Taylor Stewart — The Story God Wrote
Taylor became a Christian in 2016 while a student at the University of Missouri. While attending a local missions conference, she learned about God’s heart for the nations. Three years later, Taylor applied to CO LEAD and was excited to learn Brisbane, Australia, would be her destination; she had been an exchange student in Australia during college. She had her visa in hand and was ready for departure when the world shut down due to the Covid pandemic. Taylor thought God was writing a “Go and Tell” story for her but found herself staying and waiting.
In 2021, Australia’s borders were still shut tight. After 18 months of support raising, she was at 80% and out of contacts. She spoke with CO SERVE staff, who helped her consider the options. It was decided that moving to Birmingham, England, and working until she ran out of support funds would allow her to finish well. She arrived in June 2021 and thrived. Eight months later, she was back in America and raising support for full-time ministry in the UK.
After her first support-raising experience, Taylor returned to the States with two commitments: get involved in a local church and find people excited to partner with her in ministry, not just people willing to be donors. She was immediately discouraged when her home church was not excited about her new call and asked her not to raise support there.
She went to visit family, and within 15 days, she rose from 25% to 50% of raised support. Now that she had experienced people excited about the ministry, the Lord renewed her commitment to go back and find a church to partner with her for personal growth and her future ministry. She started making cold calls to churches and told them, “I’m a missionary home from the field looking for a church where I can grow and share my excitement for future ministry.“
Taylor recalls times when she felt stuck during the process, and some questioned whether or not she should continue. She talked to God and said, “I feel you are calling me to England. I want to go there. I need you to do what I can’t. It has to be you. Please provide for me to go or redirect me.” Every time she prayed, she felt strongly that it would be disobedience not to keep going.
In September 2022, the pastor’s wife at Life Connection church met Taylor for coffee. They discovered many connection points, and she invited Taylor to a Bible study. Taylor started growing personally and sharing with people where she was headed with Campus Outreach. Her team of partners slowly started to grow.
University of Birmingham Team
On May 23, 2023, Taylor called the CO SERVE office with the update, “I am officially fully funded!” For the first time since she applied in 2019, she was over 100%! Taylor flew to England on July 4.
She said, “I would never have written this story for myself, but now that I’ve lived through it, I’m so thankful for all I’ve learned. It’s never been about the money. The Lord is concerned about developing people, and that’s what he’s been doing over this time. And it has been so hard. It has been so challenging. And the Lord has sustained my every step.”