In 1942, the Taylor children and their grandfather, Herbert Taylor, moved, along with the whole Chefoo school, into an internment camp in Weihsien, north China. The younger Taylor remembers his grandfather’s unshaking faith despite the trialling times.
“I saw in Grandpa how the patterns of life had been set. Every day began with praise,” Taylor wrote in his book God’s Grace to Nine Generations.
The whole family reunited on September 11, 1945, after the camp was liberated.
He returned to the United States for college and earned divinity degrees at Asbury Theological Seminary and Yale University Divinity School. He met his wife Leone Tjepkema, a fellow student, at Spring Arbor College in Michigan and Greenville College in Illinois where he earned his bachelor degree.
The couple served as missionaries in Taiwan and co-worked with Taylor’s parents to teach at Holy Light Bible School, founded by James Taylor II. During his time in Taiwan, Taylor held various leadership roles in theological education and met with Chinese church leaders worldwide to share the need for graduate theological education.
In 1979, he accepted an unexpected invitation to be the seventh general director of then named Overseas Missionary Fellowship. In 1980 he became the first descendant of the mission founder to serve in this position. He turned over leadership of the mission agency to David Pickard in 1991, and with Leone moved to Hong Kong to work with the Chinese people there.
Just two years later, Taylor and several friends in Hong Kong formed Medical Services International (MSI). Later that same year, his son Jamie married Ke Yeh Min from Taiwan, bringing Chinese blood into the family line.
While in Hong Kong, Taylor loved teaching Bible stories and New Testament Greek to his grandchildren James Hudson Taylor V (known as JT) and his sisters, Selina and Joy, according to OMF.
Taylor’s dedication to the Chinese people touched the Chinese government’s heart and on April 4, 2007, he was awarded an honorary citizenship by a county of the Sichuan province.
His book, Even to Death: The Life and Legacy of Samuel Dyer, co-authored with Irene Chang about the life of Hudson Taylor’s father-in-law will be published later this year.
