A Change of Allegiance
Since that time, they have tirelessly “contended for the faith”, laboring with partners from a wide variety of Anabaptists—Hutterites to Beachy Amish and Mennonites. Last year, the Beachy Amish ordained him as bishop to enable him to establish sound Biblical churches for new believers in refugee camps on Lesbos Island, Greece. Mr. Taylor states that his alliance with Anabaptist churches is not limiting or insular.
Dean and Tania Taylor are entering their thirty-second year of marriage and have six children ranging in age from thirteen to twenty-five. The Taylors’ three daughters—Stephana, Christina, and Joanna—and their youngest son, John Wesley, will move to Boston with their parents when Mr. Taylor assumes the role of president. The Taylors’ oldest son, Stephen, who is a member of Sattler’s inaugural class, already lives in Boston with his wife Linda and one-year-old son, Hudson. The Taylors’ middle son, Christian, plans to remain in Lesbos Island to continue serving refugees—a work the whole family loves. The older Taylor children hope to be involved with the college ministry and teaching English to students in Boston. Tania will help to disciple the female students.
Humble beginnings
Our revolutionary journey started with my wife Tania in Germany where we were stationed with the US Army. In 1988, during the Cold War, I made a trip to the Berlin wall when Tania was in basic training. Coming to the checkpoint I experienced the heavily guarded, intimidating atmosphere of the barrier wall between East and West Germany. A year later, I was visiting the city again with Tania. But this time, standing there looking at the wall, I witnessed German citizens exuberantly tearing down the hated Berlin Wall by hand. Looking on, we could see Russian and East German guards leaning through holes in the wall shouting, “Mein Bruder!”
“As I stood there and looked at that, it really made an impression on me, and I asked the question, ‘What changed?’ Why was it that last year I could have been called on to kill these people, and this year they’re calling me brother and friend through the holes in the wall?” That question, along with an even more life-changing one: “What if Jesus really meant what he said?” eventually propelled us out of the United States Army and into an Anabaptist community.
