Friday’s Red and Black, the newspaper for the University of Georgia, carried a story about Grace Taylor, a member of the Grace Brethren Church of Aiken, S.C. She is a member of the University of Georgia women’s gymnastics team that recently took home the 2008 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championships. Grace is also the 2008 NCAA balance beam champion. To read the complete story, click here.
AMAZING GRACE: Gym Dog Taylor is ‘perfect little ambassador’
Georgia may have its answer for Tim Tebow.
Grace Taylor, the Gym Dogs’ three-event dynamo and all-around good person, is the consummate Christian and the epitome of both parts of the word “student-athlete.” A health promotion major and aspiring missionary, last year’s NCAA beam champ is so much more.”She’s our perfect little ambassador,” coach Suzanne Yoculan said. “
She represents us in every aspect of her life and how she conducts her life.
“Taylor was homeschooled during her childhood in Aiken, S.C., and raised in a tight-knit, Christian family with her two sisters and brother. College has turned her into an Academic All-American with a 3.97 GPA, but it was her experiences at home and in Aiken that have made her who she is, and what she wants to be.
The story also references how her parents, Dan and Lynn Taylor, found the Aiken church, which is pastored by Steve Taylor (no relation).
The Taylor family stopped at a small church, and found a man tending to the yard, pulling weeds and raking. That man was Steve Taylor, the pastor of, appropriately enough, Grace Brethren Church of Aiken. His brother, Mike Taylor, is a missionary to Africa.
“He’s just a [physician’s assistant], but he goes over there and delivers babies and saves lives,” Grace Taylor said. “He got to be more than just a physical person, he was there for these people, and knew them. They were his friends and he made a difference in their lives. He’s one of the people that I’ve seen in my life that is the most fulfilled with what he does. I feel like the Lord has just kind of prepared me for it my whole life.”
To read the complete story, click here.