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TechnoratiCHICKASHA, Okla. - In light of growing international tensions, thousands of armed soldiers are dispatched outside the country in preparation for war. To Roger Andrew Taylor, pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Chickasha Oklahoma, serving both God and his country comes as a privilege.
To Taylor, camouflage suits and shiny black boots are the perfect attire for a pastor.
"My earliest memories are of when we lived at Fort Bragg, N.C., and of being around soldiers," Taylor said. "I just grew up in that environment."
"I have always said there are two things that I thought I was good at, and one of them -- pastoring -- I wasn't really sure about," he said. "But I've always been a good soldier and loved being with soldiers."
Taylor, the son of a soldier who served in Vietnam during his son's birth, joined the 75th Multiple-Launch Rocket System Brigade at Fort Still in Lawton, Oklahoma as the unit's chaplain on Jan. 3.
The son of a soldier who was firing artillery shells at the enemy in South Vietnam on the day he was born, Taylor has accepted a commission as a captain in the Army and joined the 75th Multiple-Launch Rocket System Brigade at Fort Sill in Lawton, Okla., as the unit's chaplain Jan. 3. He had sensed his calling since his time at high school.
"My dad signed the papers for me to join the Army National Guard before I graduated from high school," Taylor said. "A couple of months after I graduated, and almost one month to the day after God called me to preach, I went to basic training.
"I guess I should have known then that this was something the Lord was eventually going to allow to happen in my life, but at that time, I never really thought about the chaplain ministry."
Taylor served in the National Guard for six years -- four years with the Guard and two more with the 12th Special Forces Reserve Unit in Oklahoma City -- before he left the military to become youth/outreach minister at Regency Park Baptist Church in Moore, Okla. Within a year however, Taylor returned to the guard.
"About a year after that, I read in a missions magazine about chaplains serving in Somalia," Taylor said. "I really felt God strike a chord in my heart then, and I've never been able to get away from it."
For eight years since, the Taylor, his wife and children struggled to answer the call.
"We actually tried to go active duty four years ago, but I was turned down because of some kidney stone problems," he said.
After being turned down by the Army, Taylor tried to enter the Air Force, but that effort also failed. Finally, on April 18, 2001, he received a medical waiver and rejoined the National Guard as a first lieutenant.
"Serving in the Guard has been a great experience," Taylor said. "I felt a tremendous amount of fulfillment of purpose on my Guard weekends, talking with soldiers, being with the troops."
Still, Taylor felt God calling him alongside his service.
He said last march that he "felt God tugging at my heart, and he and Laurie prayed for several months for direction. In July, Taylor began once again to pursue the opportunity to do military ministry on a daily basis.
"The military moves very slowly," Taylor said, "but God has led the way." He was accepted into a special chaplains program called "Finders Keepers," a recruiting program that guaranteed that his first duty station would be Fort Sill.
That assignment turned out to be a tremendous blessing for the Taylors, whose son Seth, because of developmental delays regularly sees a speech therapist and an occupational therapist.
"Seth shows autistic tendencies, although he's not a classic autistic child," Taylor said. The move to Lawton will benefit Seth, because the local school district there has "one of the best autism and developmental delay programs for young children in the state, if not this region," Taylor said.
"We found out after being accepted into the Army that soldiers who have autistic children are often stationed at Fort Sill because of the local school district's program. This is a tremendous blessing for us." Continue »
