How Dr. Taylor's life has affected me...
KEN TAYLOR'S LIFE AND WORK TOUCHED US ALL My mother, Bettie Turner, lost her mom in the early sixties and shortly after that, Mother found Jesus as her Savior and LORD. "What has happened to Mom?" we asked ourselves. "She's so different, so filled with peace and joy!" One of the first things we noticed was that in the office of our family business, Turner Crane, she would read aloud to us from a little book called, LIVING LETTERS. "I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the wonderful future he has promised to those he called. I want you to realize what a rich and glorious inheritance he has given to his people..." Eph. 1:18 (Living Bible) Later, as one by one we became believers, Mother presented us with copies of The Living Bible so we could read and understand exactly what the Word of God meant in our lives. My first Bible was a padded green copy of The Living Bible. Every huge mobile crane and truck in the business carried a copy of The Living Bible in it. (This is a tradition which carries on in the family firm today!) Every year at CBA, Mother, Brock, and I, and our sons, Luke and Jake, made a point to seek out Dr. Taylor. She always said hello and showed him photos of kids and grandkids and thanked him for the Living Bible which so influenced our lives for Jesus! He remembered Mother from year to year and always had a kind word when we showed up at the Tyndale booth. Meeting Dr. Taylor was always the high point of Mother's annual CBA pilgrimage! (He and Margaret were among the few who had more great-grandkids than my mother and dad! ("But we're not done yet," she would say.) Mother left for heaven two weeks before Dr. Taylor. Everyone in our big family is certain that she is cruising through heaven in awe and no doubt has found Ken Taylor once again to talk to him about books and stories and reaching the world with the good news in ways which ordinary folks like us can understand. Mother's last request was that every member of our family receive a Bible from her at her funeral service. Forty-seven Bibles were inscribed, "Love, Nana and Papa", and given to each of us. Though my heart aches at the loss, it is a comfort to me as I imagine Mother and Ken Taylor praying for those of us who remain behind as we continue the work they began in a way which gives all honor and glory to God. The hearts of all our family are with all the Taylor kinfolk. The world is poorer for Ken Taylor's passing, while heaven is richer for his arrival home. Now the torch is passed on to us all. Love in Jesus, Bodie Thoene and all the Thoene-Turner clan
Bodie Thoene
There are more letters like these at www.kennethntaylor.com
There are a lot more interesting things on this sight like how he helped start a Cabrinin Green agency that helped those in danger of eviction, etc.
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Thanks, Les, for posting that interesting letter from Bodie Thoene. I met her mother and was surprised to hear that she died only two weeks before Ken Taylor. If you have not read In My Father's House, I think you would really enjoy it. It's one of her best books and about her Jewish grandmother who taught school in the South and met her grandfather.
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