A tribute to a precious couple who lived passionately for Jesus on earth, and have now been received by Him into heaven.  

By Bev Holmes-Brown

Queensland’s Sunshine Coast honoured the lives of Allan and Kari Taylor this week.  Three thousand attended their funeral in celebration of the incredible demonstration of God’s love so faithfully displayed through their lives.

Affectionately known as Mr and Mrs T, their lives, like Joseph’s of old, were fruitful boughs with branches reaching far beyond the boundaries of their own community.  Friends flew in from the USA, UK, Canada and New Zealand as well as from around Australia.  Even Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, who attended Nambour High School with Kari, sent a special tribute saying:

“Australians had been shocked and distressed by the Taylors’ death.  

Allan Kari had stopped their car simply to help their daughter Ashleah, who had been caught in a traffic accident.  Tragically that act of parental love and responsibility led to them losing their lives in circumstances that are beyond any person’s worst nightmare.  Something in this incident has deeply touched the spirits of Australians.”

“... Both Allan and Kari were leaders and supporters of their communities, and people of strong and active Christian faith.  I know there are hundreds of individual stories of the difference Allan and Kari made in the lives of young people of the Sunshine Coast.”
Mr Rudd wrote of Kari’s love for the creative arts, her musical talent, gifted singing and inspiration as a dance instructor.  Allan, he wrote, embodied so much of the spirit of the Sunshine Coast community – he was a surfer, a larrikin and a great lover of life who was always there to help and support kids in the community.

Allan and Kari met Jesus early on in their careers, establishing their relationship with the Him before they met each other.   

Allan, after graduating as a teacher, sought answers to his many questions about life as he trekked the great Aussie surfing spots.  He believed the loving influence of a former RE teacher led him to finally discover the truth of the Gospel, and give his life to the Lord.  

Kari, gifted in music and dance, studied Performing Arts at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music in Brisbane.   She fell in love with Jesus at the age of 18, meeting Him at the famed West End church of Clark Taylor, pioneer of the Christian Outreach Centre movement.   Any ambitions that had previously led her were transformed as she determined to now use her unique creativity and talents to serve the Lord.

Kari’s parents, Bob and Fran Sherwell, saw the change in her; with a traditional church background they had ‘a knowledge’ of God but were still unsure of what their daughter had ‘gotten’ herself into.  They travelled down to West End and attended a service where, captivated by the Lord, they gave their lives to Him also. 

As Clark’s West End church flourished they decided to expand to the Sunshine Coast.  In 1977 Pastors Neil and Nancy Miers lead the new Nambour Christian Outreach Centre church with just a small band of faithful, God-fearing families alongside them.  Their first cell group was held in the Sherwell’s  Nambour home.   

When a 23-acre pineapple farm on Kiel Mountain Road, Woombye became available, the rapidly growing congregation made it their base .  It soon became evident that a school, with a Christian outlook on education, was needed and in 1979 the Suncoast Christian College began.

Earlier this year, in a 30th Anniversary video tribute, Neil Miers described how the new school had one Primary teacher, but badly needed a High School teacher when Alan Taylor, with hair messed up from surfing and a surfboard strapped to his beat-up-old-bomb arrived looking for work.  “I’m very very sorry,” Alan said, “I don’t have my resume with me,”  to which Neil famously replied, “look, there’s no good sending me your resume as I wouldn’t know how to read it to start with;  Do you love Jesus?”   “Yes,” Allan answered, “I do.”  “You’re hired,” said Neil. 

A single Allan lived with the Sherwells for a while at a time when Kari was teaching music therapy at a psychiatric hospital in Brisbane.  When Kari moved back to the Coast they grew closer, both seeing and loving in each other a passion for the Lord.  They married on September 20th in 1980 in Bob and Fran’s backyard.

Their first home was a little house on the school property and after five years of teaching in the school Allan became the Principal.  Their daughter, Ashleah, was born in 1987 and son Kallan,  on Christmas day  1994. 

In what might on the surface seem to have been a career in reverse, Allan’s 21 years in Christian education saw him move from Principal, to Vice Principal, to School Pastor  and finally to becoming the Coast’s first State school chaplain.  In reality, the Lord strategically positioned him closer to those he cared for ... people.  

Forever the Larrikin, Allan touched lives through his amazing love for people and penchant for fun; he understood people and loved them all; from the very young to the very old. 

As tributes flow in for this charismatic man, and as the multitude of stories are told and retold, the depth of his compassion and the scope of his acts of mercy have inspired a community to want to take up his baton.  

Incredible stories, like the ones about the hospital bedsides he sat by and his fervent prayers for the sick and the dying; how he was always ready to pray with or help those in need; how he stood with single parents as a father to the fatherless; how the Lord used him time and time again to minister to the grieving and encourage the desperate.  

Allan lived his life with such purpose and drive that he was wholly available, a channel for God’s love.  Doing nothing by small measures, he worked, lived, laughed and loved hard and was notoriously interruptible.

It has been said that when Kari hugged you, it lasted all day

Kari navigated her life with an elegant zeal that flowed into all that she did.  She had been taught to dance by her mother and to sing by Lerlean Fereday.  Famous for her infectious laugh, her sweet tooth and incredibly generous spirit she loved and served the Lord with all of her heart. 

Following in her mother’s footsteps, Kari taught thousands of children on the Coast to sing and to dance.  If there was a particular dream that characterised her life it was to see the Lord glorified through the Creative Arts.  To see their focus change from being merely entertainment,  to become, purely and simply,  ministry to the Lord.  Her vision led her to write a Christian ballet syllabus which is currently used around the world; and also to form the Machaneh International Dance Academy, a worshipping company of dancers that has ministered in the USA, Rumania, Ukraine, Bulgaria, the UK and will very soon travel to Israel.

News of the sudden death of Allan and Kari reverberated through a stunned Sunshine Coast community.    Queensland Education Minister, Geoff Wilson, was overcome by emotion as he delivered a tribute to the "two shining stars" in parliament the next day.  Coordinator of school chaplaincies on the Sunshine Coast, Kerry Evans, said, the ripples of loss would be felt across the world, they'll be greatly missed by people from all walks of life;    Friends from all over the world flooded their family  with letters and flowers, and  internet sites were set up in tribute.

 

The church home that Allan and Kari had sown over thirty years of their life into, now called Suncoast Christian Church, hosted their funeral.  They needed overflow rooms and extra screens to accommodate the crowd and reporters declared it to be the Sunshine Coast’s  biggest tribute service since the death of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin.  

Chas Gullo, Senior Pastor and personal friend of Allan and Kari, led the service, family members and special friends gave insight into their lives through stories and photos and videos (you tube links below).  Dancers and singers, trained by Kari, performed.

Allan and Kari are irreplaceable, but the faith that led them to tirelessly give of themselves has inspired far more than a single community.  Already the Coast is hearing of people in petrol stations paying for the person behind them in memory of Allan and Kari; of people returning to Jesus or returning to church; of atheists shaken in their godless state by Ashleah Taylor’s incredible declaration of forgiveness towards the driver that took her parents life;   of the incredible numbers of volunteers now wanting to teach RE in schools or support school chaplains.... the list is increasing daily.

Absent from the body, for the Christian, means to be present with the Lord.   Allan and Kari Taylor have stepped up into the next stage of their life – but their baton has been taken up by those who love them.

You Tube Links:

Allan & Kari Taylor Tribute 1 - Early Days
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qu4h2ZHdngs

Allan and Kari Taylor's life growing up in the early days.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qu4h2ZHdngs

Bev Holmes-Brown lives in Brisbane, Australia.  In 2001 she began Link-Zone, a Christian Resource ministry with a mandate to “Bring the Body together in specific interest areas and to Believe and Pray for the Reformation of Values, Systems and Wisdom.“ In the last nine years Link-Zone has focussed on praying for governments, communities and ministries.  ‘We are currently transitioning,’ Bev says, ‘believing the Lord wants us to begin to tell people’s stories.  There are so many people living amazing and victorious lives for God against the odds, we want to hear from them, to understand their hearts and glean the treasures that God has laid up in their hearts for our own breakthroughs.    Of course we will continue to feature our favourite columnists and will not give up on praying but we believe this is a season where God wants us to identify and clarify the frontlines that need our support.   It’s exciting to venture into whatever He lays upon our heart. The website can be found at www.Link-Zone.net  Contact Email: bev@link-zone.net