PLAIN VIEW HERITAGE FARM,

RURAL BRYANT, SD, PRESENTS:

"Cora Taylor:

The Good Soldier Of Christ,"

II Tim. 2: 3

A 98th Birthday Tribute by Ron Ginther,

A Nephew,

to Cora Katherine Stadem Taylor,

born March 5, 1915

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“Vi had no horce, vi were the horce”--Mama Bergit Stadem,

making light of the hard life in Old Norway on the farm

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Early on Cora chose a life

Dedicated to Christ—

Not vanity of carnal self,

For which others rolled

Young lives like dice.

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With luck, they thought,

They’d hit the jackpot,

But Cora knew that all

They’d find at the end

Was a serpent’s hiss and emptiness.

(I Tim. 6: 10)

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Though she denied herself

The easier road to take,

The rough pioneer road led

To Christless, jungle tribes

She and Carl chose,

For precious souls’ sake.

.

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“The Road Less Travelled By”

Made indeed all the difference

In life after life transformed

By the Gospel,

Convicting of sin and bringing repentance.

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Yes, the cost was great,

But oh, the joy of seeing the light

Turn on in the eyes of men and

Women, girl and boy!

(II Tim. 2: 10, 12)

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Darkness flies

And all the idols fall down

When a soul’s set free

And salvation is found.

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It’s a true deliverance—-

And it transforms lives,

Makes a shining New Creature,

Plucked from the filthy gutter

And the drunkards’ stinking dives.

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Convicts too, behind bars

Locked in cells

Found freedom in Christ,

Escaped sin and their hopeless hells.

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The years sped by,

A half century, and more

Spent for missions

In beautiful but darkness-ruled Brazil,

For which they, if need be, would die.

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Carl was taken as he had expressed a wish,*

His boots still on,

Serving God with relish.

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Cora carried on

Despite her great loss,

Souls yet unsaved

Were her prayer beneath the cross.

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Though she may think it no great feat,

She’s reached Ninety-Eight

With a mind still young!

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Her heart still burns hot

For the unsaved, lost soul;

Like Christ she loves all sinners

And wants them made whole!

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She’s turned her Mama’s age

that was her crowning reward,

For long life is promised

True servants of the Lord.

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Yes, her granddaughter’s life

Was cut short,**

That’s how it looks to mortal eye;

Yet in the measure of God’s own court

She was complete

--so let the Lord tell Himself us

how and why.

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And so you will

Find Cora at her post,

Praying and witnessing

At Peniel.

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And who's come knocking at her door? Take a look!

Brown faces, black faces, white faces,

none of these she ever forsook.

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Lepers too, they were not turned away,

They always found a smile,

After many a weary mile and

Enduring the expressions they met of disgust and dismay.

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With a chair at a table for resting their feet,

Coffee and pastry

To give cheer and some sweet,

And their spirits were lifted

As they went on their painful way.

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"Inasmuch as you have done it

Unto the least of these,

You have done it unto Me,"

so said her Master, the Man of Galilee,

The Cross-Bearer

Whom she set out long ago to please.

The Lord knows she'll never, ever retire,

And so it's been a long, long wait

In heaven for her welcoming choir!

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*Carl Taylor passed to Glory Nov. 19, 1989, in a car crash while going to a missionary conference, which also took the lives of another missionary and Cora and Carl's granddaughter.

**Lenita Faith Templeton, 18 years old, desiring to serve God as a missionary, passed to Glory Nov. 1989 as a result of injuries in the car crash that took her grandfather and another missionary.

Scriptures:

II Timothy 2, verse 3: "Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."

I Timothy 6, verse 10: "For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows."

II Timothy 10, verses 10 & 12: "Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory." "If we suffer, we shall also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us."