and dream, they will be here in the fall. Seriously, take advantage of events, take advantage of the staff, and college is a giant two-year-old adventure, and I'm here to witness that RUF is a great adventure to choose. (audience applauds)