Jan Nolton Carter the Transitional Pastor at FPC of Allentown preached this morning on how we have felt mentored by others and asked us to remember someone who taught us many things. I responded on the chat for the service that immediately who came to mind was the Childrens pastor, Rev. T. William Taylorand it was so much because of the way he seemed to recognize and call out in me the best I could be and that God truly loved me. Now, do not think my parents and family didn’t do this for me. I felt special and loved by Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Grandparents. This should be a staple of people’s learnings. But Rev. Taylor, Bill, was one who was in my life at several important junctions.
He was always at Camp Akita, a thin place, and very special came run by First Community Church in the Hocking Hills in Ohio. I remember the hikes we would take over the hills of gravel roads until we got to a place called Rock Stalls a Native American site hidden off the road. You had to know where it was to get there. (Kinda like Luckenbach TX.) I remember walking with him and talking. Goodness knows what we talked about.,whatever elementary school kids talk about. I remember being heard and his gracious smile and his love for God and witness to how he knew God loved him.
When I was in college I got a call from Bill Taylor about helping him run a Saturday Morning program one winter for kids. There were about 30 kids who came and I was the helper, energy giver, kid wrangler. It was great fun. One Saturday morning it snowed. I mean really snowed and I went over to church only to find out that Bill and his wife hadn’t come yet. So we were outside and about 3 and 5 and 10 kids came. But when I realized that Bill wasn’t there I had the kids follow me and we made a huge circle, cut it into pie pieces, and played a running tag game where you had to stay on the path. It was hard with three but with 10, then 15 it was really fun because we kept running into each other. There was much laughter and I was impressed that the outline stayed with no one cutting across the lines. Sure there were places where folk had plopped in the snow but that was to be expected. Bill came, huge look of relief on his face, all was well.
The next time I heard from him we went to lunch with two folks I’d been Junior Counselor with at Camp Akita during my teen years. The three of us were surprised by the question he posed to us. He wanted us to be the core staff for a new Camp Elmhurst that was set up like Akita in Western PA. The Church was Westminster Presbyterian Church in Upper St. Clare. We were excited. I would take my banjo and we got so happy thinking about it. We did indeed have a good time. More on that another time. Richard E. Yorde and Mike McNeil. There were two more counselors from their church.
But that was a real live changing experience for me. On several levels it was because I felt a sense of responsibility in starting this camp Elmhurst in Western PA. But this was all because of T. William Taylor
The Spirit Will Tell You 